A blended approach to home/office working is expected in 2021, but in this industry office work remains crucial to ensure the flow of creative ideas and team building/trust. There are a number of trends the office sector is talking about for 2021 which will be relevant because of the hangover from Covid. What is your office doing or what trends do you expect in office design/layout or equipment? 

The concept of Open Spaces:
Never has it been more important for colleagues to support one another, and now it’s crucial that business leaders proactively take necessary steps to promote a supportive, trusting work environment. In fact, it’s a well-accepted theory that open spaces improve the feeling of empowerment and equality whilst supporting productivity.

The benefits of open spaces are many and were very much top of our minds even before COVID-19. It was what prompted our relocation from a converted townhouse in Tunbridge Wells to an open plan office within a shared building in The Ministry, Borough London, right in the midst of the pandemic. 

And we expect to see many organisations taking a similar approach as and when people begin to return to offices in some form. Especially as we begin to reintegrate to a shared office environment – allowing teams and individuals to carry on with video calls without interrupting their colleagues who are used to only having the washing machine as background noise.

A home-like atmosphere: 

We have always viewed our surroundings as a critical factor in ensuring the wellbeing of colleagues. An office space is an important part of who a business is, and how the world sees it. Our office design, for example, tends to lean more towards being fun, welcoming, comfortable and even leaning towards quirky – to emulate that home-like atmosphere.

There are two strands to this – firstly, it’s important that everyone feels that they have a desk with the set up they need to work. But the addition of other spaces – booths, meeting spaces, squishy sofas, high tables with stools, an open plan kitchen area – means it’s possible to bring some elements of flexible working and comfort to a more formal office environment.

We’d expect more companies to opt for a space with a home-like atmosphere – like The Ministry – to ensure staff want to work from an office, even where lockdown has proved they don’t always need to. Our space unites us as a team, giving us a feeling of belonging to something when it comes to our work, and we look forward to being together in the same space again soon.