Millennials increasingly influencing workplace design

11/07/17< Back to news index

Today's workplace environment increasingly reflects the interests of millennials as shown by the recent growth of flexible workspace providers - and with good reason, by 2025 three out of four office workers are projected to be born during the period that defines millennials.

This new generation of office workers has a very different view of where they want to work from their predecessors. Gone are the rows of desks crammed together side by side in a dingy office environment as millennials look for workspace that reflects their priorities as workers - flexibility, technology and health.

Some studies predict that maybe 60% of the jobs to be performed by the next generation, do not yet exist and employers are becoming increasingly aware that in order to attract the best their industry has to offer, they need to design their workspace not only to keep pace with change but in order to keep the people they need.

Here are some of the key office design trends that are increasingly being picked up by businesses to reflect the requirements of their young teams.

For today's health conscious millennials, an attractive and healthy workplace environment is a top priority. Alongside gym facilities and outdoor space to sit and work, other features that are popular include:

Designing your office space not only to look less corporate but so that it also incorporates technology seamlessly in a way that will appeal to today's millennials is increasingly important. This generation thinks very differently from Generation X and their predecessors about the places in which they want to work because of societal influences and accelerating technological advances.

Today's office workers increasingly expect flexible working because technology is making it easy to ditch the desk. In fact the desk is becoming something of a commodity in relation to the plethora of furniture products designed specifically to enable different styles of "mobile working".

As today's workplace environment increasingly blurs the lines between office and home, office design reflects this mindset. We expect the trend to continue as people work more flexibly and are not bound by the traditional 9-5 work ethic.

Guy Crabb, managing director, ODB Group