CREJ

September 2020 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \ 41 ELEMENTS Reopening Offices • Building in greater workplace flexibility. While the far-reaching impacts of this pandemic are still largely to be determined, I remain convinced that monumental positive outcomes will come out of all we’ve discovered so far. We’ve learned that not only is there value in flexible workspaces – which was already clear from the rise in popularity of the coworkingmodel – but that workplaces (the businesses them- selves) can indeed flex tomeet the needs of workers while en- suring business continuity. Flexibleworkspaces and/or “workspace as a service”models originally emerged to support employees’ changing needs on any given day or over time. The design and use of real estate canshift andadapt toenhance theproductivityandexperienc- es of employees on a given day, thusmaximizing the potential of a company’s real estate portfolio. Our firm has long show- cased and provided diverse work settings to give employees the option of selecting the environment that will help them produce themost inspiredwork outcome. With safety in mind now, an even larger variety of spaces will emerge, especially in the open plan. Mobile collaboration tools and devices will transform previously stagnant environ- ments into dynamic settings to work in teams or alone while maintaining distancing requirements. In response to the cur- rent situation, in addition to room scheduling devices, at our offices, we have developed an online system that will allow employees to reserve any seat in the building. The flexible workplace is more about flexibility in business protocols and giving employees more choice in where they choose to work geographically to best accomplish their work for that period of time. As a company, we continue to support remoteworkwith a primary goal of that setting providing the right atmosphere to accomplish “deepwork.” To attract the best and the brightest, the bottom line is that people want choice. We need to continue to believe in and in- vest in placemaking, provide flexible workspace, and give em- ployees inspiring places where they want to be. If we do, our businesseswill thrive, alongwith our people. \\ tlounsbury@workplaceelements.com Adaptable workspace is more important than ever.