The digital optimists

THE CIRCLE

Microsoft Switzerland will soon be moving into the CIRCLE at the airport Zurich. There is plenty of open space and collaboration rooms of all sizes for the approximately 400 employees in the Zurich region. Classic focus workstations, on the other hand, are down to 88. Hybrid working is no longer a vision of the future. We spoke with Marc Holitscher, National Technology Officer at Microsoft Switzerland, about the hybrid future. This much is certain: we have a unique opportunity to completely rethink the way we work now.

Marc Holitscher, National Technology Officer at Microsoft Switzerland

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Mr. Holitscher - around 400 of Microsoft Switzerland's 600 employees will soon be moving into the CIRCLE. What awaits them?

Not a place to write emails or make phone calls, but a place to meet and innovate.

Microsoft has been using remote work principles since 2012. Already in Wallisellen, the focus was on communal spaces. What is different in the CIRCLE? Had the pandemic led to short-term changes in the room design?

We have rented another 1,000 m² for the Microsoft Technology Center, which will open its doors in January 2022. There we want to meet with customers to discuss new technologies and bring them to life.

70 percent of our office space in the CIRCLE is also open to our partners and customers. We want to come into the office to innovate together. This trend has intensified once again. In Wallisellen, there were 290 focus workplaces. In CIRCLE, there are still 88.

A clear sign that physical presence is not required for employees.

Yes. With us - with a few exceptions - no one has to be on site. The individual teams should organize among themselves - in a way that it's right for the customer, but also for each individual team member. Studies show that people do want to get together. We want to offer attractive opportunities for this in our space in the CIRCLE.

You address the paradox that Microsoft's annual Work Trend Index highlights: 71 percent of the Swiss employees surveyed would like the hybrid work model, and over 70 percent would like to spend more time physically with their teams. Does Microsoft already have answers to this?

Technology makes many things possible. The experience of hybrid meetings, for example, is improving continuously - with Microsoft Teams, but also thanks to modern infrastructure in meeting rooms. Speakers and cameras automatically focus on the person who is speaking. The meeting rooms here at CIRCLE have been designed and equipped to ensure an optimal meeting experience for people on-site and virtually.

Technology allows for flexibility. Spaces can be customized. We should use that to our advantage - for the well-being of employees as much as for the long-term success of the company.

Since the pandemic, Microsoft Teams is probably as well known to typical Swiss citizens as Migros or Coop. What do you make of it?

We're enormously proud that we've been able to empower so many people to use Teams to continue working, continue their studies, or simply stay in touch with family and friends. At the same time, it was and is a huge responsibility and a real stress test for the system. The good news: our data centers passed the test. The enormous and rapid demand could not have been cushioned with any other infrastructure. It is gratifying to see that more and more companies are making use of the benefits of the Microsoft Cloud in Switzerland and that Microsoft Teams is becoming the center of everyday work.

“The hybrid is a reality. People want to work this way. We have a unique opportunity to completely rethink the way we work now.”

Technologically, some Swiss companies have made a leap forward. They have brought their infrastructure up to date. But Microsoft also often talks about culture. The new Microsoft Technology Center wants make technology tangible. After infrastructure, where do CH companies still have the most catching up to do in order to successfully create a hybrid working model?

At Microsoft, we live in a kind of bubble in terms of technology. At many companies, there are still people who don't have mobile devices. No webcams. That's where we're in a very privileged situation at Microsoft. We have and get everything to fully embrace the hybrid work model.

We think the 3 Ps are paramount for a hybrid future.

PEOPLE: People need to understand and be able to assess how they can use technology to improve things for themselves. This requires regular education and training.

PLACES: Spaces need to be redesigned to serve different purposes and new needs.

PROCESS: Every single process, no matter how small, must be put to the test and rethought.

For example, how will we handle confidential documents that exist only on paper in the future? Can confidential documents be taken home? How do we ensure that we get the necessary signatures for contracts when not everyone is working on site anymore?

We have a unique opportunity to completely rethink the way we work now. The hybrid is a reality. People want to work this way - for Generation Z, anything else would be unthinkable.

Jedes Unternehmen braucht jetzt einen genauen Plan, wie man in Zukunft physisch und digital verbindet. Aber wir brauchen dafür auch die richtigen regulatorischen Rahmenbedingungen, die es uns ermöglichen, modernste Technologien einzusetzen. Die heutigen Gesetze wurden teils vor der Internet-Ära gemacht. Auch sie müssen neu gedacht werden. Dies soll verantwortungsvoll und keinesfalls auf Kosten von nicht verhandelbaren Werten wie Transparenz, Sicherheit oder dem Schutz der Privatsphäre geschehen.

Wir bei Microsoft sind digitale Optimisten. Wir glauben daran, dass sich eine hybride Welt schaffen lässt, in der wir erfolgreicher zusammenarbeiten und besser leben.

How home office makes our offices more human

Before the pandemic, no one would have expected such a rapid switch from the model of phyical office presence to remote working in the home office. Some 18 months later, a number of companies, including the architectural firm Marazzi + Paul Architects, have arrived at a hybrid working model - and this is also having an impact on future office and residential buildings. We spoke with Alfred Paul, co-owner of Marazzi + Paul Architects, about the transformation of their own office and how the pandemic will impact the architecture of tomorrow.

Alfred Paul, Co-owner von Marazzi + Paul Architekten

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Mr. Paul - you seized the moment and remodeled the office during the second Corona wave. Did you have the blueprints in place beforehand?

We had the plans in the drawer for some time, but there was no urgency to change anything. As a classic architecture firm, our open office was simply used for working. You came in the morning, had lunch outside, worked in the afternoon at your desk or together in the meeting room, and went home in the evening.

With the pandemic and the introduction of a hybrid work model, office habits have changed, and with them the demands on the space. Today, our employees come to the office primarily for social moments. Our kitchen and coffee corner now take up a lot of space, as do the dedicated meeting corners.

So the way you work is different today?

Yes. In the first wave, we had to say goodbye to the fixed workstation in the office within 24 hours and switch completely to a digital and location-independent way of working. I would never have thought that this could be so uncomplicated.

But we have learned that we don't need fixed desks to be able to work well as a team and with customers. Technologically, such a set-up would not have been possible two years ago. Today, we want to benefit from this and offer our employees a flexible working model.

How do you define the flexible working model? Are there any new regulations?

We involved our employees in defining our new working model. During Corona, we conducted a survey. The result: no one wants to work 100% from home or in the office. In our employment contracts, we have now stipulated that employees have the option of working from home between 40-50% (for a 100% position). One regulation stipulates that each employee must decide in advance what his or her split will be. Block times also apply in our home office, and we have also reorganized the issues of ergonomics and infrastructure in the workplace. For example, our employees now receive a fixed annual contribution to the cost of investing in their home office, but they are responsible for complying with labor law regulations at home. And - Thursday is office day for everyone. On one day, we want to be able to talk personally with all employees in the office.

“New needs evolve from changes and these can be addressed through continuous dialogue with employees.”

You've been living the hybrid work model for some time now. Are there any blind spots?

New work models have to be well thought out. Setting up the workplace at home should not be underestimated. There are certainly things we need to adapt again in the long term. New needs evolve from changes. We have been able to respond to many of them and currently have a very high level of employee satisfaction. Others we do not yet know. I think it's important to maintain an ongoing dialog with our employees.

Change of perspective: Marazzi + Paul Architekten designs and implements office renovations and new buildings. Are the first Corona effects already noticeable in the architecture? What ideas are architects dreaming about for new or redesigned office buildings?

The pandemic is a catalyst for trends that were already there before: from fixed, dedicated desks to shared desks. Sharing is being demanded more than average. The office is becoming a hub, workplaces are becoming denser, meeting zones are multiplying. Employees come to the office because they feel comfortable there, have the opportunity to meet and collaborate with others in a welcoming environment.

What developments do you predict in the planning of residential buildings? Will there be more co-working spaces in housing developments? Or will the office in the apartment become the standard?

Do you remember the common room in a block of flats that was not used by anyone? And mostly served as a storage room? Now there is a real need for such a room.

We are currently working on a project where we are thinking specifically about a co-working space in a housing estate - from the kitchen to the infrastructure to the technology.

In the future, work will no longer be spatially bound. With 5G and the tools that are available to us, we will also increasingly work in public spaces.

This is also a huge opportunity for us architects. At Marazzi + Paul Architekten, we always take a very close look at the place where our buildings are created. If we can now work on site, on location, in the future, this can create a completely different relationship with the people in the surrounding area.

In the previously mentioned project, we had the residents draw a postcard in order to understand how they envision their surroundings in the future. Such a place analysis could take on other dimensions in the future.

“In the future, work will no longer be spatially bound. With 5G and the tools that are available to us, we will also increasingly work in public spaces. ”

What effect would such developments, working from anywhere, have on the planning of public space?

Whether private, semi-private or public, spaces are being used in ever more complex ways. The restaurant becomes a place of work. The bank branch becomes a place to work. The park bench in the green becomes a workplace. In the future, we could also welcome co-workers from other industries in our office. School rooms or even soccer stadiums could be used twice.

I have always had the vision of a flying classroom. Students move around the city like nomads, exploring places, learning new things as they experience them. Technology gives us room for new ideas. Let's see what comes of it.

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Illustrations: The Office of Marazzi + Paul Architects

The Zs

The Generation Z: young people born around the turn of the millennium. As the youngest member of MondayCoffee AG, I am also part of it.

Just in time for the Corona crisis, I finished my studies without a graduation ceremony after endless online lectures. My working life starts in a world that has changed enormously within a few months. During my studies, for example, I learned in internships and also as a working student what topics to talk about at the lunch table in the cafeteria or how to dress in the office.

From one moment to the next, everything changed. Which pants to wear to the home office or in which corner of the Munich apartment to have lunch this time without talking about planned and past vacations suddenly seemed completely irrelevant. The succession of lockdowns, messed-up gap years and postponed trips to Australia left Generation Z with a lot of time to think about what's really important to us in the context of work.

Leonie Bachmaier, Business Consultant & Produkt Management at MondayCoffee about companies that would profit a lot by getting adjusted to the hybrid office.

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1. THE HYBRID WORK MODEL COULD BECOME A SELECTION CRITERION

Since starting my career, I have worked flexibly in terms of location and time. My work-life balance is intact. My motivation at work is high. My performance, as confirmed by my superiors, is satisfactory. It's important to me to have a job in the future where a flexible work model is possible - and that probably applies to some of my generation peers as well. Companies do well to adapt to the hybrid in the long term.

2. LEADERSHIP IS PUT TO THE TEST EVEN MORE IN THE HYBRID

The enthusiasm to enter the workforce was strong in my case. Even with Corona. But it was also coupled with some uncertainty and perhaps a lack of direction. What happens on my first day at work? I turn on my laptop, and then what? What do I do when I'm stuck? Call my boss because of a simple question? I didn't know many of my colleagues yet. The conversations at the coffee counter didn't exist. The fast start to working life had its pitfalls - but the central question is, how do you manage the GenZ in general in the hybrid?

My takeaway since I started: In addition to the manager, who has to find a balance between freedom and structure, mentors play a very important role. You can ask them any questions, reflect on situations with them, and once again mirror your own further development in a different way.

3. SOCIAL MEDIA AS A CENTRAL RECRUITING CHANNEL

How do you reach GenZ talent? Clearly through social media. I, too, found my position as a working student at MondayCoffee via a job alert in LinkedIn. I was able to apply in just a few clicks - from my smartphone. Then a video call followed.

You'll have the most success recruiting Zs if the application can easily happen digitally, right where you usually spend a lot of time. Long questionnaires or cover letters are not for us. We focus on real-time interaction.