Adapting offices to support COVID-19 secure workplaces and emerging work patterns

COVID-19 changed where we work - 2019 5% of UK workforce worked mainly from home, reaching 44% in May 2020, remaining at 27% in July 2020 when restrictions eased (ONS, 2020). This multidisciplinary project supports economic recovery via identifying effective office design and adaptation of work practices to maximise gains and minimise downsides from remote and hybrid working. Homeworking offers flexibility and work-life balance, but most products and services result from collaboration and discussion (Elliot & Deasley, 2007) - work completion and performance are inherently social processes. Organizations must design offices, technologies and working practices that facilitate this social fabric. We apply a socio-technical approach to 1) establish exemplars for design and operation of offices adaptable to COVID-19 constraints, remote and hybrid working; 2) investigate how different office and work arrangements (e.g., hybrid working) impact social networks, workflow and performance by studying employees' in adapted offices (via interviews, high-frequency diary study, social network analysis, building data); 3) offer recommendations for supporting the transition of workers back into offices; 4) an evidence base to guide office requirement planning. Our project partners (WorldCC, Atkins, Leeds City Council, Coreus, Walker Morris, OneMedical Group) help us reach a range of industries and contribute data, advice and networks. We address:- UKRI RQs regarding COVID-19's impact on: (1) different organisations, sectors, and work patterns; (2) current and future demand for office space. POST's COVID areas of interest: (12.2) how will COVID-19 affect worker productivity in the future; (12.3) potential impacts for infrastructure of long-term widespread remote working.