Five Global Trends That Will Affect The Workplace

The times are a changing. The technological revolution has already changed the way we live and work, and there are still changes to come. The future design of the workplace will be very different from today’s. Kinnarps, a company specializing in the design of workspaces, has produced a report with the five most outstanding trends that will have a great impact on the way we work.

A Labor Market Without Barriers

Geographic location no longer matters: the key is to identify talent and keep it, wherever it is, regardless of age, gender or culture. This growing openness and connection has created an area of vital focus in which organizations must concentrate their creative thinking: diversity. This factor is essential when creating a modern workplace environment. Likewise, intelligent design will be very important to generate workplaces and living spaces adapted to diversity.

1) Design Based On Diversity

Looking to the future, design equality and inclusive environments will be a common factor in all workplaces. In this sense, there are three major changes:

• For the first time in history, we will have four generations working together, which means that their different ways of thinking and acting must be taken into account when designing work environments.
• The fight for equality between women and men in professional life is entering a new phase. Questioning the existing status quo of design from a gender perspective will be an engine to create an inclusive work environment.
• Each person has a different way of thinking to find solutions and solve problems. A major difference is that between the introverted and the extroverted personality, and the future workplace must serve both.

These three changes, together with a more global workforce, create the basis for a design based on diversity, which considers aspects such as ability, language, culture, gender or age.

2) Sustainable And Ergonomic Professional Environment

To create a strong employer brand for the future, companies have to offer work environments tailored to both the physical and mental characteristics of people.

By creating ergonomic workplaces that make employees move actively, such as sitting desks and ergonomic chairs, the risks of work-related injuries are effectively reduced. What’s wrong with the mind? How can a workplace adapted to the development of new technologies be offered? Research shows that conventional offices result in more days of sick leave. The work environment has a great impact on the brain. The solution is to focus on the needs of each employee individually, allowing people to choose their own combinations of interactions and environments at work.

3) Combination Between Technology And Architecture

The interaction between technology and architecture is called techiture and will be an important factor in the next big design change. There are already digital solutions for more fluid forms of work. The design for workplaces adapted to human relevance, not the domain of hardware, is key to the future environment of employees.

Future corporate workspaces will look and operate in different ways. The Internet of Things, connectivity and Big Data are distancing companies from geography, allowing them to move freely. The traditional office is slowly disappearing and successful companies have to be open to accept different solutions in the workplace.

The objective is to create environments that are as interactive as possible. The offices should not only be a place where debate and creativity are encouraged, but a space in which a high-tech lifestyle is promoted in a relaxed atmosphere.

4) Collaboration

How will the companies of tomorrow work? The main obstacle for organizations will be to be transparent, build trust and create a design dialogue with employees and collaborators around the world.

Collaborate and create together, from anywhere, at any time, both in small companies and in large corporations, will affect the entire design, from small objects to complete spaces. Building a modern workplace is an extensive process for the entire company. To build a collaborative organization you need to promote a culture in the same line. The organization, technology and leadership must participate in the process.

5) Labor Mobility

Business mobility distinguishes the modern workforce, as people move constantly from one place to another and the task in question is accessible thanks to the cloud solutions, which favor communication between companies located in different countries in an agile way, simple, flexible and scalable. This also drives a change, in which the growth of independent and / or self-employed workers manifests, for example, in the form of home offices.

The vision of the traditional workplace is changing. The tendency is that they are increasingly similar to the home to attract trained employees, and offer independent and temporary workers the opportunity to mingle with the company’s staff. Employees want their workplaces to offer the same comforts they would have at home, regardless of whether it is a place to store their things, have a personal space or create a sense of community.