The workplace of the future is always being created. Every day, companies are introducing new ideas, strategies, and technologies that change how and where we work. Each year, new graduates enter the workforce with bold ideas about their workstyle preferences and needs. New research is constantly emerging that points to new ways for us to work smarter, healthier, and more effectively. Collectively, these influences are reshaping workplaces and pushing them to a future state that never stops evolving.
For years, companies were caught up in the debate about open versus closed workplaces and their respective merits. Recognizing that this debate never led to a strategic solution, companies have been ramping up investment in research and employee engagement to better understand the types of work their office spaces need to support. Even more recently, organizations are beginning to look toward other industries like education, art, hospitality, and more for design ideas that can spur innovative cultures and enrich company offices.
This turn toward cross-market design influences is indicative of a larger trend in the industry. While markets used to focus on innovating within themselves, we’re now seeing hospitals model their care experience around Apple Stores and corporate workplace strategy influencing the creation of major research centers. Companies and institutions alike are realizing that several of the design principles that enhance creativity, collaboration, wellness, and efficiency are universal when right-sized and strategically applied. They’re also learning that when used appropriately, these cross-market ideas can strengthen recruitment/retention, improve employee performance, and accelerate innovation.
Education: Channeling the Collegiate Campus Experience in the Workplace
Graduating from college and entering the workforce can be a period of dramatic transition for young employees. Not only may this transition require moving to a new city or other serious life changes, it’s often exacerbated by the fact that modern workplaces don’t promote the same experiences as college campuses. Students often spend four or more years on campuses with multidisciplinary, technology-rich learning facilities, green space, and campus walking paths that promote movement and energy. Students who have excelled in these campus environments may have trouble building connections or advancing creative ideas in workplaces that lack these elements.
Before creating their new Chicago-area headquarters, real-estate investment company CA Ventures teamed with us at CannonDesign to conduct extensive research into the plans of collegiate campuses to learn how they empower students. The team recognized that diagonal cuts across campus quadrangles could be incorporated into their workplace design to evoke campus environments while functionally connecting different areas of the office for teaming and collaboration. To integrate the green space often found on college campuses, the new workspace features a living wall that anchors both its reception area and main staff quad. These design elements help the entire workplace operate like its own campus plan, incorporating a main path that connects meeting areas and offices from East to West.
No doubt, higher education campuses offer more space and resources for creating these kinds of connections and spaces. However, organizations should be up to speed on trends in higher education design. Emerging and future generations of the workforce are learning in powerfully different campus environments than previous generations. Investing in research and design strategies that calibrate workplaces to support these generations will be critical for recruitment and retention of top talent moving forward.
Startup Culture: Give Employees Freedom to Sit, Move, Work as Necessary
Many of today’s most innovative companies were launched from remarkably un-innovative spaces like garages and basements. While none of these spaces were intentionally designed to increase innovation and creativity, they found a way to fuel ideas that went on to change the world. While there are many ways these spaces inspired this innovation, one key attribute is their ability to promote flexibility and freedom. At startups, employees are often able to work as they see fit: They can stand for phone calls, sprawl out on a couch to decompress, hold meetings outside, and close all the doors for focused work.