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Hana will work with Samsung, Herman Miller, Structure Tone & Muraflex to reimagine meetings.
Over the past decade, we have witnessed a rapidly changing world of work.
We have come to expect more from where we work, searching out workplace amenities and perks that make our workdays more efficient. And we’ve come to expect the freedom to work remotely at least some of the time, leveraging today’s workplace technology to stay productive outside the office and in touch with colleagues.
And of course, over the last few months, we’ve seen our basic assumptions about how we work overturned by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
That’s why we’re excited to announce a new product council with Samsung, Herman Miller, Structure Tone and Muraflex dedicated to strategically exploring the future of work.
Let’s dive into what this new council of Samsung, Herman Miller, Structure Tone, Muraflex and Hana signals.
Introducing Hana Innovation Partners (HIP)
When we set out to create Hana, we wanted to reimagine the role of the office for professionals and enterprise companies, explicitly focusing on the much more flexible nature of work — and all the little things people need to accomplish big things in their workdays.
This mission has resonated with professionals and companies. It also resonated with some of our early partners who helped us bring each of our locations to life.
“Last year, we began to talk with some of our partners about the future of work,” says Brian Harrington, Hana’s Chief Experience Officer. “What we found was an incredible amount of complementary expertise — and a group willing to join us on our mission to re-envision how work gets done.”
The result is the Hana Innovation Partners (HIP) program, which includes representatives from top brands such as Samsung, Herman Miller, Structure Tone and Muraflex.
Together, these four companies bring together expertise in technology and collaboration (Samsung), ergonomics and design (Herman Miller), fit-out and construction (Structure Tone) and workplace configurations and acoustics (Muraflex).
This couldn’t come at a better time. COVID-19 has, almost overnight, transformed many of our assumptions about a typical workday. For the first time, a majority of office workers have experienced a full-time transition to remote work.
It hasn’t been a seamless transition. But it has underscored how quickly our assumptions about a typical workday can be radically overturned.
“The way people are working is evolving rapidly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is increasingly challenging for companies to offer the flexibility to connect and collaborate from a variety of places while also providing a great, productive workplace experience,” says Harrington.
He continues: “We’re eager for the Hana Innovation Partners program to further address in-office challenges that increase safety and team performance while exciting employees to once again meet face-to-face with their colleagues.”
The first step: Reimagining in-person meetings in a post-COVID-19 work world
COVID-19 has underscored that, for many, remote work is here to stay. Where companies once had reservations about allowing employees to work outside the office, many are now acknowledging that flexible and remote work benefits will define the new way of work.
But no matter where people work, there’s a persistent need to come together in-person at least some of the times — particularly around meetings and collaborative working sessions.
That’s why the first item the Hana Innovation Partners will tackle is how to safely and successfully hold in-person meetings after COVID-19.
“Employees realize they don’t need to be in an office to be productive, and can ‘scatter’ to whatever environment they feel most productive in,” says Harrington. But we still see a strong need for employees to effectively gather in workplaces that enable in-person work that just cannot be replicated online.”
Later this year, the Hana Innovation Partners will launch an “Ultimate Meeting Guide” that addresses key considerations around hosting meetings in the present- and post-COVID-19 era.
This guide will pull on the depth of expertise each partner offers, diving deep into topics ranging from productivity and wellness of meetings including short- and long-term space configurability options, touchless solutions, cleaning protocols, health-conscious design, video-enabled connectivity and collaboration solutions and acoustics.
Taken together, this guide will offer timely solutions to one of the most pressing needs facing the modern workforce: coming together in a safe and effective way.
This guide will signal the start of a longer-term initiative to reimagine the ways we work — and the spaces we work in — from the ground up.
“Partnering with Hana in the Hana Innovation Partners program is an opportunity to deliver new solutions that support activities in the best way possible,” says Jeff Gibson, the VP of Commercial Real Estate Sales at Herman Miller.
Learn more about the Hana Innovation Partners — and check out our latest survey on how people want to work in a post-COVID-19 world.
