The office of today looks very different from even a few years ago. The traditional notion of the office appears to be fading into obscurity, and a more hybrid approach is fast becoming the norm.
The key to developing a more productive and engaged office team is focusing on a more harmonized approach between ongoing business operations and objectives and the right balance of employee expectations.
That’s where the term T.W.A.T comes in. The expression was coined in 2019 by The Spectator and refers to employees that only come into the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. They then work from home on Mondays and Fridays. It’s certainly an acronym that can raise a smirk, but are there any advantages to working Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the office?
The current hybrid work status
In the UK, research suggests that an impressive 97% of organizations are planning to implement some form of hybrid work. So it’s clear that a more hybrid approach is becoming the goal for any business hoping to grow. T.W.A.T teams have the winning combination of in-person collaboration and connection days, alongside the many advantages of working from home.
As a result, work can be partitioned by activity rather than an ongoing and confusing mess of activities. Schedules can be more easily managed, and they become less reliant on the whims of office managers and CEOs.
Choosing Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to work in the office
Employers and employees alike are consistently choosing T.W.A.T (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays) as their official days of choice for heading into the office. It’s been reported that those midweek days have become the busiest days for London commuting, overtaking Fridays and Mondays.
Employees are heading into the office on those days for face-to-face meetings and not a lot more. That leaves Fridays and Mondays free for working from home on tasks that aren’t location dependant, such as:
- Emails
- Video calls
- Phone calls
- Solo tasks or admin that requires little or no in-person collaboration.
Of course, this means the office space itself has to adapt and evolve.
The impact of working in office on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday
With hybrid work on the rise and growing numbers of employers embracing a T.W.A.T mentality (that acronym will never get old), office management needs a refresh. Some key issues need to be addressed, but the good news is there are solutions already in place and available to even the most traditional employer.
As we rethink how offices are used, we need to consider the answer to the question, what is the office for now?
Here are some of the core issues employers hoping to take advantage of a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in office approach to working need to consider.
Managing capacity
One of the obvious roadblocks to efficient T.W.A.T Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays is that those days will see a high number of team members in the office midweek and a skeleton crew (if that) on Mondays and Fridays. That raises immediate concerns about office capacity and movement.
Social distancing may not be obligatory, but to ensure comfort and wellbeing, it still needs to be factored into office management. And the key is smarter offices. When combined with the right capacity management process, smart offices make it easier to connect people and real estate, streamlining capacity management to ensure maximum use of space along with safer workspaces. Overcrowding is easy to avoid when you know who will be in the office and when.
T.W.A.T team benefit #1: It’s been shown repeatedly that the hybrid working model works, improving productivity and employee engagement. Efficient capacity management is essential for earning the benefits of hybrid working.
Health and safety
If there’s miscommunication over who will be in the office and who isn’t, health and safety protocols can take a hit. Social distancing aside, office managers need to ensure there will be enough first aiders available every day of the week, let alone fire marshalls.
Again, tech provides the answer. Workplace management solutions are designed to make it easier to see who will be where and when at a glance. So anyone coming into the office on a Monday won’t have to worry about what might happen in the event of workplace injury; they can get to work instead. Teams arriving on T.W.A.T Tuesdays will work confidently, knowing there is a dedicated fire marshall in place should the worst happen.
T.W.A.T team benefit #2: When employees feel safer, they will have fewer distractions and can work with more focus. Health and safety is more important to get right than ever, and when strategies are successful, they can save a lot of money and stress.
Managing space
Desk management is a relatively new issue for office managers. As hybrid and agile working approaches to the office have grown, ensuring everyone has a desk when they need one has become a hot button issue. As the impact of the pandemic accelerated, many office managers reduced the number of available in-house desks purely for social distancing reasons.
But as offices open, and T.W.A.T Tuesdays to Thursdays become the days of maximum office volume, ensuring there are enough workspaces for every member of the team is critical. That’s where a combination of desk booking software and meeting room booking systems come in. Meeting room systems are a definite priority, as T.W.A.T teams generally come into the office for those collaborative face-to-face meetings. Ensuring meetings can be conducted seamlessly could prove to be one of the defining responsibilities of the modern office management team.
T.W.A.T team benefit #3: More efficient space management means fewer roadblocks to workloads and collaboration time.
Car parking
With the general public being more cautious about traveling by public transport in the aftermath of the pandemic, car parking has become a real concern for office teams. With those teams returning to the workplace, car-sharing and public transport both remain a concern for employees. So if car use is on the rise, car parking space needs to be considered.
Post pandemic, car park management will be an integral part of office management. And for employers that embrace T.W.A.T Tuesdays to Thursdays, managing car parking spaces on those midweek days will be essential.
T.W.A.T team benefit #4: Less stressful travel means T.W.A.T teams arrive in the office ready to get to work, rather than recovering from the headache of parking.
Designing a modern office
If T.W.A.T teams are coming into the office midweek to carry out their more location-specific activities, they need the office to adapt to that change. A shift to a new focus on collaboration is key. As the office is used more for meetings and collaboration (and working from home becomes more about admin and focused work), office design needs to shift.
From the social element to the productivity of meetings, there needs to be clarity of purpose in all office design elements. That means deciding on the resources available in both informal and formal meeting spaces, such as video conferencing technology in formal settings. When the office is experiencing peak volume on T.W.A.T Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, employees need to know they have desks to work from and collaborative spaces available — which are the reason for attending the office in the first place.
T.W.A.T team benefit #5: The office becomes more conducive to the needs of the teams working there. That’s good news for their workflow.
Operations costs
Running a working office is a cost-heavy part of any organization’s budget. While there are ways to prevent overspending on an office that could be empty for two or three days of the working week, a complete shift in approach is required.
Something as simple as managing energy costs can quickly become a problem, especially since businesses waste billions of pounds every year on energy use. That’s where the smart office is again the obvious solution. With better use of office management tools, smart offices can adjust energy use depending on office capacity, which is good news for your budget.
T.W.A.T team benefit #6: Managing budgets is always critical. T.W.A.T teams, combined with smarter offices, open the door to major savings without the need to downsize office space.
Embracing the Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday working at the office
The T.W.A.T approach to working has been in the zeitgeist for a few years now. But there remains little in the way of an official playbook for adopting a T.W.A.T approach to work. That means office managers have little choice but to stay ahead of office trends for the foreseeable future, adopting new technologies and trends depending on value. T.W.A.T working means reviewing office processes across the board, ensuring remote working success through more connectivity.
CEOs with an outdated, office-centric view of work may well face a revolution. As employees demand a more flexible approach to work, the “great resignation” is a clear signal that traditional office hours are now an outdated model. Organizations sticking to that model will have a much harder time attracting top talent.
Remote working is no longer a perk, and it’s not new. It’s simply that a global pandemic proved that it’s productive and workable. T.W.A.T teams will mean rethinking the office long-term, but it won’t have to mean relocation to a smaller office space. Instead, embracing T.W.A.T teams means investing in facilities, people, and the right tech solutions.
If you want to adopt innovation, you need a clear idea of your office needs. Tokenistic gestures will not be enough if you want to retain your teams. The traditional office has been under threat since the introduction of fast internet speed and cloud-based technologies. If you want to shift your approach to the office, get in touch with Cloudbooking today. We can talk through your unique needs and guide your growth through a more responsive approach to your office T.W.A.Ts.
