WORKTECH' 17 THE FUTURE OF WORKPLACE

I attended a Worktech event in Hong Kong today.

The day was packed with interesting presentations and panel discussions about the future of work and especially the future of the workplace.  Key themes included digital transformation, AI, wellness and flexibility.

“By 2025 Millennials will represent 75% of the workforce so how will the workplace of the future attract, retain and maximise the potential of this generation?”  Millennials expect the workplace to be interesting, stimulating, interactive, agile and fun.   To support this change we will see a continued shift from service and operations to customer and employee experience. 

Companies who create a great employee experience and support interaction and collaboration tend to be more innovative,  and more innovative companies are more successful / profitable.  

In terms of wellness, exposing staff to nature and encouraging them to be more mobile and walk around are proven to positively impact wellness.

In terms of flexibility, technology will enable staff to better locate vacant desks, locate particular staff they want to connect with as well real time information about the availability of amenities such as washrooms, canteen space, break out areas etc.  In the future agile and responsive work environments will adapt in real time to support staff usage of the space.  "By 2025, 30% of commercial office space will be flexible, managed or co-working space."

Scaling up from individual workspaces to buildings, we will see more SMART Buildings with improved Building Management Systems to control and adapt security, vertical transportation, power, lighting and maintenance.

At the more macro scale SMART cities will mix business, residential, retail and leisure in close proximity to blur the boundaries of work / life, rather than the traditional zoning of space that we are used to.  SMART Cities will be digitally connected and data driven. We will move from ownership to a rental economy where people buy what they need, when they need it, such as transportation.

Overall, we will see more change in the work environment over the next 5 years that we have seen over the last 50 years!