How does your future workplace look like?

What does my future workplace look like? A question that is of concern to many workers. We don’t need to sit in the office from 9 to 5 anymore, but our desk and laptop are still the same. But not for long!

In this look into the future, you can see how the workplace is changing. 

Current workplace fatal for productivity

The time of traditional room offices with long corridors and enclosed spaces seem definitively over. That says Juriaan van Meel, academic and author of the book Workplaces Today. In more and more sectors people work in open-plan offices and flexible workplaces.

To be successful however,there must be sufficent (unplugged) spaces for meetings or for working in silence. What does not work is a monofunctional office with shared desks in open spaces in combination  with the lack of spaces to  escape to. Little choice and bad acoustics is detrimental to productivity. 

Future workplace in a high-tech Office

Offices of the future are not just more flexible, but  also more and more high-tech. A good example are the offices of Intel in Israel. Both inside and outsside of the building there are sensors so, for instance you no longer need to have to look for a parking space. If you drive in, you’ll be directly led to a free spot.

Forgot your entrance badge? No problem, because each door opens using facial recognition. After that you’ll see on your smartphone where available workplaces are. Arriving at your desk, you can work directly on a large screen, by clicking your device in a dock. And around lunchtime you consult your phone to see where are the quietest and in the restaurant and where your colleagues are.

Smart meeting rooms and mandatory carpooling 

The Office of the future is equipped with technology that seamlessly integrates with your work and that makes you more productive, without noticing. This phenomenon is also called blended reality: the merger of the digital and the physical world.

Near your future work place you will soon find a smart meeting room, which can stream your presentation and automatically connect with your conversation partners. Even if these are on the other side of the world. 
At Intel they are already experimenting a lot with new technologies (as you would expect). The new offices of the chip maker drawn up by Commercial Interior Design Edinburgh will even learn from the behaviour of the workers, so that it can recommend a time to take the stairs (if you don’t move enough) or commute to work with a colleague (if you’re often too late).

Being productive on the go

Your future workplace in the office is there for you, but also on the go you will get more and better possibilities to be productive. Already now, you can use your smartphone as a full desktop computer with Windows 10 Mobile. 
And the HP Elite x 3 is the first so-called 3-in-1 device that acts as smartphone, desktop and laptop. Using a technique called Continuum mount the unit on a screen, keyboard and mouse, after which you can start immediately. You no longer need to carry different devices and cables. All your data and business apps are securely in the cloud and are available at the touch of a button. Switching between screens goes flawlessly, because both the interface and the apps scale automatically.

Smartphone app with desk booking app

On average 40% of workstations in an office in Edinburgh are not always in use. This means that in todays’ and future office interiors spaceplanning can allow for less workstations than that there are people. An application that enables people to reserve a workstation or a meeting room and with which they can look up colleagues who they want to collaborate with, willl then be of great benefit. The iotspot app introduced by Amos Beech in the UK market does just that.

Future workplace is meeting place

There is no doubt that technology will play an increasingly important role in the workplace. Already there are countless Internet of Things-solutions on the market that are affordable and give more opportunities to employees. 
The increasing flexibility will ensure that the role of the Office shifts to a meeting place for gentlemen, where they exchange experiences and learn from each other. Technology can best facilitate and ensure that everyone who encounters, regardless of location, function and can extract the maximum.