Everything related to a workspace has been disrupted by various experiments – from closed cabins to cubicles to an open floor with everyone working together

Walk in at 9 with a crisp tie and a briefcase. Sit at your desk while your fingers dance at the keyboard. Bury your head with designated tasks and then leave for the day. This was a typical day at work in the 1980s defined by fixed working hours, hierarchy, silos, and fragmentation.

With the advent of technology and constantly evolving management practices, the traditional Indian offices have evolved too. Everything related to a workspace has been disrupted by various experiments – from closed cabins to cubicles to an open floor with everyone working together. In a modern workspace, colleagues become friends, companies become sample audience for pilot studies and an office becomes a plug and play environment. Great minds think alike but multiple minds think differently, and this forms the genesis of disruptive ideas.

In today’s day and age, employees value their work-life balance more than ever. According to a CBRE study, 70 percent of millennials would make various trade-offs to secure a better workplace that allows for more harmony between work & life. And the same is being achieved by collaborative workspaces. These are set up keeping in mind the individual’s needs and interests which in turn increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the employee.

Technology that serves people
Technological advancements have further enabled the workforce to achieve their full potential. Leveraging IoT and by integrating it with AI, workplaces can be transformed into smarter, dynamic and interactive offices. Automating the entry & exit; improving security; controlling energy consumption & utilization, and enabling cashless payments allows professionals to work in an accelerated environment. In the 1980s, it was hard to believe how personal computers would transform our lives. Similarly, today it is difficult to envision what AI will mean to us over the coming decades. The IoT’s growth, in turn, drives an exponential rise in the volumes of data gathered, providing meaningful insights for future strategies. Individuals within organisation are more connected than ever. Cloud computing, web conferences, instant messaging and e-diaries have enabled better communication around the world and within the organisation. The ability of devices to interact with individuals provide for a personally curated workspace that inspires productivity. Hence, by facilitating the nexus of communications, IoT will define the future of work.

Mobility: The secret weapon to flexible workplace
Another important facet of the future of workspaces – ‘Mobility’ is revolutionising the way we work. Work is not only limited to designate tasks for the day, but it is also to go above and beyond what is expected. For the same reason, people are working on the go too. To keep up with the changing nature of work, the new breed of workspaces provides convenient options to work from multiple locations seamlessly. Millennials who contribute 3/4th of an organisation’s workforce require the ‘right’ environment or they choose their ‘own’ environment i.e a coffee shop or library. According to an article in Time magazine, polls show that millennials “want flexible work schedules and more ‘me time’ on the job.” Keeping in mind the needs of today’s generation, shared workspaces provide a bouquet of mobility solutions like virtual offices, national pass, etc. for today’s on the move workforce to thrive. Shared workspaces fitted with activity-based settings allow for greater collaboration and alternate meeting/working points other than one’s work desk. In fact, collaboration areas & meeting lounges allow for stimulated informal interactions that cater to the much-wanted ‘work-life’ balance.

Since work timings are not rigid anymore, individuals are perpetually working. People highly value comfortable, inviting workspaces with flexible working arrangements and built-in communities. The flexibility of time and space has become of utmost importance. For workers across levels and industries, flexible work options provide more freedom to accomplish a variety of tasks. Organisations not only want to retain talent but also want to make sure they are being productive. Flexible workspace culture is promoting a lifestyle, not just a place to do business.

Co-workers as Communities
As the corporate world adapts to technology and design trends, it is crucial to keep in mind employee needs. Many people, especially the Gen-Z employees, benefit from a space that encourages the growth of a community. People share opinions and formulate opinions basis their continuous interactions with other colleagues – encouraging a highly open environment. A community at the workplace promotes an open culture which is beyond hierarchies. A co-working culture solidifies bonds amongst employees and breaks traditional stereotypes of formality and protocol. A sense of belonging in the workplace is not only about self-entitlement but also a huge motivational factor for the employees. And as rightly said by Henry Ford, “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

It will be extremely intriguing to witness the next big trends in the Indian office space. However, it is safe to say that the future of work will see more of co-working and less of traditional workspaces & traditional work methodologies.

The design of workspaces play a pivotal role in influencing interaction amongst co-workers

Shared workspaces as a growing alternative to traditional offices, makes engagement of its community members a much greater and exciting challenge. Unlike regular offices where the common thread is one culture, the shared workspaces have multiple companies and cultures that coexist. Without a common thread binding these varied organizations with size ranging from one to hundreds of employees, design plays a key role in aligning the future workplace to cater to the requirements of a diverse set of audience and ensuring engagement and enhanced productivity.

The design of workspaces play a pivotal role in influencing interaction amongst co-workers. Design is a visual form of communication that through subtle cues creates opportunities for engagement, influences people’s behaviour and by aesthetic appealmake the users attracted to the space, to spend additional time.

A good workplace design has a strong influence on how employees think and behave. If the office space is unable to support the workstyle of users, the success and business outcomes of the organisation can become an uphill battle.

Global giants like Google, Yahoo and Facebook have redefined their office spaces with plush, vibrant and thoughtfully designed interiors, as a way of keeping employees engaged. As an example, Flipkart’s Bangalore office has a refreshing ambience and every corner is designed on different themes like literature, sport, science etc. All these things translate to say that a good workplace design has a strong influence on how employees think and behave.

A good design solution balances colour, space and ergonomics to set the right platform for the success of the users of the space.

Colour your way to influence perceptions

Color is a powerful tool when it comes to integrating mood in your design. New methods of working are driven by adding more color choices within the workplace. The moods we associate with different colors are influenced by certain concepts and emotions.

Red, commonly associated with blood and fire, symbolises warmth and energy.  It grabs the eye and in design it projects boldness and strength.

Yellow on the other hand communicates happiness and freshness. The color spreads positivity in a working environment and creates a fun-friendly atmosphere.

Green is the color of nature and in the philosophy of designing a workplace, it indicates a sustainable and healthy environment.

Aqua blue is one of the most adaptable colors. It represents peacefulness, trustworthiness and stability.

Shades like white, beige and light yellow are incorporated in design to provide a minimal aesthetic look; while darker shades like black, dark green, purple etc. are modern and adaptable to new age workforce. Colors and patterns should be chosen carefully to create a workplace that is energising, productive and relaxing on your mind.

Createa space where people want to come to work

A workspace that focuses on maximizing the number of people in a given square feet of space, ends up looking cluttered, where the users resist being in the space, leading to limited scope for engagement.

A chaotic space that is not focused on creating various activity zones with proper way-finding confuses people and makes them disoriented. A well-designed office space that provides the appropriate size for various functions, choice of areas to support different workstyles of its users and integrates functionality with aesthetics, creates an environment where users want to belong and engage with co-workers. In a well-designed workspace, employees areintuitively encouraged to spend more time in a welcoming environment that encourages collaboration and higher productivity.

The changing workstyles of the modern workforce need adoption by design professionals to provide floor playouts that cater to varying gender, demographics and generations that co-exist, by providing the choice of settings in a single workspace.  Creation of customizable spaces that are best suited for people to work in collaboration or individual zones,provides the users a choice based on their workstyle.

The purpose of design is to encourage collaboration amongst employees, emotionally bond with space for additional time spent and, ultimately create workplaces that embed creative cues for an inspiring and innovative environment to boost morale and enhance productivity.

Productive workspaces

The new generation workforce that forms a large part of the modern base for companies is focused on choice leading to different ways of working and workspaces that continue to support their workstyles. The demands are focused on increased level of engagement, homely spaces that are comfortable and informal,creating seamless transition between work and life and an ultimate choice of spaces that adapt to their needs.

Workspaces of the future will be adaptable, accessible and flexible by integrating multipurpose furniture systems, wearable devices, individual controlled lighting and air conditioning systems that will adapt to individual needs in real-time, positively influencing the health, wellbeing and productivity of employees.

The assimilation of digital elements like augmented and virtual reality will allow all surfaces to act as screen and input devices removing the separation of material and technology, leading to integrated surfaces reducing the footprint. Iris scan, face recognition and integrated fingerprint scanners will enhance the experience of the workspace users with spaces adapting to individuals needs on the go.

While technology will have a huge role in the workspace, the humanization and wellness at the core of the workspaces will be a key element to deliver superior environments that will enable employees to be healthy and productive.

The success of organisations is driven by happy and productive employees that can engage in behaviours, that enable collective positive outcomes. Human interaction, emerging technology, work patterns, optimized and healthy spaces may not be all that would be needed to design the future workspace, but with these items topping the design list, these would be imperative for organisations to succeed in the near future. Getting ahead and developing a well-designed workspace as a core part of the strategy for the business is a given that organisations need to implement to succeed in the future.

To read the online article click here: http://businessworld.in/article/Designing-For-Engagement-The-Play-Of-Colour-Space-And-Ergonomics-At-Work-/31-03-2018-145012/

At the BW Businessworld Growth Leadership Conclave and Awards 2018: From SMEs to Unicorns, there was a panel discussion on “The Road to Greatness- Resilient Entrepreneurs” which was moderated by Colonel Prakash Tewari, Executive Director, CSR, DLF.

“I see a lot of entrepreneurs here, who are young and middle-aged. The Wikipedia definition of entrepreneurship is the process of designing, and launching new processes. The young people here are the future Steve Jobs in the time to come. When I look at human beings, they are victims of curiosity. They are always desiring to experiment and come up with new things in life. When they are trying to bring about these new changes, it’s not always easy because of the environment and our society. Only an entrepreneur knows that after he faces the environment and society, how he uses the data to create knowledge and apply changes. Entrepreneurship also has its own set of problems and challenges which we will explore,” said Tewari. “You need to have the right type of collaboration and the right people as an entrepreneur, which is very important,” he added.

Jatin Ahuja, Founder & MD, Big Boy Toyz, “We are in to cars, we are Asia’s largest supercar dealership. We deal with luxury cars. We have all these famous brands under one roof. Business is all about challenges. Every morning you have a different challenge. I started work in 2003, and 2003 onwards when you take the leadership forward there are a lot of challenges because no one else has done this business. Challenges we faced maximum is the taxation system in our country. A used car has never been looked at as an industry. Taxation was the biggest challenge when we started the business. This is why I had to shift out of Delhi and move to Haryana. Now things are much better.” “We have done negotiations in getting the key people for many years. An organization is all about the people who share a similar kind of vision, it is very challenging. When I started work in 2003, I wanted to hire a peon, and he said he would rather go to a larger company, and that’s when I had the motivation to become a bigger company so we don’t have problems hiring a peon. Business is about your risk-taking capacity,” said Ahuja.

“The opportunity got created with real estate developer snot innovating. There was a trust deficit, which was a challenge. Anybody who has built an office space, they will know its very hard to deal with the contractor. Another thing which most companies did not watch out for is that the SME sector is an extremely fast-growing sector. Today the real-estate heads in most companies are the punching bags, they used to be rock stars before. We realized that SMEs will be the largest clients for us. All the inefficiencies of the real estate market are what we tried to solve. We have a large community, lots of seats, and there is a viable business created,” said Amit Ramani, Founder & CEO, Awfis. Regarding his dealing with Capex and Opex, Ramani added, “We understood the real estate sector really well. The focus was on making money at the centre level. It is a capital-intensive business, so we partnered with the landlords. There has been a strong focus on de-risking the business and creating value for our partners and stakeholders.” “We hired from parallel industries. If you are transparent, show the people the vision, the area to experiment, to fail, and move forward, that’s how you can attract people,” said Ramani.

Rohit Manglik, CEO, EduGorilla, said, “I started back in 2015, I had one of the best jobs in the country, I was into investment banking. One day I had to visit my school for a guest lecture. I realized that the students get the same privilege as we get. My juniors did not have the exposure to get in touch with anyone they wanted. After I analysed the whole education ecosystem, I figured out there are multiple players in this area, but none are fulfilling the need. The approach is not holistic or transparent for the students. We started collecting data, using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Our name has gorilla in it since the gorilla because we needed to be a large entity in this sector.” “Hiring the right sort of people is always a challenge for any organization. The key employees at my company were hired in the most unforeseen ways. Some of the interns in my organization who worked with us at a very early stage, I have never let them go. People stay for the culture, not just the money. They stay for the motivation, the growth. Money was never the motivation for any of the people I have hired. If your fundamentals are correct, you are in the right direction,” said Manglik.

To read the online article click here: businessworld.in/article/If-Your-Fundamentals-Are-Correct-You-Are-In-The-Right-Direction-Rohit-Manglik-CEO-EduGorilla/29-03-2018-144945/