Clevertouch recently ran a large survey of over 1000 office workers for its report “The Workspace of the Future”. Aimed at discerning the trajectory of the modern workspace and the technologies within it, the report made a number of interesting discoveries. Central to its findings was the demand for flexibility through technology – such as device-agnosticism, teamscreens, and remote meetings.
The advances in technology have affected how our workplaces are designed and run. For example, the report found that, on average, people now work one day a week remotely, be it at home or from different offices. And by 2020, the number of workers completing their tasks remotely will rise to 50%.
Following this, hotdesking is growing in popularity, with 50% either currently employing or wanting to install hotdesking within their organisation. With the average cost of a desk in Canary Wharf totalling £20,000 a year, businesses are moving towards economising their office spaces and one method of cutting these costs is splitting the use of a desk between two or more employees. While it’s still not a popular with many employees (50% of workers say they wouldn’t want it in their offices), it appears it is a growing trend.
A staggering 43% of respondents use their own laptops or tablets at work – a measure of how ubiquitous mobile technologies have become. And with this flexibility of mobile technology, new office designs such as small, private work booths/pods are becoming more and more popular as a means to boost productivity through quiet working, whilst also increasing worker happiness.
Central to all of these advances is the growth in access and and speed of the internet. The internet is pivotal to any business today, with almost everyone in the developed world having access to it. Conference meetings, data sharing, research capabilities, and productivity are all massively affected by the internet’s growth and accessibility – facilitating the ever connectedness of global activities.
Not all technology enables true inter-connectedness, however. Many technology-suites are not inter-connectable (or ‘system-agnostic’), such as Apple and Microsoft dependent suites. This can be detrimental to the flexibility and smooth running of day to day activity within a business environment. Meetings incorporating these non-agnostic systems can have added complications with calls to IT when visitor or even employee software or files cannot be connected to teamscreens because they are different formats. Furthermore, new employees don’t want to be faced with having to decide between their current suite and the company’s (such as switching from Android-based systems to Apple to ensure file-compatibility).
In this regard, it is left to 3rd party suites and technologies to bridge the divide and provide the lubricant for smooth-running businesses – cutting out waste and driving productivity. Clevertouch’s Pro and Plus Series teamscreens are system-agnostic, they can connect Microsoft, Apple, and Android suites and files without problem – so meetings are not held up by calls to IT or converting files just so that they can be shared and evaluated.
Overall, technology is helping break down the barriers and facilitating smoother and more productive business environments of the future. With providers like Clevertouch driving software and hardware agnosticism, the future of interconnected technology and flexible working environments is an inevitability, not a pipe-dream. The demand for smoother and more profitable business running is like a river carving its way through the landscape – it will always find the path of least resistance and push through it. The same can be said for profit-motivated businesses and the economy as a whole – and Clevertouch recognises this.
If you would like to find out more about what has been discussed here, or the other themes that the report shed light on, head over here and for your free download.
SOURCE:https://www.clevertouch.com
