What can companies be doing better to ensure that their workplaces provide the healthiest and most efficient environments for multigenerational employees who might have widely differing attitudes and approaches toward technology and collaboration?
That’s the primary question that Jodi Williams, senior workplace specialist for the architectural firm RTKL, poses in a white paper titled “2015 Trends in the Workplace.”
“Too often, clear and compelling business strategies fail to translate into the real environment,” Williams writes. “It’s partly about recruitment and retention—providing inviting, comfortable work environments that reinforce values and make employees feel like a part of a larger mission.”
Drawing from a range of source material, Williams identifies five trends that could improve employees’ job satisfaction and productivity, and a company’s profitability.
1. Wellbeing, not just Wellness
The average American sits 7.7 hours per day. Being sedentary for that long over a prolonged period of time has negative impacts on a person’s weight gain, which in turn makes a person more vulnerable to heart disease, brain function issues, leg disorders, and even more serious health problems.
While they are working, employees usually don’t get much exposure to natural light or the outdoors, either, even as studies show that access to both can make an employee more productive and less prone to absenteeism.
“Focusing on wellness is not enough,” claims Williams. The workplace itself needs to promote physical health as well as mental and social wellbeing that includes opportunities to engage in spontaneous encounters, freedom to move between social phases, opportunities for regular exercise, noise levels similar to those in nature, and meaningful change and sensory variability.
Designing a psychologically healthy workplace includes providing places of refuge. There should be a focus on culture and emphasis on professional and social interaction. The workplace should also offer views of the outdoors, and “regenerative” spaces indoors with views of plants, nature, fish, or fire.
Williams suggests that companies interested in workplace wellbeing would benefit from exploring Delos Building Wellness’ WELL Building Standard—a first-of-its-kind protocol for establishing human wellness within the built environment.
2. Staunching the Baby Boomer Retirement Tsunami
Workplaces are more diverse than ever, with as many as five generations working together in some companies. While that mixture is generally good news for companies, it can also create organizational and management friction, to say nothing of the disruption being caused by 10,000 Americans turning 65 years old every day.
Older Americans are choosing to postpone retirement, or at the very least work part time. And a growing number of companies, in an effort to persuade older workers to stay on longer, are extending their mandatory retirement ages, some to age 75. But companies must also face the reality that older workers are going to step aside at some point. So what are these companies doing to retain and cultivate their best younger talent?
“The workplace environment does matter when employees select a position,” Williams says. Companies need to consider what type of talent they are trying to attract and what types of spaces will help draw these people in and keep them in the organization.
Williams notes that companies are now making human resource decisions that accommodate multiple generations. That means addressing such issues as workplace ergonomics, technology, mentoring and knowledge transference, and how different generations prefer to collaborate.
She says that younger generations prefer workplaces that support knowledge. It is also important for companies to create flexibility for a varying workforce that might include more part-time workers and consultants. “We expect to see more hoteling type scenarios,” Williams predicts.
3. Having Enough Space to Collaborate
Collaboration, writes Williams, “continues to be a key emphasis for workplace design.” But companies need to decide what kind of collaboration works best for them and their employees. Architects and designers, therefore, must gain a better understanding of their clients’ organizational structures, particularly the role that meetings play in their business functions, to design offices with sufficient and large-enough meeting spaces as not to impede the collaborative and creative processes.
4. Connecting through Technology
At a time when more people work from home or remotely from a company’s offices, technology enables collaboration. But mobility isn’t always as simple as it looks. Williams notes that many companies still struggle with providing pervasive Wi-Fi; with digital security; and with providing tools that support in-person or online collaboration.
“Mobility is about more than just BYOD [bring your own device],” writes Williams. And real technology flexibility is going to impact an office’s design, furniture, software, and device selection, as well as workflow and remote accessibility.
5. Working Everywhere and Nowhere
Worker mobility is causing companies to rethink what kind of real estate they require, and whether long-term investments in leases or ownership are cost effective anymore.
Williams identifies options that companies now have at their disposal, such as “serviced offices” with short-term leases for smaller work groups; “speculative suites” within existing offices that can be up to 10,000 sf; and subleases of ready-to-use offices within buildings.
Williams points to “coworking” facilities that offer a variety of workspaces and basic supplies, designed to attract a mix of individuals for specific periods of time. These kinds of office situations are set up, she says, to create “synergistic” communities that bring together people from various backgrounds.
There’s also “Liquid Space,” an online company that enables its members to locate and book workplaces when they need them. (On its website, Liquid Space offers options for small and large meeting rooms, training rooms, price offices, open desks, coworking spaces, “touchdown” spaces, team spaces, and hotel meeting spaces. All of which are leasable by the hour or day.)
Related Stories
Retail Centers | Feb 24, 2023
Santiago Calatrava unveils plans for a luxury retail and office complex in Düsseldorf, Germany
Renowned architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, along with the CENTRUM Group, has unveiled plans for Calatrava Boulevard, a luxury retail and office complex in Düsseldorf, Germany. Running parallel to Königsallee and connecting with the Steinstrasse station, Calatrava Boulevard will incorporate and connect to the boulevard’s existing buildings.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Feb 16, 2023
Insights from over 300 potential office-to-residential conversions
Research from Gensler finds that, surprisingly, the features that result in an unpleasant office often make for a superlative multifamily product.
High-rise Construction | Feb 15, 2023
Bjarke Ingels' 'leaning towers' concept wins Qianhai Prisma Towers design competition
A pair of sloped high-rises—a 300-meter residential tower and a 250-meter office tower—highlight the Qianhai Prisma Towers development in Qianhai, Shenzhen, China. BIG recently won the design competition for the project.
Office Buildings | Feb 12, 2023
Smyrna Ready Mix’s new office HQ mimics the patterns in the company’s onsite stone quarry
Designed by EOA Architects to showcase various concrete processes and applications, Smyrna Ready Mix's new office headquarters features vertical layering that mimics the patterns in the company’s stone quarry, located on the opposite end of the campus site. The building’s glass and concrete bands are meant to mirror the quarry’s natural contours and striations.
Office Buildings | Feb 9, 2023
Post-Covid Manhattan office market rebound gaining momentum
Office workers in Manhattan continue to return to their workplaces in sufficient numbers for many of their employers to maintain or expand their footprint in the city, according to a survey of more than 140 major Manhattan office employers conducted in January by The Partnership for New York City.
Giants 400 | Feb 9, 2023
New Giants 400 download: Get the complete at-a-glance 2022 Giants 400 rankings in Excel
See how your architecture, engineering, or construction firm stacks up against the nation's AEC Giants. For more than 45 years, the editors of Building Design+Construction have surveyed the largest AEC firms in the U.S./Canada to create the annual Giants 400 report. This year, a record 519 firms participated in the Giants 400 report. The final report includes 137 rankings across 25 building sectors and specialty categories.
Codes and Standards | Feb 8, 2023
GSA releases draft of federal low embodied carbon material standards
The General Services Administration recently released a document that outlines standards for low embodied carbon materials and products to be used on federal construction projects.
Giants 400 | Feb 6, 2023
2022 Reconstruction Sector Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. building reconstruction and renovation sector
Gensler, Stantec, IPS, Alfa Tech, STO Building Group, and Turner Construction top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest reconstruction sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Feb 3, 2023
Top Workplace/Interior Fitout Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Firms for 2022
Gensler, Interior Architects, AECOM, STO Building Group, and CBRE top the ranking of the nation's largest workplace/interior fitout architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Multifamily Housing | Jan 23, 2023
Long Beach, Calif., office tower converted to market rate multifamily housing
A project to convert an underperforming mid-century office tower in Long Beach, Calif., created badly needed market rate housing with a significantly lowered carbon footprint. The adaptive reuse project, composed of 203,177 sf including parking, created 106 apartment units out of a Class B office building that had been vacant for about 10 years.