Lifestyle

Redefining The Office Space with Muge Yalcin

Published

5 years ago

September 7, 2021

The way we work has changed forever. Before the Coronavirus pandemic, remote working was seen as a luxury, often even regarded with some level of suspicion and disdain as an ‘easy days work.’ Fast forward to 2021, and most offices have implemented home working as an alternative work mode for employees. Everyday office work is seen as ‘outdated’ and indicates that a company doesn’t seek to accommodate its workers with a more comfortable home/life working balance.

My name is Muge Yalcin and I am a senior Property manager at Vodafone. My experience has spanned decades and I for one am not surprised by the redefinition of the workplace. I have collated and devised four tips for companies that are seeking to implement a hybrid working pattern for their employees.

I am devoted to bettering the lives of employees through streamlining repetitive processes and engineering solutions that lead to better outcomes for people and businesses. With 17 years of business experience, I have witnessed many trends within the office environment and know what solutions and strategies help companies develop their work in the digital environment.

Here are four tips to enhance and create your digital workplace.

Look into options.

There is a burgeoning demand for digital workplace options to be facilitated for employees in the post-COVID-19 economy. As a result, companies are expected to provide alternative solutions to work that are feasible and comfortable and offer opportunities for collaboration and networking with colleagues.

Championing employees in the digital workplace is crucial, and this can be achieved through creating platforms and spaces that encourage social interaction. This helps facilitate and foster a team environment in which colleagues still feel connected and a part of a wider team working towards common goals.

Empower employees and enhance wellbeing.

Empowering employees in the digital workplace may seem complicated, but attention to proven strategies and careful implementation of such tools can be achieved with positive results. Providing employees with adequate tools and technology to do their job is, first and foremost, a crucial aspect of boosting productivity and morale. This should involve polished and automated digital workspaces, desktop and app virtualization, and file sharing and team collaboration opportunities. Access to support for technical issues also helps appease employees’ anxiety about being out of the office and working remotely.

Sir Richard Branson recently has been quoted as stating, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients”.

This sense of service to your employees takes form in the digital workplace by creating digital platforms for collaborations and discussions, focusing on instant messaging tools, which are the preferred mode of contact for many home workers.

As the digital workplace seems to divide employees by distance, regular communication tools to remind employees of the company vision and goals are welcome in helping to focus teams on a common purpose. Regular, upbeat, and concise communications will help align employees with business goals and ensure engagement and productivity among the team remain high.

Evolve

No digital workplace should be dormant and unchanging, but rather an evolving platform designed by business intelligence and feedback from users and employees. This business intelligence has seen ‘desk booking’ apps available for employees who wish to attend the office. Input from employees will continually expand and modify the digital workplace as different people will want to see other things. This will see a much richer and diverse hybrid workspace that offers inspiration and motivation for all users.

Generating reports and collecting statistics can help provide a clearer picture, portrayed by accurate data representing employee feedback. Enhancing innovation and ensuring the hybrid workplace remains the pulse of employees’ inspiration is the goal. A solid commitment to digital transformation sends a clear message to employees that the company is growing and working toward innovation and change. Agility in the digital workplace reflects the need for employees to be agile and develop a commitment to learning and innovation.

Integrated digital/physical workplace

The digital workplace will evolve and grow into a versatile and varied Centrepoint for employee interaction and business functions. Hybrid workplaces may become the norm in future times and I am offering my leading business advice and solutions for my company that wants to thrive in the new marketplace. Employee and customer satisfaction remain at the forefront of my expertise agenda, and I believe the digital space can become a space that sparks creativity, innovation, and outstanding achievement.

Lifestyle

Fozia Rashid’s Vision for a Future Where Every Woman Is Heard and Respected

Published

20 hours ago

May 18, 2026

Michelle Langton

Progress often starts with someone who refuses to accept silence as the only option. Many women experience unfair treatment at work, yet feel they have nowhere safe to turn. That gap, the distance between speaking up and being supported, is where real change is still needed, and it remains one of the biggest barriers to true equality today.

Fozia Rashid knows this firsthand. After raising concerns about serious misconduct in her own workplace and losing her job as a result, she saw how isolating it can be for women who try to do the right thing. That experience pushed her to create She Speaks Out, a platform designed to give women clarity, tools, and a voice during some of the most challenging moments in their careers.

From the beginning, her aim was not to build another information site. She wanted a space where women could feel understood, where complicated processes were broken down into simple steps, and where no one felt that reporting misconduct meant stepping into a dark tunnel alone. Her HR training helped shape this approach, turning what is often overwhelming into something practical, direct, and genuinely supportive, especially for women who feel lost navigating workplace policies.

Her long-term vision stretches far beyond offering resources. Fozia wants She Speaks Out to help shift the culture around how women are treated at work. She believes that when women share their real experiences, discrimination, dismissal of their concerns, or subtle daily biases, it exposes patterns that organisations can no longer ignore. This focus on storytelling is not about sympathy; it is about awareness. Stories make the invisible visible, and visibility forces change in a way that statistics alone rarely can.

A key part of her mission is amplifying those voices so they reach people who can influence policy and workplace culture. She hopes the platform will push employers to rethink how they respond to reports, how they support employees, and how they build environments where women don’t fear retaliation for raising concerns. She wants leaders to understand that equality is not a slogan, it is a responsibility that requires honest action and genuine accountability.

Fozia also envisions She Speaks Out playing a role in larger societal change. She wants the platform to encourage companies to review their internal practices, improve reporting structures, and train managers to recognise and address problems rather than avoid them. She hopes the platform will support the push for stronger workplace protections and help challenge outdated beliefs about women’s roles, abilities, and credibility. The goal is simple: fair treatment should not depend on who you are, but on the basic respect every employee deserves.

As the platform grows, she aims to build a strong community where women can connect, support one another, and encourage those who feel unsure or unheard. A community where experiences are shared openly, not whispered privately. She believes that building solidarity among women is one of the most powerful steps toward lasting equality. When one woman speaks up, it can be dismissed. When many do, it becomes a movement that organisations cannot afford to overlook.

For Fozia, the future is not just about better policies or clearer reporting tools, though those matter. It’s about creating workplaces where women don’t have to prepare themselves for resistance every time they raise a concern. A future where safety and respect are not exceptional, but expected.

And through She Speaks Out, she is steadily pushing that future forward, giving women what she once needed most: a place to be heard, believed, and supported without hesitation, and a reminder that they never have to face these challenges alone.