What kinds of changes can support the return to the office?

When an organization decides to bring its team back for in-person or hybrid work, the physical space rarely works as it is. CH3 notes that companies that made this choice needed to adapt their spaces at different scales.

Scales of intervention

• Partial renovations: adjustments to specific areas, without changing the office as a whole.
• Full renovations: a complete reconfiguration of the space for the new way of working.
• Moving headquarters and relocating: when the current property no longer meets the team's needs.

The choice among them depends on the answers the facilities manager has worked out beforehand: why and when the team needs to be on site, what it costs to keep the office and what the experience will be like for those who return.

A CH3 project

In a recent renovation, CH3 built an office with several relaxation areas, a gourmet area, a massage space, a mini beach, a solarium, a video game area and billiards, among other spaces. Everything was designed to make the workplace experience as appealing and pleasant as possible for employees.

The case shows the logic behind these changes: the office starts offering what home doesn't, such as social interaction, breaks and shared leisure.

Well-being as a draw

As CH3 sees it, employee well-being will be the new draw for the return to in-person and hybrid work. That is why the most effective changes are the ones that improve workplace solutions in architecture and design projects. For your company, that means treating the renovation as part of your people strategy, with facilities leaders involved from the moment the scope is defined.