What Does the New Hybrid Workplace Look Like?

As we dig ourselves out of the last two years, when the pandemic colored all aspects of our lives, we reflect on some of the lessons learned about what the workplace might look like moving forward.  At BizHaus, we are optimistic and hopeful about the future of the workplace.

Very early on, we learned that exclusively working from home simply doesn’t work. Not only is working out of your studio apartment boring and lonely, but collaborating over Zoom can kill creativity.  Here’s a link to a good article summarizing the study done by Melanie Brucks at Columbia Business School on this topic:  Virtual Meetings can Crush Creativity

At the same time, there are benefits to periodically working from home, such as the time and co2 emissions saved from not commuting from home to office.  Working from home in short spurts can also be great for focus and productivity.  At BizHaus, we’ve been fortunate to sit at the front lines of this and witness success stories as our members reinvent what a typical work week looks like.  Our biggest takeaways are that (1) flexibility is key, and that (2) a hybrid of working from home and office yields the best results.

Most workers benefit from some level of working from home but are also interested in gathering at the office with coworkers.  On the surface, this seems like a space planning and logistical nightmare but it can actually be very simple to implement. 

Here’s a real life example.  Back in 2019, one of our members had 25 employees working out of a 10,000 square foot office.  The pandemic changed things and all 25 employees started working from home.  As the world started opening back up, this member was able to get out of their costly lease for 10,000 square feet, and the BizHaus team came up with a flexible plan for them that included two private offices, some flexible desks and conference room time.  Now, the employees are able to pop into the offices periodically for collaboration, work from flexible desks whenever working from home doesn’t work, and book conference room time for larger team meetings.  

Not only was this member able to lower their real estate and operating costs by over 75%, but they are now able to truly focus on their core business and passion.  They let BizHaus sweat the small stuff like coffee, printer toner and cleaning!  Another huge benefit of moving to a coworking space is that this member is able to make changes each month, rather than being locked into a multi-year fixed lease.

Over the past few months, we’ve been inspired by so many of our members who have utilized coworking and hybrid workplace models to grow their businesses and create a happy working environment for their employees.  Please contact us if you would like to bounce some ideas around with us about how to create an ideal hybrid workplace model for your team!