When it comes to predicting the workplace of the future, the autumn Workplace Trends conference has built up a high level of credibility since it was launched 15 years ago. During that period, the conference, which is curated by Environmental Psychologist and renowned Workplace Strategist Dr Nigel Oseland, has covered a variety of trends which are now becoming mainstream. These include wellness, productivity, happiness, psychology in the workplace, biophilic design, agile working and cellular versus open plan.
This year’s event, which took place at the British Library, took the broad theme of the changing nature of work, to explore not just where we work but how we work – whether that is within the gig economy, remotely, within a co-working space, in an office or a mix of all those elements.
To help set the scene, the attitude of the C-suite towards meeting the demands of the digital workplace came under scrutiny from Paul Miller, CEO and founder of the Digital Workplace Group (DWG) and co-author of The Digital Renaissance of Work: Delivering digital workplaces fit for the future. He suggested that farsighted organisations have begun to realise that they need to create physical and digital workspaces to promote collaboration – whether face-to-face or between communities of shared interest.
The idea of virtual work was echoed in the discussion of the rise of the gig economy with Brhmie Balaram, Senior Researcher in the RSA’s Economy, Enterprise and Manufacturing team, who leads the RSA’s research on the sharing economy, including gig work. She provided an overview of the UK’s gig economy based on the largest survey of gig workers to date, and suggested that the gig economy, whether we like it or not, is driving a cultural shift in the way that we work and is set to be an enduring part of our economy.