About Ajit Varma, Senior Real Estate Portfolio Manager, Microsoft’s Global Workplace Services India:
Microsoft’s mission is “to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more”, and Ajit Varma and his team proudly contribute to that journey. He is responsible for all the construction, fit-out and refurbishment projects undertaken at the company’s India campus.
Working with the workplace strategy team who design their spaces, they ensure the workplace solutions are designed, built and delivered to meet the unique needs of Microsoft’s businesses, enabling individuals to bring out their best at work.
How did Microsoft respond and adapt to the new ways of work?
CoVid disrupted a lot of things across various industries. Our world was no different either. Our immediate response was to ensure we maintained social distancing across our sites in line with CoVid protocols in place and created the first “HYBRID” type of work environment, where staff were enabled to work from home.
The industry, in general, had probably never considered remote work and may not have felt it was possible given the challenges with bandwidth, connectivity etc. But with CoVid came opportunities. The lockdown of the country, just to cite an example, just strengthened the need to adapt quickly. Our business groups were quick to respond and rapidly adapted to new work methods. As most industry surveys have shown, productivity was not impacted. Still, on the contrary, it saw an upward swing in the initial days, showing the strong sentiment that everyone carried to make this work.
Initially, for critical teams who needed to be at the site early on, our sites ensured that it was safe for them to do so. Periodic site sanitization, mandatory health checks while entering premises, seat booking for employees, blocking off seats not to be used as per protocols, rest bays/monitoring areas etc., were just a few things that were implemented in the beginning. Since then, we have been researching the best possible solutions to enable our employees and teams to “return to work” and are developing ideas around hybrid workplaces. However, to make these valid and relevant, we will need to wait for teams to slowly start returning to their workplaces, which is now happening in phases across our sites. I am sure there will be many data points and references then to be able to take a concerted approach for future planning scenarios. We already have interim hybrid workplace solutions in place for sites that have returned to work globally and hope to complete the research once all our major sites reach the threshold of Level 6, which would enable 100% of employees to return to work and will therefore help us to understand their experience and preferences.
Microsoft undertakes thorough research to shape the built environment of its workplaces. What have been some of the key principles?
There has been a lot of great work that is being done by teams globally to study trends for the future. In the US, we have been working with many external stakeholders, like universities, to review how CoVid and/or other infections can be spread in a work environment. Whilst infection from touch has not been seen as a major route, transition through air and close contact could.
At our sites, the state of hygiene at our facilities has been upgraded as the premises started to reopen. New sites now follow a checklist that will not only increase the level of touchless access and barrier-free access but will also look at ways to reduce airborne transmission. Much of this was already in place earlier to assist with access for our specially abled colleagues, with auto-opening doors on all major circulation routes, auto flush toilets and washbasins, automated soap dispensers etc. In many sites, we already utilise disposable recycled paper towels in favour of hot-air hand dryers as those can spread infection more easily. Measure like these was already in place.
We are now also looking at introducing pilots on UVC sanitisers at sites where employees can place high-touch devices such as laptops, phones, keyboards, etc., into a microwave-sized cabinet that will sanitize those and eliminate most viruses in seconds. New sites are introducing UVC filters into air conditioning ducting and upscaling particle filtration, air circulation and the ability to open windows where this is climate-appropriate.
Future scenarios may see staff prefer to spend less time on office premises than before. The spaces, therefore, would need to be created to support their needs accordingly. We may see the need for fewer large-scale meeting rooms but smaller-sized meeting spaces. More opportunities to find colleagues and hold ad-hoc collaboration sessions with them, workstations that may be reconfigurable into groups-for-a-day as teams come in, merge, disperse over the weeks etc. So the physical spaces will probably LOOK similar but may operate differently in the future. Simple accessories like masks and hand sanitisers are already prevalent; even post-CoVid, these are not expected to go away immediately.
Recognising that teams have been working remotely for an extended period of time, and many may prefer to continue to do that in the future too, how can our new workplaces support this trend?
Technology is here to stay, and the CoVid situation has just increased the rate at which the adoption has been done. Probably one of the key ones would be workplace mobility.
Things like an online desk or room booking systems have been developed and/or enhanced over the last many months, ensuring that anyone wanting to use the office can get what they need without needing to overhaul most of the spaces that may remain unused. Understanding also that when people DO come to the office, they will do so for improved collaboration. Meeting room technology like booking systems, video quality, cameras, etc., are being upgraded. We have some amazing technology already in place in Microsoft TEAMS that has improved collaboration in person and remotely. All of these aim at making sure that any built environment can respond to fluctuating attendance numbers as people may be less anchored to 1:1 desking than they were before and also when they work from home, they can access everything they need, as fast and as safely as they did before, whilst in the office.
Another thing that is transforming is how we can record data of people in the office, in real-time, as they move through the different areas within the office space so that the provisioning of these spaces can be much better aligned with actual usage and need. In the future, we may never say, “..we have 100 desks for 100 employees at work..” but may say, “.. our current trend shows we have 88 coming in on a Wednesday and Thursday, but only 24 on a Monday and Friday…” or any other number for that matter.
Attendance in different seasons and even times of day could be different. Even daily weather patterns could impact attendance. All this data can then be fed back to a central building management system to increase or reduce power, elevator traffic, food procurement, etc. Our offices can become super-responsive to real-time activity and predict staff behaviour to avoid wasting resources in the long run.
Can you see any elements in workplace design that will disappear?
Change is constant, and there will be elements of workspaces that will definitely continue to evolve. There will be more of some and less of others. Also, business needs will drive what is needed in team-specific spaces, and there won’t be a ‘one size fits all solution. This greater variety, supported by technology, will allow for much greater workplace individualism than before and can only enhance productivity. As a result, it is unlikely that there will be any ‘mass extinction’ of workplace elements.
Sustainability was a key factor for every company before the pandemic; has it now taken a back seat? How are companies working towards balancing sustainability with safety in the post-pandemic era?
The importance that we gave sustainability in a pre-CoVid time to what we do now is no different. Sustainability continues to be a part of Microsoft’s firm commitment to this everchanging dynamic. Microsoft remains committed to the highest levels of sustainability and Covid has not impacted that at all!
Sites have aggressive waste-management programs in full operation, and we are also looking at alternative construction methods for our new buildings. Our campus in Hyderabad has a new building under construction that has embraced the opportunity of offsite prefabrication of elements for most of the work. Similarly, on other refurbishment projects that we did, we encouraged re-using (e)waste material to create artworks, ensuring we used these safely and did not discard them unless absolutely necessary. Teams are exploring laminated timber and recycled waste construction at some other sites. Water management also is a huge part of all our projects in India.
As we committed, we are on the road to being carbon negative by 2030, and we are all collectively working towards that.