Embracing the future of work

In the fall of 2021, as the pandemic subsided and people began to reemerge from their home offices, UBC’s Faculty of Medicine, like virtually every other institution, faced a new world. People had grown accustomed to working from home, and the “hybrid work model,” once a fantasy of the future, was here.

But how to do it? The university (from the Latin universitas, “a whole”) is quite literally the sum of its parts; it depends on teamwork and the free exchange of ideas. Within the Faculty, every unit consists of teams that work in close collaboration to pursue their mission. So any hybrid work model must include a physical hub.  

“Our goal was to make the physical workspace attractive and help people feel that the commute and extra effort to leave their homes is worthwhile,” says Michelle Neilly, the Faculty’s director of Space Planning and Facilities Management (SPFM).

Neilly, alongside Shanda Jordan Gaetz, the Faculty’s managing director, engaged in a pilot project to reimagine the workspaces in the Dean’s Office on the UBC Vancouver campus — with an emphasis on collaboration and innovation.

“We don’t want people coming to the office just to participate in Zoom meetings all day,” says Gaetz. “We want them to interact and realize the benefits of an office setting.”

There are two sites — the Instructional Resources Centre (IRC) and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health (DMCBH) — which offer a mix of amenities, including meeting and collaboration spaces, single-occupancy and shared offices, individual desks and informal gathering spaces.

The teams based in the Dean’s Office — for example SPFM and the Office of Creative and Communications — use an online scheduler to book their spaces, often to coincide with other teams. Most teams average two days per week at either the IRC or DMCBH.

This efficient model has allowed the Faculty to replace old work stations tailored for individuals with collaborative open spaces that provide a variety of options, depending on the type of work they are doing on that particular day. As a result, more staff can be accommodated in the same spaces while maintaining the same physical footprint on campus.

The Faculty has also created tools and resources for staff and faculty members to help make the transition as smooth as possible.

“The shift to hybrid work has been a revelation,” says Sarah Stenabaugh, communications manager with the Office of Creative and Communications. “With better tools and more flexibility around where and how we work, I feel like it’s easier than ever before to collaborate within and across teams and units.”

The model remains in the pilot stage, but the early returns are very encouraging.