Office v Remote – Which is Best?

Maybe it’s about a healthy mix of both.

For organisations who successfully pivoted to a remote first working model during the pandemic, the struggle to encourage teams back to the office is real. The lure of freedom and flexibility to work from (almost) anywhere has meant workers are more inclined to swap long commutes to dreary offices in favour of virtual meetings from their chosen location.

Despite the devastating nature of how these changes came about, remote first working has helped streamline many a business while improving employee performance–research by ONS suggests that when we work from home we are better focused and more effective in our work. An unexpected yet useful discovery for all.

Of course, not everyone’s lifestyle, home set up or social needs are met by working from home. The lack of team connection, face to face opportunities to collaborate and share space also has its downsides. Some companies are even going as far as enforcing a return to the office, although with some resistance.

It’s clear, there is no easy one-size-fits-all response to this post-pandemic dilemma, that said could less force and more compromise be a more positive way forward? In the long run, allowing employees the choice could foster a deeper sense of company loyalty and dedication to the job. With the new flexible UK working laws announced for April 2024 one thing is for sure–the hybrid model is not going away anytime soon.

Perhaps striking a healthy balance between the two has the most benefit for business. We don’t claim to have the answer to this conundrum but we do know how to help create welcoming and inspiring spaces!

Maybe, just maybe, creating a welcoming and inspiring office space could encourage more frequent office working and offering the option of a comfortable home office environment could boost a team’s performance whilst giving them a healthier mix of work/life focus when it’s needed. It seems that a sense of trust and choice could go a long way.

To give your office that welcoming vibe here’s some firm office favourites from the Grain office furniture range plus some handy ideas for amazing home office environments to support your home workers too.

The Work Space

The work space can be the most complex of the office furniture to get right. From finding the right dimensions to fit the space to choosing the right colour to investing in durability. Whatever you choose, your investment should last the test of time, adapt to your space easily and blend with your chosen colour scheme and office decor. Our Brenin Desk is a great choice in almost all scenarios. With a choice of a more traditional oak veneer finish and six different lino-coloured tops in earthy tones this is a firm office favourite. The Brenin’s modest yet stylish Scandinavian design creates a sense of space and ease, so your people can focus on doing their best work.

Need a Bespoke Solution?

We can work with you to design a custom workspace that meet the needs of your specific office layout and team – chat firsthand with our designers to create a bespoke workspace to meet your team’s needs and office aesthetic.

The Meeting & Community Space

The versatility of the Brenin Dining Table means that it can easily adapt to the needs of the space – a popular choice for meeting rooms and community or team spaces, including our own. Have a play with the Brenin Table Configurator to get a view of the end look based on sizing and finish, choose either oak veneer or a coloured lino top, we have six earthy tones available. Plus download this handy seating capacity PDF to check which dimensions are best based on the number of people to be seated. This is also a useful guide for choosing which Brenin Bench would fit well with your chosen table size.

The Wall Space

Our Avon Wall Mounted Shelving comes in a variety of sizes from the Avon Mini, perfect for corners and tight spaces, to the Avon One tier shelf ideal for a small feature area or the additional tiered levels of the Avon Two, Avon Three and Avon Five units – these are all suitable to turn a bare, unused wall into either a useful exposed storage space or a main feature wall in your office. Whatever the space available our Avon Shelving can easily be adapted and tailored to work for you and your team plus it’s super easy to assemble and will last a lifetime.

Bespoke Office Furniture

We can tailor our furniture to fit perfectly in your office space – all our pieces can be designed to meet your size, colour and finish specifications. Our design team are on hand to support and work with you to meet your needs. We can also offer trade discounts, get in touch to learn more.