Last week, I posted the first half of a look back at the top trends of 2015. This is a continuation of that article. It seems everything from working postures to the materials and layouts selected in the physical work environment are getting more casual. The contract furniture market is now competing with quality and price points from stores like CB2, Z Gallerie, and IKEA. Some say that this is due to the fact that these comfortable, familiar residential products are not available through traditional contract channels. Others suggest that it is because of the emergence of young entrepreneurs and rapidly growing companies unfamiliar with the contract furniture industry. Either way, as this trend proliferates, the days of beige walls and cubicles are quickly fleeting.

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What are the biggest workplace trends of 2016? What are companies looking to accomplish by designing or reconfiguring their work spaces this year? We consulted design firms, workplace design magazines and leading business journals to find the answers. We discovered companies want to increase productivity and employee health and well-being by designing spaces to support the way their employees work. But, they want to do this within a smaller footprint. What's more, they are seeking to design offices that reflect their brand and culture in spaces that also reduce their organizations' impact on the environment.

Read the blog "Designed Spaces" on gunlocke.com >

I am not suggesting that a cool or sexy office is all you need to drive business outcomes. Nor am I going to suggest that all you need to do to grow a successful business is to invest in a fully loaded, bells and whistles, technology laden, productivity enabling office environment. Not that all of those things won’t help, they very well could be the things that prove to be difference makers. What I will suggest however, is that in most instances a business’s success relies almost exclusively upon the satisfaction of their customer base. Any deliberations associated with office space should, therefore, in some way consider their needs and desires. No doubt these considerations will be highly dependent on the type of business you are in and whether the model it embraces is business-to-business or business-to-consumer, but when contemplating the needs of your clients, you should at least ask yourself the following 4 simple questions.

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According to Contract Source Group, a office furniture rep firm, a lot has changed and those changes have come to us at warp speed with no notice.  When was the last time that you wore a suit with a tie or a suit with a skirt and heels to work 5 days a week?  They still have their place for the right occasion of course, but everyday work life is no longer requiring that level of formality.  We have seen a more relaxed, more congenial workplace emerge, using collaborative space to aid in this less formal office. 

Read the blog on csgreps.com > 

Office interiors are changing fast and the likes of Google have rewritten the rules on what facilities an employer should provide its employees. But, is what companies are choosing for their office interiors what actually works?

Read the article on offietoday.com > 

In 2015, I was asked to speak to a "Future is Now" team at a large Sporting Goods Company - a team of twenty- to thirty-somethings working in beige cubicles surrounded by white walls and looking to better their workplace and culture for the future. While many workplace trends are common knowledge to the Contract Interiors Industry, many of our clients and potential clients - like this team - are also very interested, and scratching their head a bit as to where to start. In honor of our beiged brethren, here is a review of 2015 for those in and out of the industry looking to understand what is happening in the world of workplace today.

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