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No More Filing Cabinets
As hard as it is for me to imagine, in the new office design trend an employee’s home base within an organisation is no longer a fixed desk space but simply a storage locker. Mail is received at a central point within the company offices and distributed to each person electronically, thereby avoiding the need for filing cabinets.
Even executives for the most part have no desk or designated working space. Instead they move within their company’s office, from activity space to activity space, with their laptops. On any given day they choose from a variety of hubs designed to support different tasks.
Remember the ‘open plan office’ revolution? Larger companies adopted the open floor layout because it saved space and enabled better employee inter-action. Now office trends have moved to embrace a new concept, sometimes called the ‘clean desk’ environment or ‘activity based working’. In this concept no employee has their own single office within the company premises.
Activity Defines the Office Spaces
According to Veldhoen + Company, a specialist consultancy in ‘activity based working’ styles, mainstream is ready to adopt the latest in office space trends. The whole premise of designing around specific business activities is to make the employee a traveler through a diverse choice of spaces.Their locations can change day by day or hour by hour.
Whether working on group projects, researching or writing, holding company staff training sessions, meeting clients, or simply getting together to exchange views, there will be an ideal location designed for that activity.
Embracing Change in Office Space Trends
No doubt moving from the traditional top-down hierarchy concept of management is challenging for executives and staff who quite like having their own office spaces, personalized with awards and family photos.
Not everyone may want to work in what could be likened to a giant luxurious cafe, but staff are more willing to accept these radical changes when they see that their managers and directors also no longer have their own offices or special furniture.
Activity Based Working is Becoming Mainstream
MacQuarie Bank ‘BFS’ Team were the first Australian company to adopt the Veldhoen concept of activity based design for their new building in Sydney.
Commonwealth Bank HQ last year incorporated the concept and now Bankwest will follow the trend when it relocates in Perth Central Business District next year. Nokia Beijing have embraced the changes with their new offices designed by M. Moser.
No comment on creative and colorful office design trends would be complete without mentioning the Google and Facebook offices. They make the work places look like play spaces.
Approval Rating
Reports are that from a productivity perspective people really feel that the new environment is providing them with lots of choice.
Veldhoen note that 55% of the people say they have a more productive team culture, and 93% of the people say they wouldn’t go back to the old way of working. Supporters say it engenders integrity, friendliness, openness, respect and helpfulness.
Benefits:
- Saving in real estate costs
- Employee empowerment
- Improved client service
- Creation of more meaning & learning in the workplace
- Access to people, resources and knowledge
- Knowledge sharing
Disadvantages:
- It’s harder to withdraw or hide
- The movement of others through the spaces can be distracting
- It’s noisier in the larger rooms
- You must consider other people in your vicinity
- There no fixed ‘home’ base
Suitability for Small Companies
Can small companies adopt the trend of activity based work spaces? In smaller spaces there will be less flexibility to choose the area for working on any particular day. An open office plan can lead to greater sharing of ideas and synergy but can lack in privacy and the ability to control interruptions.
We run a business centre which provides short-term offices to a wide range of small company clients. Each has one single office. Because of the relatively short period of the tenancy, the decor of each office needs to be a neutral color scheme, which is then personalised with brightly coloured paintings and matched office accessories.
Activity based space ideas for small company office design may be something for the future.
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