The post-lockdown office: balancing remote and in-office work

A reflection on what the pandemic taught us about working together and how we adapted our workplace to the new normal.

What makes an Office really a Workplace? What role does it play in generating value for a company and its collaborators? Is having an office still as necessary as it was just two years ago?

The pandemic has forced us to make rapid adjustments in our way of working but today, on the eve of the “back to normal”, we are offered the opportunity to make a profound reflection on the role of the office in the life of a community that works together.

“Being together has always been part of Buildo’s DNA”

The generic pros and cons of remote work vs face-to-face work are obvious to everyone but we at Buildo asked ourselves a different question: what has the pandemic taught us about the value of being together?

Our working model has always put interaction in presence as a strategic factor in generating value, just as being together has always been part of Buildo’s DNA , in the creation of an empathic and close-knit community even beyond the strict business activity “.

Buildo made a very precise and, in some ways, disruptive choice. In fact, it has not adopted the hybrid model (in which the people who work on the same project can either work in the same place, or remotely, or at the same time partly remotely and partly in presence) preferred by most companies in the sector: at Buildo each project team works totally remotely or totally in presence, and just when the solution expresses value. It means that each team has remote working days (about 80% of the total) alternated with days in person which include the presence in the office of all team members (about 20%). This does not mean that employees cannot come to the office even at times other than those scheduled for group sessions in the presence. On remote working days, even in the office, everyone works as if they were remotely, with dedicated infrastructures.

At Buildo each project team works totally remotely or totally in presence, and just when the solution expresses value.

This approach has forced a radical rethinking of office spaces, and more precisely, the creation of:

• areas for individual work, as well as remotely, equipped, beside traditional workstations, with single phone boot for calls
• rooms specifically designed for group work (meetings, workshops, co-design…)
• spaces aimed at enhancing the experience of being together in a broader perspective consistent with the sensitivity for soft skills, an essential pillar of the Buildo philosophy.

Our office is composed of 3 lofts, and in this redesign, we divided them based on their intended functionality.

The ground floor or Loft 1 is dedicated to working alone, with desks on an open plan. We estimated our usual occupancy to be at 50%, which meant that we would need to provide around 15 desks, though as a contingency we opted for 18.

For Loft 2, we design for collaboration, to help foster spontaneous interactions. We included a game area, and an area for dining along with a bar where employees can socialize, drink and share a meal with each other. Grabbing a coffee and snacks together and connecting over things other than work can help foster stronger relationships which is essential for team-building. Another addition will be a gym space, where workout sessions could be held for the team, allowing all to engage in group or individual activities. Lastly, two “unconventional” meeting rooms to share opinions in a more informal way: the LEGO® room, and the Zen room (where you can also take a nap!).

For our weekly day of “the team working together on a project”, we have Loft 3 where we added a project room, that is booked each day of the week by a different project team, and a private meeting room.

But what about working from the office, with remote team members? Sound-proof phone booths will be placed in Loft 1, all to welcome only one person inside, to join conference calls individually.

The new office renovations are ongoing and are set to be concluded this year. Once completed, the real experiment will start, and we will stress-test both our remote working policies, and the way our office complements them.

New posts will follow, to show the new completed offices (hopefully soon!) and to dig a bit deeper in how we approach remote working at Buildo.