Commercial Integrator February 2022 - 18

COVER STORY
in meeting rooms, " Sargent argues. " [Otherwise,]
people are going to have a hard
time hearing when they call in, if you've
got multiple people in the room. " Equality
of the visual experience is also important.
" We want cameras that will follow
whoever is speaking and [that] will zoom
in on that individual, " she continues. " But
you also have to be able to see the rest of
the room. "
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people are craving human connection. They're
also desirous of getting out of their homes now and then.
tiful house, but you have no idea where it
is, and the move might take months and
months. " We are now in an extruded transition,
with no clear end in sight and no clear
state of what that will be, " she says. For
many people, that is discomfiting.
We understand that offices can be, at
least theoretically, hubs of company culture
and interpersonal engagement. And
that kind of environment could well entice
people out of their houses. However, many
workplaces, pre-pandemic, were just as
solitary as home offices are. Sargent analogizes
bedrooms to cubicles, saying that
we all wake up in an enclosed space every
morning. " I could just stay home if that's
all I'm going to have at the office, " she
states. " The question now is, 'What are you
offering me at the office?' " she says. " What
is there that I can't get at home? "
Making the Office More Engaging
One answer, Rouse suggests, is an activity-based
working (ABW) approach. This
means employees having access to a range
of technology-enabled work environments
to suit the particular activities in which
they engage individually and as a team.
Rouse says HOK clients that had already
begun to implement an ABW approach
not only returned to the office the fastest
18
but also have been the most successful. " If
your people are flexible and your space is
flexible, you're going to much more easily
be able to meet what comes at you from
the outside world, " she observes. Sargent
amplifies the point, emphasizing the shift
away from dedicated individual spaces.
The future, she predicts, lies in " shared,
collective areas for people to engage -
and for you to engage with [your brand]. "
Intentional Design and
Technology Integration
Reimagining the office isn't merely about
architecture and design; there are also
technological dimensions for AV integrators
to perfect. According to Sargent, " We
need to reconsider the meeting experience
altogether. " Out, she says, are long tables
in rectangular meeting rooms, packed with
as many chairs as possible and with a video
monitor way down on the far-end wall. With
more people recognizing the importance
of meeting equity, Sargent recommends a
semi-circular or U-shaped table, with cameras
and screens positioned on the longest
wall to give all participants an equal view.
Given that a portion of knowledge
workers will stay remote, meeting equity
must extend to those employees, as well.
" We're going to need more microphones
Commercial Integrator FEBRUARY 2022
Robust Technology Integration
Rouse echoes Sargent's call for robust
technology integration - everything
from room-booking systems to voice- and
facial-recognition for low-touch to notouch
interaction - but stresses that these
systems mustn't intimidate the associates
they're meant to help. " We still haven't
made a lot of our internal conferencing
technology 'dummy-proof,' " Rouse
laments. Discussing the notion of digital
fitness - an assessment of the client's technological
aptitude and ability - Sargent
says that we must get away from doing the
equivalent of giving a 16-year-old child a
Porsche. When we do that, she sighs, the
client ends up with " a $50,000 piece of
technology on the wall that's basically a
$50,000 piece of art. " In short, if technology
is part of the recipe to lure associates
back into the office, it must actually be
usable - that means one or two touches,
and that's it.
The long-term trajectory is clear: for
virtually all employers to cultivate a hybrid
workforce. One difficulty is that, at this
point, there is virtually no uniformity of execution.
" We are in the Wild West of hybrid
officing, " Sargent quips, bringing up that
some employees have decided they'll just
take the afternoon off anytime they feel like
it and catch up by working late at night.
Sargent makes the obvious point that this
complicates things for clients who need
immediate answers and team members
looking to collaborate. " There are not a lot
of rules [right now], but they're coming, "
Sargent adds.
When hybrid workforces are more
organized, companies can make more
informed decisions about what kinds of
office square footage (and integrated techcommercialintegrator.com
COURTESY
DAVID WAKELY PHOTOGRAPHY.
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Commercial Integrator February 2022

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