We will look back on 2020 as the year the world reset for the digital age and for the better. To stem the flow of coronavirus, organisations of all sizes closed their offices. Out of necessity, business leaders were forced to rethink and revamp their operations.

The virus fallout has exposed systems that were either inefficient or outdated. Trends have been accelerated, with remote working being the most significant. Laggards have kickstarted digital transformation programmes and the pace has picked up for those whose journeys had already begun. Those with a progressive mindset, though, have embraced the opportunity to recalibrate the way things operate, and reimagined workplaces and workspaces are paramount.

“I don’t think there’s a company on the planet that hasn’t had to change as a result of what’s happened,” says Nicola Mendelsohn, vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, at Facebook, who admits many of the social media giant’s employees have “really struggled” with remote working.

“It would be wrong to assume we’re going to go back to how things were before. The companies that will do well as we come out of this are the ones, first and foremost, thinking about their people. They’re thinking about how they enable them to work in this hybrid way of working, part remote and part office.”

Putting people at the centre and collaborating

Adam Steel, strategic foresight editor at The Future Laboratory, agrees that organisations have to build workspaces around their staff to improve wellbeing and, in turn, productivity. “In our new working world, offices are being transformed with the health of employees now central to their function,” he says.

“And the benefits of remote working will cause employers to reconsider the entire purpose of the office. Employers should reimagine offices with their unique benefits in mind – their social, communal, convivial benefits – able to inspire collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas organically.”

However, recent Nespresso research highlights that in the UK worries about workplace safety and hygiene have been heightened because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, in-person creativity is being hampered. More than a fifth (21 per cent) of respondents expressed concern for cleanliness when they return to the office while 19 per cent said they’re unsure how they can collaborate safely with new measures in place.

Organisations have to show commitment to their employees’ wellbeing, regain the trust of their staff and provide workers with the confidence to return to the office. “Every company must now consider itself a health business, in both the physical and mental sense, and reflect this in day-to-day operations,” says Rebecca Tully, managing director of inclusion and diversity at Accenture in the UK and Ireland.

“It’s essential companies look beyond initial fixes, such as one-way systems and plastic screens, and explore how they can start to make bold, long-term, systemic design changes to the office space.”

Blending hospitality hubs and workplaces

Implementing simple technology solutions in the office can both reassure employees that their wellbeing is being considered and reactivate creative processes. “For example, low-cost wearables that replace security badges can create a connected ecosystem to aid social distancing and allow employees to locate empty spaces in the workplace easily, reworking the physical space to become more responsive to employee needs,” says Tully.

Beth Hampson, commercial director at flex-space provider The Argyll Club, which has 38 luxury workspaces across London, notes demand for co-working products has increased the longer people have experienced remote working this year. “Our members are seeking places to meet and be inspired away from the humdrum of home,” she says. “The key difference between working on home and office turf is collaboration. When inspiration and support from your team are needed, there is no substitute for the office.”

COVID-19 has given us the chance to press a big reset button

But the reimagined office is more than that; it is a hospitality hub. “Professionals want somewhere they can seamlessly and effectively complete multiple tasks they just couldn’t do at home,” says Hampson. “Whether that’s a team brainstorm, a midday yoga class followed by lunch with investors or an end-of-week drink with colleagues in a business lounge. Traditional offices sticking to a cookie-cutter approach will struggle in a post-coronavirus world.”

This chimes with Lee Penson, chief executive of global architecture and interior design studio PENSON. “We see hospitality and workplaces decategorising and becoming somewhat blended,” he says. “An office building doesn’t need to be just an office building any more. Buildings need to multi-categorise, multi-function, be more flexible, more efficient and offer more for the people who work and live in them.”

The office is vital for facilitating new ideas, communication and collaboration, says Penson. “It’s a place where everyone comes together, where people mingle, strike deals and become firm friends,” he says. “Nothing can replace catching up with a colleague over a coffee or lunch; that’s where inspiration starts. Humans are social beings and the workplace should enable that, even more so now.

“COVID-19 has given us the chance to press a big reset button. We hope things don’t go back to normal.”

Nespresso research shows 49 per cent of businesses expect their staff to work from home more than before the coronavirus pandemic and this presents new challenges in terms of understanding what makes employees tick. Workspaces, both at home and the office, need to be reimagined to accommodate workers following COVID-19.

While the drive for digital transformation has accelerated, there is a sense not enough is being done to tool up employees who wish to work away from a company’s workplace. More than half (53 per cent) of respondents to Nespresso’s recent survey said they expect employers to pay for new technology. But are they doing so, or are staff either working without adequate tools or being forced to splash out themselves?

And could it be the office has evolved into a space that is primarily used for open collaboration and, if so, could this negatively impact introverts?

Indeed, collaboration comes naturally to the sociable extrovert who will escape the confines of even the most discreet office partition to socialise and, if possible, take centre stage. Conversely, introverts will shine more brightly at one-to-one meetings than at big, set-piece gatherings.

Bright, airy, open-plan designs, together with touchdown spaces, brainstorming hubs and comfortable collaboration areas, allow extroverts rein to inspire, motivate and otherwise jolly things along as they leap from their desks to entertain and glean energy from others.

The estimated 50 per cent of the population who are introverts by nature need semi-private cubicles or at least designated neighbourhood areas. This approach allows them to recharge their batteries in peace, says John Hackston, head of thought leadership at The Myers-Briggs Company, which assesses psychological preferences.

Are introverts likely to prefer home working?

Relaxation areas and dedicated quiet spaces where introverts can escape the hubbub will pay dividends in terms of their engagement and productivity. Still, their natural inclination will invariably be to seek a reboot internally rather than in the company of others.

Or perhaps introverts would now rather work from home? Almost a third (30 per cent) of people surveyed by Nespresso expressed a preference for continued home working, while slightly more (35 per cent) revealed they would be happy to return to the office, if the conditions were right.

That “if” is important. Staff must feel safe if they are travelling to and working in the office. Technology can help, says Oliver Baxter, insight programme manager at leading furniture designer Herman Miller. “We could see the start of artificial intelligence-enabled decision-making, [helping workers decide] whether we come into the office or not,” he says. “AI will take variables surrounding the office, such as how busy the commute to the office is or how many meetings are booked in that day, and determine a percentage of how safe it is to go in.”

Another part of that “if” concerns whether the office has adapted to suit workers’ needs and can enable them to perform better. “People work more effectively at home for individual work, but they are missing the community aspect and the sense of belonging you get with the workplace,” says Linzi Cassels, principal and design director at Perkins+Will.

People work more effectively at home for individual work, but they are missing the community aspect and the sense of belonging you get with the workplace

Lee Penson, chief executive of global architecture and interior design studio PENSON, agrees. “Individual ‘quiet work’ will be done at home. The workplace will be for collaboration, creativity, problem-solving and strategising, and for people to be together. Workplaces will need to provide the tools to be more social for the time people are there,” he says.

Tooling up to cater for employees

This tallies with Nespresso research that shows 19 per cent of those surveyed see the future office as a space for centralised socialising and creative thinking. Organisations must accommodate this shift. “Until immersive working tools improve and become widely adopted, work that requires creativity and collaboration will still be better facilitated in person,” says Adam Steel, strategic foresight editor at The Future Laboratory.

But what should the workplace look and feel like to make different personality types happier and therefore more productive?

Consider employees who fall into the highly creative intuition category and tend to divide into visionaries and explorers, with the former likely to appreciate any and every new gadget available to help explore their fertile inner minds in solitude. Explorers may prefer to develop their creative skills with others and need workspaces that enable them to brainstorm without restraint, perhaps with the addition of flip charts and whiteboards.

Ultimately, all creative employees could relish highly visual workspaces and putting resources into intelligent, user-friendly design should pay dividends in terms of their unique originality and blue-sky thinking.

Feeling types are likely to lean towards the conscience or the nurturer category and, in the former case, could relish indoor plants, water features and subdued or even natural lighting interspersed between modern, modular furniture.

Caring and compassionate individuals tend to like personalised workspaces, where they can display treasured mementoes, as well as small project rooms with acoustic furniture in common areas.

Nurturers, on the other hand, may love interaction and probably find cubicles and partitions inhibiting when they invite their closest colleagues in for a chat during the day. These more extrovert colleagues are likely to personalise their area to a far lesser degree.

Judging versus perceiving

The most apparent difference between judgers and perceivers in the office environment is their attitude towards tidiness and clutter, notes Hackston. People with a judging preference will tend to be irritated and annoyed when people around them have what they view as messy, cluttered desks. Most perceiving types find it easier to locate things amid the chaos and may actively resist any suggestion of a clear-out.

Myers-Briggs research, conducted with furniture manufacturer KI Europe, concludes that while both judging and perceiving types believe it is vital to have a workspace to call their own, judgers are notably vehement about it.

While the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator offers a fascinating insight into the types of environments that can play to our individual strengths, it’s worth remembering that even the loudest extrovert needs quiet time occasionally, just as an introvert will be the life of the party when the mood is right.

And whether working from home or in the office, a decent cup of coffee can have an impact on how they operate. Some 86 per cent of Nespresso’s survey respondents feel that drinking quality coffee during their coffee break encourages them to be more productive at work. And 84 per cent think drinking quality coffee helps them to relax and recover from stressful situations.

While well-designed offices are a must for most people, it’s our job, feeling of purpose, affinity with colleagues and even our emotional health that will determine whether we have a good or bad day at the office, wherever the office is.

Julia’s favourite coffee is Nespresso’ double espresso Chiaro from our the Vertuo line with a splash of hot milk. She particularly enjoys drinking a cup in the morning, before setting her three children up for home-schooling and then walking down the hall to her makeshift office. She often takes a mid-afternoon break with a decaffeinated Nespresso option.

Why is it essential to take frequent 15-minute breaks throughout the working day?

It’s all about keeping engagement levels high. Being able to take time out from the task in hand and regularly stretching your legs is essential for productivity – wherever you are working. A change of scenery, a breath of fresh air and a coffee break can help refocus the mind – especially now, while so many of us are working from home. Interacting with colleagues from other parts of the organisation, asking them for input, is also a good way of improving problem-solving skills and creativity.

Great business leaders understand the importance of being flexible with work deadlines, more understanding about employees’ family commitments, and actively encourage their colleagues to take breaks. The need for flexible homeworking has been supercharged in the last year, and managers and leaders must set the example, showing their human and compassionate qualities, and support their teams to work around their life commitments.

How has the increase in working from home impacted people's ability to switch off from work?

Various studies have shown that working from home can lead to an ‘always on’’ culture. People have been using their commuting time to work instead of unwinding which means work and home life can often blend together We are more productive when we are well-rested, and we have regular breaks. It’s critical for people to work productively, and the key is having the right balance between work and the rest of your life.

Central to that is flexibility, which is something we have tried to provide our Nespresso colleagues in recent years. We know they might work 37 or 40 hours a week, but we want to give them the tools and equipment to be able to pick up work and put it down around their other commitments in life, whether that’s family or hobbies and interests that increasingly don’t always fit around a nine-to-five working day. We understand that depending on the task in hand, working from home, a restaurant or another remote location, is still working. A comfortable and productive set up is key.

We offer a range of remote-working tools, and we also have smartphone applications for employees so they can, for example, gain quick approvals or log their expenses while on the move. If colleagues know they have permission to work flexibly, that it is entirely OK to work around their other commitments, then this fosters a great workplace culture.

At Nespresso we have shared a list of healthy habits while remote working, which many people have found helpful – me included. The list recommends things like taking regular breaks and exercising, and not letting the living environment become the workplace. Essentially: work from home, don’t live at work. We must all keep to these values to create a thriving and supportive culture.

How will coffee feature in the workplaces of the future – whether in the office and at home?

It’s all about accessing a quality coffee moment and being able to enjoy this within the workspace. From a productivity perspective, coffee should be accessible so teams can have a break and a rest without leaving the office. And for those working at home, or remotely, having quality coffee elevates their daily work experience and makes the environment more comfortable.

How can people build relationships with colleagues in a remote environment?

Connecting over coffee and communicating with individuals from different parts of the business is incredibly beneficial, both for individuals and businesses. It’s something that Nespresso has encouraged for years, and with the increase in home working we are all more used to doing this virtually. (We are also used to seeing more pets and toddlers wandering into these video conferences.) this increase in virtual collaboration and communication this means more departments can understand what the others are working on and build more connections. For businesses, that cross-pollination of ideas and views, even at a distance, can help unblock any issues a project might have and create better solutions.

Taking time to catch up with colleagues and have non-work conversations is also crucial, even if it as simple as a coffee break in your respective kitchens. At Nespresso we have launched many fun virtual events, from lockdown team lunches to quizzes. We even had Joe Wicks to create a bespoke workout session as a surprise for our colleagues at our annual conference.

Finally, what advice would you give to business leaders about how to optimise the workforce?

The new normal means we must be more open-minded about how and when and where work can be delivered. There should be an understanding that people don’t just work from offices between 9am and 5pm, and they don’t always work when they’re attached to a computer. If you can offer all-round flexibility then colleagues will be more engaged, and that is the glue that keeps people motivated and committed to their work and company.

When people do ‘return’ to the office it will be very different to before, with regards to physical space. Offices will be more like collaborative workspaces and meeting areas – environments that must offer an experience. What we at Nespresso want to do well is provide flexible workplaces for people.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, workspaces sought to maximise innovation and collaboration by introducing communal spaces, breakout areas, brainstorming pods and the like. Now remote or location-independent working has become more widespread, how can organisations ensure their offices remain a lightning rod for creativity?

It’s a puzzle that business leaders must urgently tackle. According to Nespresso research, over a third (34 per cent) of large enterprise businesses see themselves utilising co-working and collaborative spaces in the future. Organisations need to double down and make offices inviting, comfortable and collaborative spaces.

“Businesses can’t assume employees will flood back to the office in the long term,” says Rebecca Tully, managing director of inclusion and diversity at Accenture in the UK and Ireland. “Employees are increasingly looking for more flexibility from their employer. As such, the onus is on business leaders to rebuild trust with its employees when it comes to returning to the office, ensuring the environment is both safe and beneficial for them.”

Dr Susan Lund, partner at McKinsey Global Institute, says the tasks needed to be performed in an office have changed irreversibly because of the rise of remote working, the ubiquity of good wifi connectivity and the capabilities of tech devices. It is arguably more efficient for practical, task-based work to be performed at home. Meanwhile, creative and collaborative work is best done in the office.

“I can answer an email or write something from anywhere,” says Lund. “When people go into the office now they are not going to be sitting at desks in cubicles. The office, however, is important for creativity and collaborating, and also bringing on board and training new colleagues. The same is true for making business-critical decisions, serious negotiations and forming new relationships.”

In-office cross-pollination of ideas

Nicola Mendelsohn, vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), at Facebook, concurs. “When I started my career, I would dream that one day I’d get the big corner office on the eighth floor, but that’s no longer the case,” she says. “The spaces we have to co-create, to ideate, to bring people together need to be even bigger than they were before the coronavirus pandemic.”

Future smart technologies will soon be harnessed by workplaces to provide personalised environments able to be altered seamlessly from one mode to another

While existing physical offices are widely considered to be vital for collaboration, Adam Steel, strategic foresight editor at The Future Laboratory, believes these buildings might evolve to become what he calls “rotation offices”. He explains: “These spaces, owned by multiple companies but used by one at a time for weekly or monthly face-to-face meetings, would help employees retain a degree of tactile humanness with colleagues, resulting in a cross-pollination of ideas.

“Beyond design, future smart technologies will soon be harnessed by workplaces to provide personalised environments able to be altered seamlessly from one mode to another.”

It’s already something the workforce expects, according to research from Aruba Networks that reveals almost three quarters (72 per cent) of people think the future workplace should automatically adjust and update itself.

Companies that embrace these concepts, using technology to usher workers to take breaks in social spaces and encourage conviviality, will likely experience a boost in productivity too,” says Steel.

ComRes research demonstrates the impact social spaces can have on overall efficiency, with two thirds of workers (67 per cent) feeling more productive after a coffee break.

Steel adds: “Being based around conviviality, the bleeding edge between workspace and hospitality space is a natural one and will also inspire a new wave of hospitality-focused brands to develop their own co-working spaces, enabling the creations of connections between employees, fostering collaboration and creativity.”

Investing in collaboration tools

Thankfully for businesses whose headquarters are not co-working spaces, technology is making it easier to innovate as part of a dispersed team. “Collaboration solutions that foster productivity, from online meetings and videoconferencing, to instant messaging and content-sharing, can be used to maintain a high level of collaboration between employees and facilitate creativity, regardless of their location,” says Sion Lewis, vice president, EMEA, for remote IT specialists LogMeIn.

“We are likely to see an increasing number of IT professionals adopting artificial intelligence in their workflow to make their collaboration efforts smarter and more efficient.”

More than ever though, the office is vital for generating innovation. And remote workers should be encouraged to head in for meetings regularly, says Lee Penson, founder of PENSON, the innovative commercial architectural firm behind Google’s famous inflatable office space. He believes the office “needs to be somewhere that caters for all teams to support their creativity, whether it’s in-house or remotely”, he says.

“The simplicity of taking a group call on FaceTime with colleagues and the progress of conferencing on the move has developed significantly. These innovations join people together in the most basic way. But spaces are still facilitators for unlocking creativity for people and businesses; the cross-pollination of ideas between people happens when they’re together,” says Penson.

Lewis concludes: “Technology is an enabler, not the end-goal, for creativity. It removes the barriers of geographies, time zones and accessibility, and creates a limitless space where people and their creativity can flourish. Ultimately, tech enables us to drive innovation, wherever we are in the world.”

Much of the workforce has been engaged in some variant of the nine-to-five routine for generations. But even before coronavirus took hold, this rigidity was starting to be loosened. Since the enforced lockdowns and need to work from home, while juggling other family commitments, such as home schooling, flexibility has been the watchword.

“One of the positive things to come out of 2020 is that the whole nine-to-five routine has been smashed to bits,” says Lee Penson, founder of PENSON, a global architecture and interior design studio. “Life, family, fitness, mental health, the list of benefits that comes from not having to be in the office at 8.30am is incredible. The freedom and the efficiency that has brought is mega.”

While this flexibility has been necessary, it appears that for many of us a regimented nine-to-five approach may be less than optimal in terms of productivity, performance and even general wellbeing because our circadian rhythms are out of sync with the format of the working day.

Although there are no definitive studies of what percentage of the population are morning larks, night owls or intermediate hummingbirds, Dr Sarita Robinson, principal lecturer in psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, suggests everyone is on a continuum. Moreover, we are all driven by three different kind of clocks, all of which have an influence.

The first is an individual’s chronotype, or body clock, which has physiological underpinnings. There is also a sun clock, which is based on the rhythms of night and day, and is influenced by the seasons. The third is a social clock, which enables most people to adapt by moderating their body clock based on social requirements, such as work.

But Robinson points out that if the body and social clock move out of kilter, people can feel wretched due to a kind of “social jet lag” as the circadian patterns are short-circuited. In other words, they start suffering from sleep deprivation.

In sync with working hours

It is this sleep deprivation that causes problems. Robinson says each individual needs around six hours’ sleep a night and to complete a series of 90-minute sleep cycles. Otherwise, it “increases the risk of long-term mental and physical health problems”, such as depression, anxiety, diabetes and heart disease, she says.

As a result, even though the impact of circadian rhythms and individual chronotypes are generally neither well known nor understood in a workplace context, those employers who set store by employee wellbeing could benefit from taking sleep more seriously.

Niamh Graham, vice president of global human resources at cloud-based human capital management software supplier Workhuman, explains: “When an employee’s schedule isn’t suited to their chronotype, it can have a direct effect on their attitude, outlook and productivity. But everything from decision-making to problem-solving can be improved when chronotypes are in sync with working hours.”

Chris Baréz-Brown, founder of training and coaching firm Upping Your Elvis, agrees, although he points out that in performance terms, the time difference between the “energetic cycles” in which larks and night owls peak is only a couple of hours.

“But the reality is we all work better at certain times of day, so it makes sense to encourage people to be more aware of that and plan around it,” he says. “We only have between 90 and 120 minutes of deep focus each day, so it’s important to coincide that with your energy cycles because it’ll take less effort, which means you’ll do better work and be happier.”

Concerning what employers can do to harness these insights, Graham recommends introducing flexible working practices wherever possible. This means requiring staff to work a core number of hours, but permitting them to start and end their working day whenever they choose.

“Often this flexibility is all it takes to improve employee wellbeing and, consequently, make a real difference in performance and engagement,” she says.

Destination zones

Other ways in which Workhuman is trying to accommodate different chronotypes, particularly for people in roles where flexible working is not practical, is by creating several “destination zones” in its offices. These zones include quiet pods, meditation and yoga spaces, as well as a wellness room where staff can take a nap or refuel by having a snack. Employees might like to play table tennis or go for a run, for example, to help boost their energy levels.

But even factors such as having good natural lighting, or full-spectrum lighting, can have a “huge impact because if you’re in an office with artificial light, your brain can’t process what’s happening properly as you’re not outside”, says Baréz-Brown.

Just as vital is ensuring managers and leaders are considerate towards employees with different chronotypes to themselves. “One of the most insidious situations is when a boss is a night owl as they can end up sending their team emails at 2am and expect them to respond immediately,” he says. “That works for them and their circadian rhythms, but it’s important to be aware it could harm their staff.”

One of the most insidious situations is when a boss is a night owl as they can end up sending their team emails at 2am and expect them to respond immediately

Chris Shambrook, director of performance consultancy PlanetK2, believes that, although the issue of circadian rhythms poses more serious risks for some organisations than others, ultimately it is about ensuring all staff are “fit for purpose” and can contribute effectively to the business.

“In high-performance sport, success is about the aggregation of marginal gains, but to get to that place, you also need to have brilliant basics and a solid foundation. So it’s about finding ways to support people in a range of different ways to help them perform in the best way they can,” he concludes.