Why We Need Hubs for Togetherness

It’s taken less than a year for companies and employers around to world to embrace remote work as the new “normal”. This once slightly stigmatized way of working has indeed been embraced by many, albeit with the added hiccups that come along with it. And as the majority of the workforce continues to work from home, many employees still long to return to the office, however for only part of the working week.

To gain more insights into how and where people would like to work when the pandemic is over, we surveyed over 900 industry professionals and employees throughout our BuzziAcademy: Future Ways of Hybrid Working webinar series, held in November 2020.

Stay tuned in the upcoming days to see how these results open up the conversation to start creating hubs for togetherness.

For Social Interaction

According to our study, no employees want to return full-time to the office, while a whopping 73% of them want to spend 40% or less time at work. The major reasons why employees want to return to the office are so they can hold face-to-face meetings and in-person collaborations, in addition to breaking social isolation and having a more structured routine in their day.

Now’s the perfect time to start thinking about creating hubs for togetherness so your employees can meet face-to-face without having to worry about physical distancing protocols.

To start, introduce some room and office dividers to define different zones while offering peace of mind to your employees. They’ll create sufficient distance between workstations, informal meeting rooms, and break-out areas, in addition to producing a natural flow while moving around the office. Our versatile range of privacy booths will also support safe and informal meeting areas in your space.

To Stay Connected

While the majority of the workforce continues to work remotely, we see that 84% of those surveyed mostly work from home (designated office, living room, kitchen, or bedroom). For those that like to shake up their daily routine, 37% head to their local café, while 26% choose to work in a co-work or hotel room.

Even at home, a co-work, or a destination office, creating hubs for togetherness is still possible. A quick and simple way is to introduce desk partitions. Our range of acoustic desk partitions instantly creates a private space to get focused work done. On top of that, desk partitions preserve a sense of collaboration and togetherness if you are working alongside your partner, flatmate, or next to someone in a library or destination office.

Start Incorporating Hubs of Togetherness

However, for many corporations and employers, the future still looks undecided. From the aforementioned research, we see that more than half of the companies surveyed have not yet decided how they will continue to work, while 26% believe a combination of office and remote work will be the future of working. Lastly, about 18% aim to return to the office full-time.

This is the perfect chance to start thinking about hubs for togetherness, no matter how you decide to continue working in the future. During our BuzziAcademy 3.0: Future Ways of Hybrid Working sessions, we defined four shifts that we will start to see in the workplace and how to cater to them: Future-Proof Office, Transitional Office, Trophy Office, and Destination Offices. Read more about each one here.

How to get started

Our overall conclusion is that remote work is here to stay, but office life is not dead yet either. So now marks the perfect time for organizations, companies, and employers to recalibrate and think about their next steps and start incorporating hubs of togetherness. But what can you do?

Make sure to download our Returning to the Office handout and to check our Inspiration section for lots of tips and tricks on how to create your bespoke happy, healthy, and most-importantly acoustically balanced, workspace. And stay tuned for a deeper dive into creating hubs for togetherness.