The pandemic has fundamentally changed workplace strategy. The new office standard will likely become a fluid model with a combination of at-home and in-office work models. While some companies are embracing change, others are hesitant to eschew the old ways. However, Rick D'Amato, design director of workplace at LPA Design Studios, says that the biggest mistake that companies will make is to return to their former office strategy.

"The biggest mistake is when companies decide to go back to business as usual, instead of exploring how the pandemic has impacted their workplace strategy and the ways they can use these lessons to make their business better," D'Amato tells GlobeSt.com. "Some companies plan to open their doors and see what happens, even if it means losing employees, which shows an incredible lack of concern for their people and their business."

He envisions a future were employees are not restrained to their desks in either an office or home setting. This is an more progressive take on workplace strategy than existed in the past, even among companies that already had a hybrid model. "We're designing spaces to be completely flexible from a technology and infrastructure standpoint and anchoring that design around how companies and their employees operate," says D'Amato. "This allows everyone to work exactly the way they want at any given time in a seamless way. Giving employees the freedom to choose an optimal workspace for any given task results in immense user satisfaction. This is an important lesson we've learned from the pandemic and it's critical that companies take advantage of it."