The Many Faces of Workplace

A construction trailer, a restaurant, a day care, a warehouse, and an apartment.

What do these have in common?

They are places people work.

Our traditional definition of Workplace has evolved. Gone are the days of Working Girl, Mad Men, Office Space and the traditional office environment. Today's workforce, whether they be "Desked" or "Deskless" demands a more flexible, more agile, more engaging work environment.

Organizations, now, more then ever, must invest in the work environment, as a way to demonstrate to their employees a commitment to not only their performance but their well-being and experience.

Historically, "Desked" environments have been a relatively narrow definition. Most would call them "office space". The typical description of this has become open office planning, systems furniture, intentionally modular design intended to allow for reconfiguration. From a consumption standpoint, the idea is that these spaces were designed to last seven years, the average length of an office lease.

Today, "Desked" environments mean so much more. In addition to traditional office space, we now include laboratories, both wet and dry. We include service facilities, such as call centers, repair centers, or even production facilities. Any environment in which the worker has a dedicated work space where they perform tasks, whether they be administrative or functional, is a "Desked" environment.

How do we ensure that these environments are high quality? We look beyond the function. True, all work environments must function. If the employee does not have the tools to do their job, than the environment will not allow them to be productive and efficient. But the experiential quality of the space drives the employee satisfaction.

Ironically, we already know how to do it. The same factors that have long been studied in traditional Desked environments simply need to be applied to non-traditional Desked and Deskless environments.

• Noise
• Temperature
• Adequate Space/Privacy
• Workstation or Furniture
• Natural Light
• Air Quality
• Views Outside
• Access to Outdoors
• Overall Aesthetics
• Access to Amenities

There is nothing on this list that is ground-breaking. But, the question is, if we are building a restaurant, how many of these factors are considered for the restaurant staff? What about in a data center? Or a day care? Or a warehouse? Historically, those have been purely functional spaces, focused on the customer and/or functional experience, instead of the employee.

So how do we find a new path? We start by changing our mindset to consider every one of these spaces part of Workplace. We then bring great Intention to the conversation, and realize that every decision we make in these environments must be Intentional and considerate of the people who work there. We must balance those considerations with all of the traditional considerations.

If we are truly asking employees to be their best, we must give them environments that demand that level of performance.