How are US workplaces tackling changing trends?

This week I sat down with Chris Salazar-Mangrum, Vice President of USAV, to talk about how COVID is affecting the workplace trends in the US. I asked Mr. Salazar-Mangrum what the current trends are in workplaces, what are the key concerns, and if there are any low budget things that people can use in their offices. The interview will be made available shortly but, in the meantime, here is a sneak peek:

What has changed?

Company culture translates into their people, which is inclusive of employee and employee safety, which now takes a different dynamic. At one point it was making sure that the right people are coming into the building so like preventing intrusion and active shooters, unfortunately – that was another employee safety metric. But now what we are seeing is the wellbeing of employees or people walking into a workspace. So, air quality was not a huge safety measure at one point but now it is so how do we measure and communicate that the area you’re walking into is safe and healthy. Now it’s not only who is the person walking in with me but also what are they bringing in.

Huddle from Home

Some of our partners have huddle from home. Your space at home reflects a collaborative huddle space that you used to have at the office. So, you have the furniture for a huddle space, as well as the displays, the video camera, the touchless technology so you can bring in your laptop and it connects to your device, to your display. You have your speakers so it’s basically like a huddle space that you would see at your office. A little higher end if you will.

Future for large venues

In the future, we will see a change in behavior with large venues. For example, with sporting events, airport security, colosseums, at least in the US, we sadly have metal detectors going into a facility, so how we layer in the thermal imaging, thermal camera, health, and safety monitoring of those types of checks with the attendees. I think that will be a longer-term solution that will actually change behaviors and be implemented into larger venues.

Learning from the past

How that will be incorporated into workspaces? I think we will see this to some degree, but I see this as here to stay, similarly to how TSA, within the States, is here to stay

That’s how events trigger, and change behavior and I think that we have to be open-minded and flexible and adapt to the changes that are to come, some with more and better technology than others but it will impact just how we live our lives.

Want to know what’s happening in Switzerland? Read our interview with Inacta here!