Office Buzz | Last century workflows

The new normal of “work from anywhere” is fully digital. While employees have made the transition to remote work pretty quickly and efficiently, if this were to continue permanently would they be as comfortable?

A new survey by digital workflow company ServiceNow among 9,000 respondents shows that 50 per cent of employees believe it will be hard to keep up with the new ways of working. This is because 91 per cent of executives say their companies have offline workflows, including document approvals, IT security incident reports, technology processing requests and so on. While progress has been made, not all office administration systems have adapted to digital workplace quickly. Only employees in the US reported modernised systems.

Significantly, more than half the employees surveyed in most regions also feared that companies would put profits ahead of their personal safety. The Netherlands was the only exception.

Office furniture solutions company Steelcase has just launched a new workplace offering called Flex Huddle Hub. It allows teams to reconfigure their workplace. Coming at a time when offices are reconfiguring their premises to maintain social distancing, the Flex collection, which comprises mobile desks, seatings, screens and accessories, is highly adaptable.

"Flex Huddle Hub supports visual focus and provides physical and territorial privacy. Its unique geometry offers a sense of enclosure and creates a focal point that pulls the group into the action,” said Joe Ho, Senior Designer of Steelcase APAC.