The importance of centralised office interiors in an increasingly flexible workplace

The ongoing situation with the Coronaviruspandemic has shone a light on how we approach things in many factors of ourdaily lives; work being a massive one. With most office-based roles taking awork-from-home approach, the ease it provides (in balancing home-work life) hasled to many to predict that the future of work will be outside of centralised office interiors. Instead of travelling to work each day, people will stay at home,typing from their laptops on the sofa and having their video calls in front oftheir ever-growing bookcases on a permanent basis.

Despite this conceivable prediction, it canbe said that having a central place of business is vital for many firms;especially if they need to communicate a ‘position of strength’ to any clientsthey serve.

As offices around the world slowly reopen,let’s take a look at the importance of a centralised office in the increasinglyflexible workplace.

Why the need for centralised office interiors in the 2020s?

Beyond the current situation with COVID,many people have cited the abilities to give workers a better home-work lifebalance and the elimination of rental fees as two great reasons to dump thecentral office going forwards. While these are undoubtedly two greatattractions, there are many other areas that a remote business will/arecurrently missing out on by staying away from the office.

So, here are the benefits that acentralised office interiors hasover a more home-based existence:

Communication.

Speaking of interacting in person;commutation improves in a centralised location simply because people have thatopportunity to approach whoever they need when they want to. With telephone orvideo calls, this isn’t always the case. Meetings, conferences and training aretypically better when held in an in-person group setting as everyone will beable to receive all the information, at the same time and be able to interactwith one another too.

Unity & consistency.

Employees who are able to work together inperson as a collective (socially distanced, obviously!), will be able to get toknow one another’s work styles and approaches; this will help to solidify a’working team’ as they collaborate on projects as a group. Having central office interiors will also increase theteam’s ability to be consistent across all channels as everyone will be workingunder the same rules, in the same environment (rather than in different ones ateach of their homes).

Scheduling and training.

Scheduling and general time management isstreamlined through a central office; staff in a single location are far betteradept at filling in for any absent team members than they would be remotely.Also, training (between different departments) is better facilitated in acentral office as it encourages the knowledge of different job functions toflow much more easily.

With appropriate planning, a business canachieve all these and still have adegree of flexible working to help balance an employee’s working week, simultaneouslycutting down on office rental fees. A customised approach to office design is asolution that offers the best of all worlds.

Looking to return to the office? Allow Oaktree to grow youa strong, safe working environment

If you’re looking to encourage your team(s)back to work in the coming months, we here at Oaktree Interiors can offer allthe advice and expertise you need to create a bespoke office design that willprove safe, engaging and inspiring for all.

For more than 30 years, our team have beenat the forefront of the industry, creatingbespoke office environments that have beenhoned to the working requirements of the people who work there, rather than tothe limitations of the building it’s housed in. The result, far more often thannot, is a workplace that is engaging, inspiring and functions exactly asintended. In these unprecedented times, it has never been more important tohave office interiors that encouragepeople back to work.