Our annual Trend Report has just been published, offering an invaluable insight into how digital and physical workspaces are evolving in response to the shifts in the social and economic landscapes.
Workspaces have changed and developed at an incredible rate over the past two years, with the pandemic driving wholesale changes in attitudes and practices; the chaos of disruption has certainly given plenty of opportunity (and indeed necessity) for reinvention. Set in that context, our annual Trend Report seems even more important this year, as it identifies the most pressing factors influencing work today – and therefore the factors influencing the physical and digital workspaces that enable organisations to fulfil their objectives.
So, what have we homed in on this year as the most important trends that inform workspace design and specification, as we move out of pandemic lockdown territory and towards whatever comes next? These five topics were the eventual choice of our collective expertise:
Digital transformation 1.0 enabled companies to manage processes and data using technology, but we’ve come a long way since then – tech is no longer simply a facilitator, it’s changing the ways some functions operate. This has put the IT team at the centre of business innovation, elevating their importance within the business ecosystem, and their part within strategic decision-making.
- People-centric organisations
The pandemic has certainly brought HR considerations to the fore – and accelerated the trend for putting stakeholders at the centre of organisational decision-making. Businesses which prioritise team member wellbeing are at a definite advantage in terms of attracting and retaining the best talent in the much-discussed ‘Great Resignation’, putting them in a better position in terms of competitiveness and resilience.
- The post-COVID bounce-back
In many quarters there’s quite a buzz about the return to the office. Although remote has its benefits – arguably suiting some generations and roles better than others – there’s a growing realisation of what people have been missing during enforced home-working. Organisations are re-casting their space to suit the emphasis on collaboration and culture-building, and ensuring that the office-day benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
- Creating culture within a dispersed workforce
Culture is critical to the attraction and retention of good staff, as well as the best business outcomes. One of the hardest challenges facing organisations during lockdown was how to ensure their people felt they belonged, fostered bonds with their colleagues, and engaged with the company culture. In person this happens almost by osmosis, whereas remote working has necessitated a more structured, deliberate approach – facilitated by technology.
- Data-driven decision making
With technology embedded in almost every aspect of the working day, business leaders now have a significant advantage over their predecessors – they have access to a wealth of quantitative data that helps them get an accurate grasp on how staff use workspaces (both digital and physical). It’s possible to drill down into the specifics to inform decision making from meeting room optimisation to real estate square footage changes.
To read more about the five key topics relevant to workspace evolution in 2022 and beyond, click to visit the download page for the Aura Global Trend Report.
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