The iconic board room table has been a hot topic of discussion with regards to meeting today’s conference room needs. The conversation has become an exciting exchange of fresh ideas. As meeting styles have evolved into more conversational, less formal occasions, the design challenge has focused on smaller more dynamic spaces.
Bending to flexible work puts your team in the driver’s seat of their work experience. Progressive companies are embracing the flexible work ethic with their eye on the future of work and business development. Many are casting off traditional business models in favor of workspaces that look nothing like the offices of their past.
Today’s most coveted workplaces offer a pleasant juxtaposition of work, conversation, and rest areas, streamlined for collaboration on the fly. They are the enablers of mobile working options, freeing employees and contractors alike from the shackles of their desks.
Flexibility and unstructured work indulge a simple employee need. Investing in that need can create workplaces that are as dynamic as the business world itself—and your competition. By 2030, it is estimated that 30 percent of all offices will become flexible, on-demand workspaces.
Creating an allergy-free workspace can address any underlying wellbeing issues you may not have considered. The average American works at least eight hours a day in an enclosed space, bombarded by many unseen environmental foes. Sometimes the office may seem like a second home. But for those of us with allergies and asthma, getting through the day can be silently challenging.
Keeping your workspace as clean and allergen-free as your own home becomes a key player in wellbeing around the office. As an employer, if productivity is on your agenda, there are significant advantages to maintaining a comfortable working environment for everyone, while encouraging inclusiveness and participation by collaborative involvement.
Office design is all about opportunities. And one of the best things about opportunity is innovation. Investing in your talent by utilizing the natural agility of design has come into the workplace as one of the unsung heroes of office design. The very nature of corporate environments has been changing and becoming more fluid and conversational. Work is no longer confined to one space or one desk all day long. Collaboration has become the essential component to corporate success and office environments have evolved to encompass endless possibilities for people to connect.
With these trends in mind, and talent recruitment and retention still a high priority, how does your office design support more collaborative activities? Do you need more definition within the spaces that your team utilizes the most? How can you use these trends to build trust in the most effective way and drive up engagement levels?
Office design, like any corporate endeavor, is about change and evolution. The constantly changing dynamic of work is the driving force behind the exciting office design trends and developments we blog about. Coworking spaces boomed in 2018 and continue to influence office design for talent acquisition and retention. The free-range workspace was inspired by the best of the coworking environment combined with the wide-ranging options of open plan office design.
