Anyone who works in the contract furniture industry knows that furniture trends come and go. Workplace design ebbs and flows. We praise open floor plans and then retreat back to private cubicles, celebrate shared workspaces but demand personal space. Manufacturers and designers are constantly trying to strike a balance.
A fellow industry colleague of mine, Brett Shwery of AECOM, and I started discussing a hypothesis about office design several years back. Corporations should address today’s employee work styles by taking design and workspace planning cues from institutions of higher education because of the influence these learning environments have had on a newly graduating workforce.
Think about it, statistics show that Millennials will account for nearly 75% of the workforce by 2030, and with that generation comes all of their preferred work styles. These newly hired graduates, fresh out of college, have been learning, studying and socializing on college campuses for the last 4-6 years.