Modern office with stylish furniture and vibrant decor; includes seating areas, glass flooring, and a conference room. Blue accent walls display "81," enhancing a professional ambiance.

12 September 2022

Re-designing office and workspaces in a post-pandemic world

COEL has recently been shortlisted for in the Business of the Year (More than 50 Employees) category of the Cambridge Independent SME Cambridgeshire Business Awards. Winners will be revealed at a gala dinner event on Thursday, 13th October.

In the lead up to the awards, our CEO, Alistair Rumbelow was interviewed by the Cambridge Independent about how COEL has been redesigning the post-pandemic workspace.

“Clever organisations took the time when employees were not frequenting the office as much, to make some astute and spectacular changes to the look and feel of their working environment… The professional fields may vary, but there are certain design elements which are playing a consistent part in helping create the destination workplace,” comments Alistair.

He cited versatility, colour, comfort and luxury among today’s must-haves for Coel’s clients. Today’s office is all about “lifting your senses and elevating your mood”.

He goes on to provide examples of recent COEL projects:

Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Jazz has combined fixed desks with open-plan areas and acoustic booths to offer the privacy and the quiet that many have grown accustomed to while working at home. And a selection of plants and three plush velvet sofas have been brought into the courtyard to provide another touch of home, and a space for informal chats with colleagues. See the full project here.
I-MEX (M&E) Ltd: A key element for I-MEX was injecting light into its new purpose-built workspace.“A structural glazed floor provides a window between the different levels,” notes Alistair. This provides daylight to the foyer below. Meanwhile, rooms are cantilevered off a mezzanine floor to provide private working and smaller meeting space, in addition to the larger open-plan office area. See the full project here.
BioMed Reality: BioMed focused on brand identity when switching to new office and marketing suite space at Granta Park. “Brand identity was key in all aspects of the design, seen in the adoption of the company’s logo within the interior space and the application of their corporate colour, a deep blue,” says Alistair.Views of the park’s lake and plenty of light were ensured by the windows wrapping around the space, while glazed screening partitions were installed in the floor plan to help harness natural light to illuminate corridors. Another sophisticated kitchen can be found here, along with a choice of a corner sofa or bar stools, and acoustic lighting is positioned over long tables and chairs to absorb sound while providing illumination. See the full project here.

In order to attract employees back to the workplace in a post-pandemic working world, employers must focus on wellbeing, collaboration and the needs of individual employees. Remote or hybrid working is not the first choice for everyone so the offices of today must be adaptable enough to offer solutions to varying employee and organisational needs.

Research into the new way we work

Throughout 2021, COEL conducted research with Kelly Drewery, a business psychologist from Talent Glue into how the pandemic has changed the way we work, with over 1000 participants and more than 300 businesses taking part.

The research reveals the social, psychological and physical requirements which individuals and organisations have experienced over the last couple of years. Click here to download this report and access COEL’s workplace solutions to help support businesses moving forward

Please click here to see the full article referenced above in the Cambridge Independent.