There’s a great article in Work Design Magazine about designing the modern office. Today’s workforce spans multiple generations and incorporates a wide variety of work styles and composition.
Employees within a single office can have age spreads of 50 years and roles can vary from full time to contractor. Then there are the folks that have permanent offices and people that work remotely, and then a variety of arrangements somewhere in the middle.
The article does a nice job of summarizing how we got here. Factors like cost control, technological advances, demands for work/life balance, and an emphasis on wellness all played a part in forcing the working environment to evolve.
There are some great tips for what both employees and landlords can do to provide a truly responsive and functional space for productive work. It starts with focusing on the employee and making retention a key driver. From there, emphasize flexibility and the ability to provide a variety of environments for employees to habituate. Finally, leverage technology to provide the ability to engage from anywhere while also being sensitive to cybersecurity protocols.
Employers can make their companies “stickier” and improve retention rates by thinking about these issues as part of their Human Resources strategy. Landlords can support these efforts by providing buildings that are responsive to these needs.
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