Return to work: Doing things differently (Episode 3)

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Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to the Beasley podcast. I'm an alumni and this is the first of our return to work series, which explores the interconnected risks that industries and organizations face as they manage the impact of COVID-19 and navigate the challenges and responsibilities of operating in a post lockdown world. The global COVID-19 pandemic has been called the greatest test for humanity since world war II by the United nations. And the international monetary fund has stated that the global economy now faces its worst downturn. Since the great depression, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives while global commerce and financial markets, geopolitical relations and critical infrastructure will take years to recover from the viruses far reaching impact. Still despite the hardship and challenges, the tenacity of the human spirits has never been more apparent hospitals that would ordinarily have taken months if not years, to build once up in mere weeks, people around the world have rallied in support of those most in need. And now as the lockdown tentatively begins to lift, we're feeling our way towards a new normal in the way we live and work between introducing new working practices and safety measures and planning for the possibility of future waves of the virus and further economic downturn. There is opportunity to rethink the way we work longterm and to change it for the better I'm joined in this three part edition by Manira Hershey , head of commercial management for Beasley globally. Manera has been at Beasley for 11 years and is responsible for the company's real estate procurement outsourcing and travel management and information and data security worldwide in her role, she's pioneered and moved towards activity based working and the officer's she designs most recently, the forthcoming global headquarters in London are reflective of her passion for creating experiential and flexible working spaces. She's also a member of Beasley's inclusion and diversity committee in this episode, Manira and I talk about the office of the future as an experiential space, the evolution of office design and optimism about the future of the workplace. So I think absolutely further to that point manera , the office may take on more significance moving forward as not a mandated space, but as a space that people actually choose to be in. And as you say, now that they have that freedom and there are multiple options on any given day for any given person, the office therefore has to become something more than just a physical space. And I know that you've touched upon that to a certain extent already. Would you mind perhaps just elaborating a little bit on what the kind of work that you have been doing already, which I know you have to create that type of experience and also how you see that manifesting itself perhaps going for

Speaker 2 2:32

Yes, absolutely. You know, the one thing I think it's really important to emphasize here is I do not believe that the flexibility that you give staff , the ability that you've, we've now proven that we can work from home. I don't think this is the end of the office at all. I think that we are social creatures. I think that people like to collaborate, not everyone has an ideal home working environment for, you know, to start and, and people, you know, want to see their colleagues. They want to meet their colleagues. People learn at the office, people learn from , from others. And I think it's harder to do you , you can do it. There's no question, but I think there's more effort required when you try and do something like that remotely, it's less organic, shall we say? So I don't want to speculate in terms of how the office is actually going to evolve, but the way I see it working and the way I see the possibility of the office being is a place that people come to collaborate, to work in groups, to have meetings, to socialize. I think the social aspect of people wanting to come to the office will actually be quite strong. And as you know, we've designed our activity based working offices precisely so that the socialization aspect, the quiet working the group, working the collaboration is very fluid and you can work in a cafe you can in our, in our activity based working offices. And I think when I designed these offices, I wanted it to be a space that people really wanted to go to. Not because they had to go to, but because they felt really good when they were there. I wanted to create an experience. I didn't want to create an office that people came into. It's, you know, it's not the old office where you come in, you clock a timecard and you sit at a desk and that's, you know, you're tethered to the desk for the rest of the day. I think those days are gone. And I think this experiment, the social experiment of working from home has shown that that doesn't need to be that way. I tried to create spaces that inspire that they're a better choice for them than their home, than a coffee shop than the park, because I really believe that it's , it's a challenge to us to create spaces that people want to be in. And , and the research is out there, especially in biophilia, you know, in , in plants , you know, that if you create an environment that is beautiful, forgive me for using that. But I, I always feel that when you go into a space, it's got to, it's got to have beauty to it because beauty is very soothing on the eye and it's very good for the parasympathetic nervous system. And so I, I create offices. I design offices that people want to go to because when they get there, they're not quite sure why, but they feel really good being there. And if you feel really relaxed and good being there and it lowers your stress rather than raises your stress levels, then of course you'll be more productive.

Speaker 1 5:14

You'll engage more. And so

Speaker 2 5:15

I think, I think the bar has changed for what an office space looks like, how it's used and quite frankly, do people have to come there? I think, again, going back to personal choice, it raises the bar even higher. If people have choices, then what is it going to be about your space that makes them want to come in? Because whatever it is that they're doing, they want to do it in that particular space. So I think that that's going to be the challenge for the future in terms of office design.

Speaker 1 5:43

It strikes me that it does Mark a trend in terms of the types of cultural values that employees and are looking for from their place of work and their employer. And that the likes of corporate social responsibility are becoming much prominent in the reasons why we choose to work for a certain company, the ethos of that company and that having a certain persona and the social element as well is increasingly important.

Speaker 2 6:10

I'm very optimistic about the future. I mean, I think it's hard when you're in times like this to think, will it ever get better? I think it'll get better and probably better than we've ever seen it. You , you always come out of situations like this, you learn so much. I think people learn a lot about themselves. It used to be that it was like, Oh , be lovely to work from home. Wouldn't it. And then you suddenly do it all the time and it isn't as lovely as you thought it was because all of a sudden you realize that it isn't, it isn't a panacea. I mean, as you said, I've been at Beasley for a long, a long time. And certainly when I came, how we worked, what the office looked like, what the expectations were of the staff, very, very different. And I think this is what makes Beasley an amazing company is that it changes with the times it sees the trends, it recognizes what's happening. It understands, it listens to its people. People just want freedom, freedom to choose freedom, to make decisions that work for them. And obviously you work for the company. I think it goes without saying that, you know , if you're working in an environment, you're there because you believe in the company that you're working in. I mean, we took a huge survey global survey a few years ago and we said, how does the working space support you? And we heard loud and clear that it didn't, it didn't allow people places to work quietly. Um, that was , uh , that was a huge one. You couldn't make private phone calls. You know, there were some, you know, there were definitely a lot of positives to an open plan environment, but it was evolving and our people told us exactly how it was evolving and what it needed to do. You know, one of the things I think I'd like to just say in terms of the office design, when I first came to Beasley, all of the Beasley offices were the same. So no matter where you went in the world, you would know immediately you'd see the pink glass you'd see the carpet was the same. The furniture was identical. I sort of call it like the McDonald's model, no matter where you are in the world, you walk in and you know, you're in McDonald's. But I think we realized that, you know, people want more, they want more exciting spaces. They want spaces that are, that are alive and, and represent the communities in the countries that they're in. And so, as we started on this activity based working, we took a completely different approach to design. We certainly had the Beasley elements, but what we wanted to do was to have a very local presence as well. We wanted people to feel ownership and feel very proud of their office because theirs was the only one like it. And so that when people came to visit, there would be elements there that they could be very proud of and show off because it was local to their company .

Speaker 1 8:31

Unity's I know certainly that in offices that I visited over recent years, I've seen some, some really beautiful design. And when , where they've been refits, there's been some hugely impressive design at play there. I'm sure that there are some companies that are ahead of the curve and some that are a little bit behind, but in summary manera , do you think that companies that fail to recognize and not from the design element of course, but that that's something that's symptomatic perhaps of a wider need to be conscious and empathetic towards this activity based working desire and requirement that individuals now have, and that if companies fail to move with the times in terms of allowing more flexibility in terms of listening to the needs and desires of their workforce, that they may perhaps fall behind in terms of their ability to attract top talent and things like that.

Speaker 2 9:25

Oh, I think absolutely. And as more and more companies sort of reevaluate what it is, you know, how that their ways of working for example. So if they were not offering flexibility and if they choose to go back after this pandemic is over and you know, all of the offices are open and if they don't take advantage of some of the learnings and some of the desires that have been expressed by their, by their people, I think there will be companies that will miss a trick, as they say, if companies are offering flexibility, dynamic spaces, if the technology can support them and people are productive, it's going to be very, very difficult to make a business case for why you have to go back to the old quote, unquote ways of working. You don't mandate anything. You allow people to make that choice. And once you've given people those choices and you've created spaces that they want to be in, it's a win win for everyone. The one thing that you did mention about, you know, traditional financial services, Birmingham was our first activity based working office. And it is a really spectacular, very sweet office. A very, it was very bold for me to do an office like that first time I'd ever done it, but we got a really fantastic nod from the BCO British council of office. And we won the regional award for best office in its size category. And the judge has said that it was unusual, what they were impressed was it was unusual for our industry. So I think they even recognize that, you know, financial services is not known for a Google or an Apple type space and to see a financial services company sort of throwing away the old mold of cubes and open plan desks and conference rooms and trying something a little bit different, I think was a really nice validation and a really nice nod to us to say, we're watching in a way. And to get that recognition, I think was really, really fantastic. So I do think, I do think companies will either do it voluntarily, or they will be forced to do it because they will realize that they're not able to attract the right talent or the best talent, because if other companies are doing it, then again, it goes down to employee choice. Doesn't

Speaker 1 11:27

Well , I'm sure I'm not alone Manira in saying that I really look forward to seeing how this trend develops over coming years, seeing what the next iteration of the workspace is going to be. And all that remains for me to say is just thank you so much for your time and for your insights.

Speaker 2 11:44

Thank you so much. And it's been really lovely chatting with you today and look forward to catching up again.

Speaker 1 11:51

Thanks for joining us today. To learn more this topic and others, please visit Bisley academy.com for an extensive library of videos, podcasts, and blog posts. I'm an alumni , and this has been a Beasley podcast as part of our return to work series. His podcast is for preliminary informational purposes. Only coverage is subject to each policies , terms and conditions for additional information about Beasley . Please visit easily.com.