The Intentional Office

Every day there is a new article, a new post, or some commentary about getting back to work. How and when companies bring employees back into the office comes with a variety of opinions and approaches. As workplace management experts, Maptician believes the decision on how to work and where to work is really about something bigger – it’s about turning your office from just a place to sit into a space with a purpose.

For many, switching from remote work to in office work is nothing more than a location change. But, if companies are asking employees to leave the comforts of their “work from home” experience, there needs to be a bigger reason. At Maptician, we call this creating an Intentional Office.

The Intentional Office

What is an “intentional" office and how do you create one for your company?

First, we must talk about what it is not. It’s not picking a seat, showing up, working, and then leaving at 5 pm to head home. That’s just a change of location.

An intentional office focuses on the “why” of coming back to the office: collaboration, brainstorming, and team time. The intentional office also considers the entire office space and how to leverage to create meaningful interactions, and a better, more
efficient use of the square footage.

To create this type of highly functional, purposeful space, technology like Maptician’s is an essential backbone. With the right tools, companies empower their people toknow who is in the office and when. Schedules for employees can be developed that
foster collaboration.

Let’s look at an example from an employee point of view… Meet Carol… Carol is the accounting manager for a company with 1,000 employees and 2 office locations. Carol is part of team of 50 that ultimately reports to the CFO. Carol’s direct manager comes to the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Her manager has a dedicated workspace
that only she occupies.

Carol’s colleagues have been asked to return to the office as well – some days in the office and some remote.

Going from a work from home only routine to an in-office routine or even a hybrid routine, can be a tough sell. Companies like Carol’s must make the office “people” centric to create the value proposition and the true reason of coming into the office. But how do you do this?

Carol’s manager uses the Maptician app to create a variety of dedicated seats for the entire team. The accounting team meets in the office every Tuesday and Thursday. The individual team members can log in to the Maptician app and see this schedule and book their hybrid days in the office accordingly.

So now, instead of just showing up, working, and leaving, the entire department can schedule a working lunch in a large conference room to connect, chat and brainstorm.
Individuals can also meet with their manager, or book in person meeting with colleagues.

Now, Carol’s time in the office is more interactive and more productive. She and her teammates use these in office days to collaborate and their work from home days for heads down work.

And for those times Carol or one of her colleagues might like to escape the routine of home, they can still book a “hot” desk and show up. No problem.

Getting back to work: The big picture.

As your company evaluates a way back to in person or maybe refines the strategy you already have in place, Maptician can help. Our intentional office approach can help
you maximize your space and energize your workforce to be more collaborative, more productive, and more engaged.