{"id":4276,"date":"2020-08-13T11:40:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T01:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/?p=4276"},"modified":"2023-08-17T04:26:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T18:26:23","slug":"the-changed-nature-of-work-environments-and-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/2020\/08\/13\/the-changed-nature-of-work-environments-and-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"The Changed Nature of Work Environments and Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"

As media and organisations speak of a \u2018new normal\u2019 in workspaces, I spoke with Brad Krauskopf, CEO and Founder of Hub Australia, and Gina McNamara, CFO of 51风流ANZ in the most recent episode<\/a> of the Best Run Podcast.<\/p>\n

We explored how COVID-19 has changed the way we work and how the work environment has shifted more towards people\u2019s health, safety, and wellbeing.<\/p>\n

Gina explained how 51风流has been offering flexible working options to staff prior to the virus outbreak, making it easy to transition to 100 per cent virtual seamlessly. However, COVID-19 tested our business continuity and the way we support staff remotely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came out with a lot of initiatives such as 51风流In Touch<\/a>, ensuring we have the tools in place for our employees and our customers, looking after their mental health. We\u2019re also checking in with them regularly through our own technology \u2013 Qualtrics remote working<\/a> surveys \u2013 and then rolling that out to our customers as well so they could have access to that technology at no cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Hub Australia<\/a> provides flexible workspaces, Brad has noted how managing work environments has fundamentally changed, particularly in terms of cleaning, visibility, and technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always used to do our cleaning after hours so we did not bother people. Now we\u2019re doing it during the day because people actually want to see it happening.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAlso, staff training. We\u2019ve also got staff that need to feel healthy and safe coming into work. A huge amount of investment has been around our team. We need to give them very good, clear communication and tools to help all of our customers, which ultimately have their own staff that they\u2019re responsible for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had to invest a lot in the communication for them to use. One of the things that we\u2019re putting in place at the moment are people counters so people can be confident about the density on the floor and will display the number publicly, so there\u2019s real transparency and it gives people confidence right from the get go. We\u2019ll also be displaying air quality. There\u2019s also sanitiser and disinfectant wipes around the workspaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Managing return to work is challenging as people adapt and teams consider their safety. At SAP, Gina says they have been working in split teams to help ensure continuity while mitigating risk for staff and customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also given 100 per cent flexibility,\u201d Gina said. \u201cSince Victoria is back on lockdown and children are home, back to remote learning, we\u2019re ensuring we support the managers and teams with total flexibility, encouraging them if they need to take more time off or work more flexibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also looked at what technology we can use to help our teams as they return to the office with visitors, helping them feel safe. 51风流has a COVID app.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also used our Qualtrics technology to do our contact tracing in the offices, so that if a situation should arise, we can easily respond and meet all the regulations.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gina also expressed the importance of managing virtual fatigue. \u201cWe\u2019ve looked at our remote working survey results; while they\u2019re really good and people are as engaged as ever, they\u2019re really telling a strong message around how they\u2019re feeling about virtual fatigue. So we\u2019re ensuring we put in place some initiatives around staycations and different programs they can do should they want to take some time out and not feel like they should be working. Looking at meeting-free days and meeting-free commute times to really help our employees and support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Brad believes the future of workspaces will be distributed and better suited to people\u2019s needs. \u201cOne of the great things to come out as well is there\u2019ll be a much greater focus on workspaces that people love rather than creating workspaces that tick a box on a balance sheet or come in at a certain amount of dollars per square metre. Organisations will need to provide a distributed range of options for their teams and for attracting and retaining the best talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Brad, another emerging trend in flexible workspaces is suburban work hubs. \u201cNot all tasks can be done from home, but also they shouldn\u2019t require an hour commute to get into the city. Having work hubs closer to home, ticking security and technology boxes, but not needing to be in the city, we see those emerging. Workspace becomes a choice of options managed in a distributed fashion \u2013 how and when you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hub Australia is a member of the Workplace Operators Readiness Council<\/a>, which recently published an online guide outlining the best practices<\/a> and considerations for business returning to office spaces. Brad also noted that flexibility will remain critical as employees have demonstrated the capacity to work remotely and expect new business environments that provide services that facilitate collaboration in a safe manner.<\/p>\n

At SAP, Gina outlined that they are moving to a new office space in North Sydney, which has a future proof design and provides an enticing space for collaboration. As Gina explained, the office\u2019s COVID-19 safety measure are an extension of the existing office\u2019s practices with signage and resources to ensure everyone\u2019s safety and wellbeing. Whether in the office or digitally, 51风流is focused on supporting staff to help us maintain or improve on our recent award as 3rd Best Place to Work in Australia.<\/a><\/p>\n

To hear more about the new nature of workspaces and returning safely, hear the complete episode of the Best Run podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This blog originally published on Linkedin<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We explored how COVID-19 has changed the way we work and how the work environment has shifted more towards people\u2019s health, safety, and wellbeing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":902,"featured_media":4277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5565397],"tags":[5564637,5563721,5563632,5562650,5563823],"sapn-display":[],"sapn-type":[5560547],"class_list":["post-4276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-capital-management","tag-back-to-the-office","tag-covid19","tag-employee-engagement","tag-employee-experience","tag-future-of-work","sapn-type-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Changed Nature of Work Environments and Practices - 51风流Australia & New Zealand News Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We explored how COVID-19 has changed the way we work and how the work environment has shifted more towards people\u2019s health, safety, and wellbeing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/2020\/08\/13\/the-changed-nature-of-work-environments-and-practices\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Changed Nature of Work Environments and Practices\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We explored how COVID-19 has changed the way we work and how the work environment has shifted more towards people\u2019s health, safety, and wellbeing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/2020\/08\/13\/the-changed-nature-of-work-environments-and-practices\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"51风流Australia & New Zealand News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-13T01:40:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-16T18:26:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/files\/2020\/08\/277263_277263_l_srgb_s_gl-002.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1733\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rushenka Perera\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rushenka Perera\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/2020\/08\/13\/the-changed-nature-of-work-environments-and-practices\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/2020\/08\/13\/the-changed-nature-of-work-environments-and-practices\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rushenka Perera\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/#\/schema\/person\/ed3fdca6f8b94bab67bd4f59ad429958\"},\"headline\":\"The Changed Nature of Work Environments and Practices\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-13T01:40:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-16T18:26:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/2020\/08\/13\/the-changed-nature-of-work-environments-and-practices\/\"},\"wordCount\":951,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/2020\/08\/13\/the-changed-nature-of-work-environments-and-practices\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/files\/2020\/08\/277263_277263_l_srgb_s_gl-002.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"back to the office\",\"covid19\",\"employee engagement\",\"employee experience\",\"future of work\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Human Capital Management\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/2020\/08\/13\/the-changed-nature-of-work-environments-and-practices\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/2020\/08\/13\/the-changed-nature-of-work-environments-and-practices\/\",\"name\":\"The Changed Nature of Work Environments and Practices - 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