The office designed by IT company WebSupport won the Office as the DNA of the Company category. (source: Courtesy of Office Roka)
The novel coronavirus pandemic brought economic life in Slovakia to a halt overnight in March, and companies had to cope with the new situation. They increased the safety and health protection of their employees, cancelled in-person meetings and switched to online operations. Home office has become the new normal for those with jobs that can be done outside of the office.
“The home office genie was let out of the bottle and it will not go back in,” Ladislava Molnárová, talent acquisition partner at Amrop Jenewein, told The Slovak Spectator. “Home office has become the new norm overnight and has ceased to be seen as just an employee benefit.”
While the coronavirus pandemic has brought about the largest remote work trial in human history and could be the catalyst for a working-from-home revolution, real estate experts do not expect an end to office work.
“We will definitely need offices in the future, but their purpose will change. They will be a place for cooperation, building relationships, education and support for creativity and innovation,” said Simona Slaninová, senior consultant in the office rental team at Cushman & Wakefield in Slovakia.
Although about 50 percent of employees of some companies still work from home, she believes this is only temporary and employees will go back to working at offices. But offices will undergo considerable digitisation and automation.
No end to open-plan offices or desk sharing
The coronavirus certainly does not mean the end of open-plan offices and desk sharing either.
