Workplace Automation: What does it really mean for your office?

Open-concept Office: The Most Important Points at a Glance

What is an open-concept office?

An open-concept office (or open-plan office) is a contiguous office area in which more than ten employees work in an open space without floor-to-ceiling walls. It differs from a cubicle office in its open structure and from purely open-space areas in that it has clearly defined functional zones.

How does an open-concept office differ from a traditional office?

Office types can be classified based on how the space is divided. From cubicle offices with individual rooms to combination offices and open-concept offices, the openness of the space increases gradually.

A modern open-concept office combines open workspaces with activity zones—areas each designed for a specific task. It is precisely this zoning that distinguishes this well-thought-out concept from a simple desk arrangement.

For hybrid teams, an open floor plan makes particular sense. When part of your workforce is working from home, shared workspaces allow for much more efficient use of space than permanently assigned individual offices.

What are the pros and cons of open-concept offices?

Open-concept offices offer short lines of communication and high space efficiency, but their main drawbacks are noise and a lack of private spaces. The balance between these two factors determines whether the space is productive or stressful.

What are the advantages of an open-concept office?

The advantages of an open-concept office lie in collaboration and cost savings. Teams can easily coordinate with one another; these discussions take place without the need to schedule appointments, and new employees are able to integrate more quickly.

Added to this is the financial benefit. An open-concept office with shared workstations significantly reduces per-capita office costs, especially in companies where a high percentage of employees work from home.

What are the disadvantages of an open-concept office?

The biggest drawback of open-concept offices is the noise level. Conversations, phone calls, and keyboard clicks all blend together, and it is precisely this acoustic distraction that is one of the most common reasons why concentration suffers in an open-concept office.

In a controlled laboratory experiment, a research team at Bond University demonstrated that typical open-concept office noise increases negative mood by 25% and the physical stress response by 34%—as measured by heart rate and skin conductance—after just eight minutes of noise exposure. In real-world office settings, where employees are exposed to these noise levels for hours on end, these effects are correspondingly more pronounced. (Sander et al., Journal of Management & Organization, 2021)

Open-concept office layouts also significantly reduce face-to-face communication. In two field studies conducted with Fortune 500 companies, the volume of face-to-face interaction dropped by about 70% after the transition to an open-concept layout, while email and instant messaging traffic increased sharply. People who are constantly visible to everyone tend to withdraw inwardly and turn to digital channels. (Bernstein & Turban, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Harvard Business School, 2018). The availability of private spaces is therefore an important factor in well-being.

How do I design a modern open-concept office?

A productive and employee-friendly open-concept office is created through spatial zoning based on activity, effective soundproofing, and space planning based on actual usage data. However, furniture and rules alone are not enough if the basic layout of the space does not suit the way people work.

How does zoning work in an open-concept office?

Zoning divides the open space into areas for different activities. This principle stems from the activity-based working concept, in which each type of work is assigned its own appropriate space:

This allows employees to choose a workspace that suits their current task and ensures they have the best possible conditions there.

What type of soundproofing is suitable for an open-concept office?

Effective soundproofing in an open-concept office is achieved through sound-absorbing materials and physical barriers. The combination of elements on the ceiling, on the floor, as well as room dividers and large plants reduces the noise level.

Acoustic panels on the ceiling and walls, sound-absorbing carpeting and rugs, and enclosed phone booths for video calls significantly reduce noise levels.

In cases where noise levels remain high despite these measures, the cause usually lies in the use of the space itself.

How does Desk Booking help optimize space in an open-concept office?

Desk Booking provides the data needed to plan an open-concept office according to actual needs. Rather than relying on assumptions, booking and occupancy data show which areas are regularly in use and which, by contrast, remain empty.

This leads to specific ways to adapt the space that allow for the redistribution and management of its use. For example, if the area designated for quiet work is consistently overbooked while spaces for collaboration remain empty, this is a measurable indicator that the layout needs to be redesigned.

PULT provides the necessary occupancy data: This allows you to analyze the use of your office space, and employees can reserve their seats in the appropriate zone.

How to Turn Your Open-Concept Office Into a Productive Workplace

An open-concept office becomes productive through zoning based on activity, effective soundproofing, and space planning based on actual usage data. The open space is preserved, and its weaknesses are eliminated through the right structure.

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Huddle Meeting: The Basics

What is a huddle meeting?

A huddle meeting is a short, structured team discussion of a fixed duration (10 to 15 minutes) that takes place daily. The goal is to coordinate efforts. Discussions should be held in separate follow-up meetings. Each team member answers the same three questions:

The concept originates from Scrum, where the daily huddle is known as the daily standup. It is now also used by HR, operations, and sales teams, as well as cross-functional teams that coordinate across locations.

What is the proper format for a huddle meeting?

The huddle meeting format requires three key conditions to be effective: strict adherence to the schedule, the assignment of a facilitator, and a fixed list of participants.

What changes in the team huddle meeting in a hybrid office?

In teams where some members are in the office and others are working remotely, three issues arise that could undermine the format: remote participants become passive listeners, discussions in the plenary session get out of hand, or technical problems delay or prolong the meeting.

Checklist for Hybrid Team Huddle Meetings:

Clear hybrid work policies are essential for this model to work for everyone involved.

What legal considerations must companies keep in mind during their daily huddle meetings?

Daily huddle meetings count as work time and must be documented as part of time tracking. This also applies to brief 10-minute check-ins.

If you record video huddles, you need a GDPR-compliant legal basis and must inform participants in advance. If the huddle format is used for regular performance monitoring, a company agreement may also be required.

How to Make Huddle Meetings a Permanent Part of Your Hybrid Team

A huddle meeting is only effective when time management, structure, and the facilitator's role work together seamlessly. In a hybrid work environment, a fourth factor comes into play: transparency about who is working, when, and from where. Daily check-ins help to improve the employee experience because coordination routines become reliable and transparent for everyone.

Use PULT to see where your colleagues are working

PULT shows you at any time who is in the office and who is working remotely. You can also see your colleagues' scheduled attendance and receive reports on your teams' attendance. Desk booking, room booking, visitor management, and office insights are all integrated into a single platform.

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Office Organization: The Basics

What does office organization involve?

Office organization encompasses the physical layout of the workspace, filing systems, and day-to-day office procedures. It addresses three things at once: where documents are stored, how workstations are assigned, and the rules by which the team operates. A well-organized office runs smoothly over the long term without the need for daily reminders.

Most attempts at office organization fail because they lack sustainability. Checklists and reminders work for a few days, but then the old habits return. The reason: A rule without a system always depends on the discipline of each individual. A system, on the other hand, maintains order on its own because it specifies where things belong and who is responsible for them.

How do I set up an effective filing system in the office?

An effective filing system organizes documents according to a single, clearly defined principle. Three systems have proven effective:

The clean desk policy also forms the basis for a sustainable filing system. If every desk is cleared at the end of the workday and every document has a designated place, those piles of paper that later become impossible to trace back to anyone never accumulate in the first place.

Label each folder and compartment clearly, and establish a rule for who puts documents back in their proper place. These three points will keep your filing system organized, even as your team grows.

What filing systems are suitable for everyday office work on the computer?

To organize your files on your computer, you need a flat folder structure with clear naming conventions. Deep nesting, on the other hand, tends to waste time and leads to duplicate files. Three rules will help keep your structure clean:

The division between paper and computer is as follows:

How is hybrid work changing the way offices are organized?

Hybrid work shifts the focus of office organization from filing to space and attendance planning. As soon as part of your team isn’t on-site every day, desks sit empty, meeting rooms are booked remotely for the coming days, and no one knows for sure who will be in the office on a given weekday. Office organization thus directly impacts the daily planning of the entire team.

How do I organize desk sharing and meeting rooms in a hybrid office?

Shared workspaces only work if there are established booking rules. Without them, you’ll run into exactly the kinds of friction you’d most likely want to avoid: disputes over desks and meeting rooms that are either overcrowded or booked but empty. The foundation is laid by binding rules for workspace sharing, which specify how long a desk remains reserved and what happens at the end of the day.

When it comes to meeting rooms, the problem usually lies in the booking process itself. A large room is reserved for just two people, while a small one is overbooked. Automated meeting room management solves this by checking bookings and rebooking them as needed.

How do I organize my office when employees are also working from home?

If you want to organize your office while part of the team is working from home, you need constant coordination between both locations.

Once current and planned availability is visible to the team regardless of location, desks, meetings, and handoffs can be scheduled without everyone having to check with each other individually.

Systematic Office Organization: How to Keep Your Daily Office Routine Running Smoothly

Office organization requires clear rules for shared workspaces and a planning system that provides visibility into attendance and space utilization. PULT automatically detects your colleagues’ presence, enables your team to plan and book in advance, and helps ensure that all resources are allocated fairly:

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