Rejoice, brave office worker: Your cubicle has left the building.
Well, it ought to have, anyway.
Trends in office design, such as open-concept spaces and green initiatives, have joined with a fundamental shift in the way Canadians work to render the traditional office space obsolete.
“The biggest single shift in the workplace, and it seems not to be specific to any sector, is mobility programs,” says Colleen Baldwin, principal of design and business development at Straticom Planning Associates, which helps organizations in Canada and the U.S. design workspaces.
“Companies are realizing that their staff are on the go a lot more than they used to be because it's truly becoming a global work force,” she says, referring to the rising number of employees who work in multiple locations, from the road or from home.
As office attendance goes down, employers are forced to rethink how to use their space – though it goes deeper than that, argues Ms. Baldwin. Companies who don't take heed may quickly find they're behind the pack, she notes.
“Space is a tool to help you achieve what you want in a company. Not engaging design to support business strategy could result in high turnover and disengaged staff, as well as less then optimal workflow, all leading to lower productivity.”
So, what should a modern workplace that reflects the way Canadians work, and their expectations, look like?
Brian Curtner, partner at Toronto's Quadrangle Architects, has observed a huge emphasis on open spaces. That in itself is not new to offices, but he notes it is being seen across all sectors, unlike before.
Openness was integral in his firm's interior design of the 500,000-square-foot Corus Entertainment headquarters on Toronto's waterfront, which opened its doors last summer to house the company's 70 media brands.
“Transparency helps with the principles of innovation and collaboration,” he says. “It means that if I'm working in a meeting room, and you walk by and you see a project on the wall that you're interested in, it becomes a way for you to join the conversation.”
Meeting rooms in the Corus building were constructed with movable glass walls and sliding doors.
Also on the radar at Corus, as with many other companies, is a green agenda, Mr. Curtner says. But more than just giving employees a place to put their recyclables, companies are now increasingly integrating sustainability into their design.
“Corus has extensive bike parking, for example, and along with that came incorporating showers and change rooms into the design,” he says.
It can also mean choosing materials that support sustainability. “All the way through to recycled components in drywall and carpet,” Mr. Curtner says.
Integrating sustainability into office design pays off in an important way: “Imagine that you have a bunch of 25-year-old hip and creative employees and the green agenda is really important to them,” he says. “You know if you're paying more than just lip service to these issues, those people will want to keep working for you.”
Attracting and retaining new staff is a major motivator in the way companies use their real estate, Ms. Baldwin says.
“Clients are asking for sustainability in design not only because they want to tick off the box but most of them understand that the younger generation is pushing them to do this,” she says, pointing to the increasing number of companies seeking certification in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system for buildings in Canada, which includes innovation in design. (The number of companies with LEED certification has gone up by more than 700 per cent since 2005.)
Also on the minds of the incoming generation of workers is the idea of teamwork.
“One thing we hear more than ever before from clients is that they want collaboration,” says Inger Bartlett, founding partner and president of interior design firm Bartlett & Associates, which has designed offices of the global PR firm Edelman and advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, among others, in Toronto.
Instead of a sea of high-walled cubicles choking collaboration, commercial properties increasingly offer more boardrooms and casual meeting spaces, plus quiet work areas for staff to retreat to when they need to hunker down.
“Ten years ago you may have seen 75 per cent of an office devoted to individual work spaces and 25 [per cent] to common areas. Now it's more like 60-40,” Ms. Baldwin says.
More companies are including designated lunch areas, designed to accommodate both downtime and casual meetings. “We know that the current generation of workers value working with a group of people they enjoy,” says Ms. Baldwin. “It's forcing employers to create that group of people but it also means they have to create venues for people to socialize together. And that comes down to design.”
She points to Straticom client CI Financial, which has dedicated 10,000 square feet of space (plus an additional 12,000 on a deck) to a lunch area, clusters of casual meeting spaces and even diversions like a pool table.
“What this does is encourage people to stay in the office at lunch time and keep talking to their colleagues.”
