The Culture Gap: Working Apart, Feeling Apart
We begin with the most urgent and widespread challenge: the shift to decentralised work.

In the UK, as of early 2025, 28% of employees are working in a hybrid pattern, with 13% fully remote. The majority (59%) remain office-based positioning hybrid as the dominant flexible model. On paper, this shift supports autonomy and work-life balance. In practice, it’s creating new cultural disconnect.

Without shared space, organisational coherence, loyalty and agility suffer. Teams become siloed. Trust declines. Knowledge transfer stalls. The human interactions that once fuelled innovation and mentorship simply don’t happen as often, if at all.

Culture thrives through intentional action. Tailored workplace design is a fundamental part of the solution.

There are six key aspects essential to navigating this new landscape and ensuring your culture remains strong, aligned, and future-ready:

Why it matters:
The old command-and-control model is out. Today’s leaders are expected to be visible, emotionally intelligent, and genuinely connected to their people. Without transparency and empathy, leadership feels distant and culture becomes performative.

Design solution:
Design to break down barriers. Diversity of settings is key, marry closed offices with visible, approachable touch-down areas. Create informal settings where leaders can show up, listen, and lead in ways that feel real not rehearsed. Proximity fuels trust.

In the shift to hybrid, we’ve lost the casual encounters that once shaped culture, built relationships naturally, the corridor chats, desk-side debates, and spontaneous sparks of creativity. Digital platforms keep us connected but they don’t build shared experiences.

Design solution:
Culture happens in the in-between moments. Design your workplace to make these moments possible and elevated with inviting flow spaces, visible routes between teams, and communal touchpoints that encourage informal collisions. Spontaneity can be designed for.

Design solution:
Trust grows through presence. Create neutral, inclusive spaces that bring people together across functions, not just for meetings, but to share ideas and build mutual understanding. Real culture doesn’t form in silos.

Why it matters:
You can’t learn what good looks like from a distance. Junior staff miss the subtle cues, overheard conversations, and everyday behaviours that shape growth, identity, and role modelling. Seeing role models in action is crucial.

Design solution:
Let’s be honest real mentoring needs in-person interaction. Design layered team neighbourhoods mixing experience levels and encouraging shared time. Create zones for observation, dialogue, and informal coaching. The next generation learns by seeing it done.

Copying the design and aesthetic of industry peers might feel like a safe bet but cookie-cutter workplaces are a hidden risk. Spaces that aren’t purpose-built around your unique culture and values won’t inspire loyalty or attract top talent. Worse still, they can lead to disengagement, dilute your culture, and stall business growth. In the war for talent, a generic workplace offers no point of difference, no sense of identity, and no connection to a bigger purpose.

At Basha-Franklin, we don’t just design workplaces, we craft environments that are authentically yours. Spaces that bring your people together, strengthen your culture, and fuel long-term success.

Now more than ever, the workplace must be a strategic asset, one that strengthens culture, supports your people, and helps your business thrive.
Don’t default to what’s familiar. Don’t settle for safe.
Design with purpose. Design for culture. Design for the future.
Partner with Basha-Franklin to create a workplace that works - because it means something.