Our founder was featured in the 2020 issue of LinkedIn’s 24 Big Ideas that will shape 2021.

Every year, LinkedIn editors ask their community of Influencers, Top Voices and experts to share the Big Ideas they believe will define the year ahead. In late 2020, in the shadow of a once-in-a-century pandemic, Brittney was asked to participate in one of 24 predictions and thoughts on where we go from here — at work. Here is an excerpt:

The office will fight to win you back

After a year of working from home, power dynamics have shifted. Companies will need to give employees a reason to return to the office. On offer? Spaces designed for what we’ve been missing all along: Human connection, and maybe a bit of rest and relaxation, too. 

“People miss people the most. There’s a credible value to real life in-person contact,” says Liz Burow, the former WeWork vice president of workplace strategy. Burow says offices will function in two key ways: As spaces where people gather for leadership, personal development and culture; and as clubhouses where they come together to collaborate and congregate. Either way, we won’t be gathering in them five days each week anymore.

This transformation won’t simply be philosophical; it’ll be physical, too. 

Assigned seating is gone, says Brittney Van Matre, Nike’s director of workplace strategy and operations. Surveys from Nike show employees want to work in an office, but only twice a week. And when they do come in, they want it to be collaborative. Office design needs to accommodate this “activity-based working,” she says — the term for flexible spaces that suit a variety of needs.  

But collaborative spaces alone may not be enough to draw people back, warns Van Matre. She believes companies would be wise to entice people with either “a kickass headquarters with a lot of amenities and a super slick experience” or “a really unique experience that you can’t get anywhere else.” Van Matre suggests companies may want to consider setting up outposts in unconventional locales, like rural, scenic areas more associated with leisure, creating “a reprieve” employees can gravitate towards. — Susy Jackson

For the full article, please hit the link below.

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/24-big-ideas-that-will-shape-2021-4288809/