Back in October, Jack Weber posted a blog on GS&P Dialogue titled "What’s Driving Change in Workplace Design." In it, he discussed some of the key factors spurring the latest changes in workplace design: the increasing cost of real estate, the shift in employee demographics and the inevitability of change. The fourth driver, which he astutely observed to actually be as much an enabler as it is a driver, is technology. As architects and designers, we often ask: What's the catalyst for open, collaborative offices becoming so popular so fast? And what's allowing us to successfully create these spaces for our clients?
We talk plenty about workplace design theories and practices, but now let's discuss the role of technology in motivating and facilitating the workplace design revolution. Most "technology talk" is associated with Generation Y - or Millennials, or even "Digital Natives" – born in the 1980s and early 1990s. Certainly, that generation bears the stigma of being technology-obsessed, never able to set down their iPhone or iPad, always needing to be "connected." And Millennials are quickly starting to fill up offices around the globe. In fact, a study by the Business and Professional Women's Foundation in April 2011 found that by 2025 (yes, that's just 13 years away), Generation Y will account for 75% of the world's workforce. And they're not leaving their fondness for technology at the office doorstep. A 2011 survey of 2,800 members of the "Digital Native" generation by Johnson Controls Global WorkPlace Innovation found that, in an ideal workplace, Digital Natives said they would need constant, immediate access to technology along with a collaborative office environment and technological support for an easy transition between work and home.
But it's gradually becoming clear that all of us, regardless of age or experience level, are catching on to the many benefits of today's constant connectivity. When used in the right way, technology boosts efficiency and productivity, maximizes mobility and flexibility and creates countless opportunities for small businesses and huge corporations alike. It's what's allowing us to eliminate boundaries in our offices and create the open, collaborative workspaces that are being proven to improve companies' bottom lines and increase employees' job satisfaction rates.
Fortune magazine contributor Andrew Lainge recently published a fantastic article about the future workplace. He said:
The mobility we now have allows individuals to choose how and where they work best. A flexible work environment can balance the needs for individual work with the need for interaction. The advent of untethered technology and mobile ways of using space has all but eliminated the challenge of deciding between openness versus enclosure when designing a workplace … Furthermore, the hybrid workplace can take advantage of technology to combine face-to-face and virtual collaboration - both within the office and remotely.
In one of GS&P's latest Corporate + Urban Design projects, the team designed a corporate office renovation for the Tampa headquarters of SYKES Enterprises. We planned and designed the entire space with 100% wireless technology – every phone and every computer, with the exception of hard-wire connections for meeting-room A/V components – so employees are able to make the most of their workplace by moving freely between private workstations, cafes and group meeting areas, while never losing their Internet or phone connection. A different Johnson Controls study supported such design, saying "office workers across several generations expect to spend more time working in team environments with collaborative technologies," a change that is "tied to a decrease in the amount of time that office workers expect to spend at their desks, on the phone, or in traditional meetings rooms."
New IT developments are also enabling companies to eliminate the boundaries between their offices and the rest of the world. Virtual technologies like video conferencing enable work-from-home and telecommuting opportunities and also create, in essence, a global workplace. Employees can virtually transport someone from the other side of the world to the inside of a meeting room in an instant. At GS&P, we use such technology to maintain contact with colleagues working in different offices throughout the country and with clients across the globe, including the SYKES corporate office during the planning and design process.
It's important to remember that today's ever-changing, ever-growing list of new technologies (though sometimes overwhelming) is a large part of what's enabling us to make such tremendous strides in workplace design. Our team is working to capitalize on these developments and bring offices more connectivity and mobility, with fewer boundaries and limitations. We're making progress in leaps and bounds, and every generation can look forward to more exciting innovations as the workplace design revolution continues.
Has your organization altered its workplace design to account for technology changes? How has technology changed the way you work?