The digital revolution has finally made its full 360-turn. During the Pandemic in 2020, firms have started to work remotely due to Covid restrictions. Most offices had to close their physical offices for one to two months during the lockdown in the Philippines as mandated by the government. Ironically, the restrictions led to firms adapting technologies they know nothing about or were not open to until the pandemic came. The idea of working remotely and the rise of the digital team finally came as an adaptive response to the situation.
But the idea of the digital team is not new. Yes, adaptation to it is quite new especially to the reluctant office operations but certainly, the idea of the digital team is an old concept that started way back when the internet was first created in the 1980s. Popular brands such as Google and Facebook mainstreamed the idea of remote teams coupled with the rise of start-ups in Silicon Valley.
Working remotely means doing outputs on the staff’s pace and having liberty on where and white time to work. Managers use digital management platforms such as Asana and Slack to monitor the work and communicate with the teams using messaging devices such as Messenger, Whatsup, Skype, and emails.
Now. with the pandemic happening, architectural firms have started to adopt this kind of working environment and somehow change the behavior of the organization in terms of workflow, flexibility, and productivity. Most architectural firms are happy with the new remote working environment because it has improved the productivity of their firms. Why is this so? Why is working remotely strengthening the productivity of architectural firms? There are several reasons for the improvement of productivity and this paper will tackle three major reasons.
Flexibility
The first reason why architectural firms improve productivity when working remotely is that creatives like architects seem to yearn for flexibility. This means that each working hour is not time-bound by the 8-5 time slots. Instead, employees can choose their working hours with the bounds of finishing them on specific deadlines. Tasks are being listed weeks before deadlines and the employees have the flexibility to achieve each task at their pace.
This kind of working environment is very beneficial for creatives like architectural designers. Like any artist, architectural designers do not like to be bounded by hectic and strict schedules because their energy at work varies from one person to another. Some like to work during the day while others like to work at night. Some work fast while others work slowly. Since remote work does not require architectural designers to work with a strict schedule, the productivity of work rises, and tasks are met with a sense of liberty.
Creativity
Another reason why productivity improves when architectural firms embrace remote working is due to creativity. Creatives like architectural designers become very creative when left on their own to ponder certain design tasks. Most designers are introverted people and they tend to like to work in silence or individually. While the design is a collaborative effort, most schematics or concepts or ideas come out like an impetus wait for a jolt to arrive. This happens when a person is in a creative state which often happens when a person is alone in the car, in the bathroom, or before sleeping.
This being said, the remote working environment fits well with creative people because they are not bound by working conditions that require them to socialize. Instead, they have the liberty to interact when they want to and how they want to online.
Work Environment
The third reason why productivity improves when architectural firms opt to work remotely is because of the working environment. In the digital team scenario, designers have the freedom to choose where they want to work. It can be at the beach, in the mountainous areas, and outside the gardens or parks. The idea of not being bound by the four corners of an office and instead outside with nature makes the working environment suitable for designers like architects. Because of this, they can do their creative task better and produce more design schemes and better concepts.
Mangers of architectural firms also feel happier when monitoring work if they can choose where to do it. Instead of being in a closed office where the only airflow is air-conditioning, having the freedom to choose the workplace for managers to make them less pressured and somehow improves their patience in dealing with employees. This is very important because leading architectural firms can be crucial especially if one has to pester a creative. Having to deal with an employee online in the place of the manager’s choosing is a better scenario than having to deal with them in an enclosed space.
In conclusion, the rise of the digital team has paved the way for the improvement of productivity in the architectural firm setting because it has given liberty to working at the designer’s own space, pace, time, and creative inputs. This kind of workplace scenario fits the setting for architectural firms in the future and that is why architectural firms should embrace this with an open eye even during the post-pandemic world.