The workplace is changing, driven by demographic shifts, economic volatility, the pursuit of sustainability and technological advances. To increase collaboration and reduce their overall space, more companies are creating open workspaces with fewer private offices. But companies rarely achieve a decrease in their overall square footage requirements solely by shifting from private offices to open, shared space. The total square footage usually stays about the same because the amount of space required for collaborative or meeting areas generally increases when personal workspace size decreases.
Companies looking to reduce their overall space are rethinking the traditional model of providing a dedicated workplace for each employee. Today, an office with 100 employees might only require desks for 80 due to desk-sharing and teleworking. However, unless employees are out of the office two or more days a week and give up an assigned desk, real estate is usually not affected.
Creating a successful space strategy involves understanding the company’s culture, its goals and staff work styles. Understanding the company’s corporate DNA is critical to creating the right space, coupled with the right IT solutions, management training and human resource policies.
A paradigm shift in office design
Two distinct workplace cultures are emerging.
The first is found mainly in companies that are sales or consulting oriented. Their desire is to have staff out in the field with customers, not sitting in an office. So, they create environments where highly mobile workers can gather together occasionally to download and share knowledge. These workplaces may not provide dedicated space for every employee. Often, they contain unassigned touchdown areas, few offices and lots of meeting spaces.
The other manifests itself mainly in solution or knowledge oriented companies. For companies that strive for innovation, collaboration is key. They desire to have staff not only in the office but sitting together. These companies often create open environments that maximize interaction and knowledge sharing, coupled with private spaces for concentrative work and meeting areas.
A paradigm shift in office design today is the realization that the most flexible element in any space isn’t the walls or furniture, it’s the people. The need to create spaces that encourage people to move to areas designed to support specific tasks has become the focus. As space shifts from individual to collaborative use, it’s important to give people more settings to work in, which increases their options.
Many consider technology the single largest factor fuelling change in the workplace today.
If employees can now work anytime from anywhere, why do they need an office?
The answer is simple: People are social, territorial and they like to engage others. They have the innate desire to come together for camaraderie, to share information and to learn from one another. But that doesn’t have to happen 40 hours a week, so when staff do come into the office, the space needs to be engaging. That’s what counts. Designers are no longer creating environments; they are creating an experience.
Kay Sargent is Teknion’s vice-president of architecture, design and workplace strategies.
