After the Covid-19 pandemic disruption, the workforce and workplaces underwent unanticipated revolutionary changes. As of April 2022, a recent survey by Future Forum on employers from the U.S., France, Germany, and some other countries stated that 34% of workers returned to the office full-time. In the same survey, 55% of the global workforce surveyed expressed a need for flexibility in workspaces. Hence, in the last couple of years, the pandemic incepted the id
ea of a variety of workspace solutions that would address workspace management challenges.
Employers globally are now forced to acknowledge the importance of providing flexible and hybrid work styles for working remotely or from the office. This situation raised a demand for diverse types of workplaces with specific requirements such as stand-alone desks with meeting rooms and coworking spaces with an on-demand meeting room that ensures hygiene and safety precautionary measures. Let’s take a look at the different types of workplaces that exist currently.
Types of modern workspaces
Various studies reported that in the pre-pandemic era when people used to only work in the office, they spent almost one-third of their life at work. Here are different types of workspace solutions, some of which are new while some had existed earlier but adapted as per the current requirement -
Assigned workspace
This type of workspace can be a cubicle, stand-alone desk, or an entire private office. Moreover, this space is for one individual. Therefore, this workspace works for professionals like lawyers, freelancers, or agents.
Breakout spaces
These are informal workspaces open to everyone, such as employers, leaders, partners, or even visitors can use this space. These spaces are used mostly for quick chats, one-on-one meetings, or workplace socialization. Often this is found within shared workspaces where a couple of offices share the space.
Co-working space
This is a more recent type of workspace where the office spaces are not formally assigned to a particular company. These are available to small companies, salaried employees, contractors, freelancers, or visiting agency partners per the client’s requirement. The only challenge might be ensuring that these spaces are managed efficiently as several clients share the area at any time.
Conference room
This is the room where the strategies are planned. It is a type of meeting or conference room generally used by teams for group discussions, group presentations, brainstorming sessions and planning strategic initiatives. Moreover, many startups or individual businesses, or companies with remote workers use this space for meetings.
Creative spaces
This type of workspace is usually designed for creative brainstorming. As the name suggests, this space is designed to inspire collaboration and let the creative juices flow. It might feature comfortable seating arrangements like couches or bean bags instead of formal chairs. Moreover, these workspaces always have a whiteboard and pens.
Desk sharing
In the current practice of flexible workspace, this has become a standard feature among today’s workforce. Also known as a hot desk, this shared space often leads to better collaboration, inspires teamwork, encourages communication, reduces cost and ensures flexibility.
To conclude, it is apparent that after the Covid-19 disruption globally, the workspace and the way employees worked have taken almost a 360-degree turn. As per industry experts, this change is not temporary and is likely to stay and evolve further. Flexibility at work is a massive demand for the employees, a lack of which is expected to inspire them to quit an organization. After all, the ‘great resignation drive’ is quite a reality in various countries. There are diverse reasons behind this drive. However, most tend to agree that the demand for flexibility plays a significant role. In addition, some also agree that working from home during the pandemic helped them set their priorities in life straight.
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