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Assigned and Unassigned Workspaces
Image from GCWorkplace Design Guide: Transforming the Workplace Experience
Promoting an environment that provides access to various workspaces puts emphasis on the employees’ needs and preferences. If the optimal workplace is a flexible environment, then employees should not need to be tethered to a specific desk!
Functional spaces can be grouped by noise level, activities and other zoning considerations. Setting up social spaces with couches for collaborative brainstorming and partitions that can be dismounted and shuffled around as needed are some examples of adjustable furniture that will contribute to a more flexible environment.
The Activity Based Workplace
Image from GCWorkplace Design Guide: Transforming the Workplace Experience
Becoming active with trends in workspace environments and remote and mobile working is critical to retaining and attracting diverse talent. What’s becoming more common for workplaces is creating an infrastructure that allows work to be done in different spaces that will be most efficient for varying tasks. Allowing people to move more fluidly between activities is the main design principal behind activity-based workplaces (ABW).
This design concept does not assign employees to a particular workstation and provides freedom on how to work, where to work, which tools will be best used and who to collaborate with. This is seen with workspaces for different activities like video conferencing, working with a team, and quiet spaces for solo work and personal phone conversations.
The movement and autonomy of staff to decide how and where they want to work, and what tools they require puts the emphasis where it should be: on the people. When employees can learn, collaborate and focus over the course of the workday, workspace design has been successful.
Defining a workplace in a way that is more flexible and accommodating creates a happy, healthy and motivated workforce. By not sticking to one definition of what a workspace is, the Government of Canada is designing with employees’ diverse needs in mind.
Real Strategy Advisors is delving into everything you need to know about GCworkplace!
Follow along as we review key concepts of GCworkplace development and design, guiding principles and strategic considerations, and more.