Ask any industry expert what’s driving the evolution of workplace design, and you’ll likely hear a short answer: “Millennials.”
While it’s true that younger members of the workforce are helping shape many recent trends — fewer private offices, for example, and more open work areas with huddle spaces and hot-desking setups — demographics are only a bit player in the bigger story.
The real driver behind today’s workplace trends? It’s the breakneck pace of a continuing technological revolution.
One reason the preferences of millennials appear to be shaping the evolution of workplace design, it’s really because they’re early adopters of technology and more willing to try new styles of working.
They’ve grown up with today’s widely available and rapidly evolving technology, so their expectations are naturally different from those of previous generations.
According to a recent survey by PwC (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers), millennial work styles favor mobility and rely more heavily on mobile devices than their counterparts among baby-boomers and the so-called Generation X.