Your office design and furniture need to reflect and support the way in which your company works. At Flow Office, we’re experienced at finding the optimal solution for your clients. We keep abreast of changes to working practices and help you adapt. We listen to your needs, then we seamlessly plan, build and install the office furniture, delivering your vision on time and on budget.
Hybrid working is now the settled pattern for a large share of UK staff. Around 27 to 28 per cent of workers in Great Britain are hybrid, according to the Office for National Statistics, and two to three days in the office has become the norm.
From hot desk office furniture to office booths and pods, we work with you to ensure your particular needs are met. Increasingly, our clients are looking to adapt their office space for hybrid working. Let’s explore this in a bit more detail.
So What is Hybrid Working?
Hybrid working combines traditional office-based working practices with home and decentralised working, perhaps making use of co-working spaces. Employees may be in the office most of the time or may only visit the office once or twice a year. They may move through periods when their working lives are more office-based, and other periods when they work at a distance. This might reflect changes in their own lives, or it could be that they’re working on different projects or have different roles.
Certain teams may come into the office once a week, and work at a distance the rest of the week. Clients meetings may take place in the office, or employer appraisals. There may be a social aspect to the office, that brings a dispersed workforce together at various times for a combination of training and mutual support.
Hybrid working is a flexible approach that can evolve to meet the needs of the company and its employees over time.
The main hybrid working models
Which model suits your team?
Hybrid working now splits into a few clear models, set out by the CIPD and others. Picking one shapes how much desk space, meeting room and breakout area you need.
| Model | Definition |
|---|---|
| Fixed | Set office days (e.g., Tuesday to Thursday in, Monday and Friday at home). Predictable and easy to plan space around. |
| Flexible | The team or manager chooses which days to work from the office based on the work required. Offers more freedom but makes desk planning harder. |
| Office-first | The office serves as the primary base, with only occasional days spent working from home. |
| Remote-first | Home is the default working location, with a smaller office maintained specifically for meeting and collaboration purposes. |
Anchor days
Many firms use anchor days, where colleagues who work together are in on the same day for brainstorming, training and problem-solving. Deep-focus work then happens at home. Anchor days concentrate demand on certain days, so your office needs enough seats and meeting space for the busy days, not the quiet ones.
Hybrid Working Goes Mainstream
The hybrid working model has been around for some time but until recently it was largely limited to certain professions and particular companies. The Covid-19 pandemic changed this, with companies being forced to quickly adapt to a hybrid model and manage workforces in a different way.
Organisations have been quick to realise that hybrid working provides a degree of flexibility and can help to bolster organisational resilience. Companies that already provided some degree of hybrid working were able to quickly adapt and scale up at the beginning of the pandemic.
For employees, it offers a more flexible way of working, allowing them to work at a distance and better balance work and home life. As an employer, it may also allow you to access a wide potential pool of new recruits who no longer need to live within easy commuting distance of your workplace.
The pros and cons of hybrid working
What are the benefits of hybrid working?
For staff, hybrid working improves work/life balance, cuts commuting and supports focus. For employers, it can widen the hiring pool beyond the local area, lift retention and reduce the cost of fixed desks. It also builds resilience, as a dispersed team keeps going when the office cannot be used. UK adoption is among the highest in the world, which shows how well the model has stuck.
What are the drawbacks of hybrid working?
Hybrid working can weaken team bonds and make spontaneous collaboration harder. New starters may get less informal support, and managers have to work harder to keep everyone included. Poor technology or a half-planned office can leave home and in-office staff out of step. The answer is a clear model, the right tools and a workspace designed for the days people are in.
How Do You Create a Hybrid Working Office?
The hybrid office will, by necessity, be very different from the traditional approach and it will usually, but not always, be a more relaxed and informal environment. It’s no longer the place where everyone who works for the company is based but instead becomes the ‘social anchor’ for a flexible and dispersed workforce.
This kind of office will require a different design layout from the traditional office to which most people will attend every day. A hybrid office may incorporate project tables, hot desk office furniture, office booths and pods. It may even feature resimercial furniture that combines both residential and commercial aspects, bringing home comforts into the office.
Designing and equipping a hybrid office
A hybrid office design checklist
Use this as a starting point when planning a hybrid space. Our 3D space planning service can model it before you commit.
- Bookable hot desks sized for your busiest day, not your full headcount.
- A mix of meeting rooms, from quiet one-to-one spaces to larger collaboration zones.
- Quiet pods and booths for calls and focus work.
- Comfortable breakout areas that draw people in and support social time.
- Lockers or storage for staff without a fixed desk.
- Power and connectivity at every seat, including soft and informal spaces.
What technology does hybrid working need?
Technology is what keeps home and office staff on a level footing. Meeting rooms need cameras, screens and microphones built for video calls, so remote colleagues are seen and heard clearly. A desk-booking or room-booking system helps people plan their days and stops clashes. Reliable wifi, plenty of power and simple plug-and-play connections at every desk all matter. Plan the technology and the fit-out together, so cabling, screens and furniture work as one.
A real Flow Office hybrid project
Wavenet, Birmingham
For technology firm Wavenet in Birmingham, Flow Office delivered a modern workplace built around collaboration and flexibility, exactly the qualities a hybrid team needs. The project shows how the right layout, furniture and breakout space turn an office into a place people choose to come to. See more in our case studies.
To find out more about our approach and how we can help your company adapt to hybrid working, call 01922 453 488 or email sales@flowoffice.co.uk today.
