5 ways the workplace will change in the next 5 years


Work trends have evolved dramatically over the past few decades and it is likely to never stop changing over the coming years. To prepare businesses for some of the possible changes, here are five ways the office will change in the next five years and how business owners can adapt to keep up with the ever changing pace at work:

1) Openness and transparency will be key

The population of the workforce are beginning to be filled with the Millennials who are a generation of ‘caring and sharing’ – having shared most of their time on social media, blogs and vlogs. In a recent study it was found that both Generations Z and Y believed honesty is the most important quality for being a good leader. With them being used to open and transparent environments outside of work, it is becoming a common demand within their working lives too. There will be no management offices dividing the workers, and teams will sit according to projects. Small businesses will benefit greatly from this as they can decrease individual spaces to shared spaces and increase user-to-workstation ratios, saving money and space.

2) Inviting customers and suppliers into the workplace

Forward-thinking management teams who invite their suppliers and customers into their office space to sit alongside their teams will be the winners in the long-term. This is already a common trait of larger corporates, who do this through Customer Experience Centres (a physical space where customers and influencers can dismantle brands and shape them according to future issues and trends). In smaller/medium enterprises, where space might be a premium, this will be achieved through sharing workspace or virtually inviting them into your meetings and discussions.

3) Focus on the core

Bringing together key skills will become more important as companies compete against the fast-moving world of technology and an open marketplace facilitated by the internet. This will lead to non-core functions such as Accounts, HR and Administration being outsourced within the organisations to keep costs down and allow focus to be on their core proposition.

4) The nine to five is dead

The office will be where the team joins together, but the work will happen all around, driven by desirables and outcomes rather than fixed time and effort. Millennials are already receiving management positions in the business, and Generation Z are due to populate the workplace by the end of the decade, likely viewing life and work as one. The office will become a place to meet colleagues for discussions and debates, meaning workspace will likely adapt towards more collaborative areas and places for said meetings. Again for business owners, this means thinking about reducing your office spaces and making this reduced space as productive as possible.

5) Workspace will be project led rather than function led

As the nature of work becomes more agile and faster, teams will need to become more flexible in where they sit and work. There will be a need to change workstations regularly to join project teams rather than stay within their functional areas.

Having a good workplace design can ensure this is done easily and sufficiently where teams can create their own spaces with functional elements – helping bring the team together a lot quicker. As much as this may benefit the team, it can also create issues for HR, raising the question of how managers will manage their development.

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