We all know technologies are disrupting traditional work patterns, both in positive/negative ways, depending on the choices we make.
For example, the opinion is divided on ‘working from home’ – is it good or bad, esp. for technology work force.
“Office, as it exists today, may become obsolete”, many feel. The question is, how soon?!
While the focus in recent past has been on flexibility to compatibility (incl devices), the future will also bring into focus the collaborative environment, experts feel. For mobility is at the center of not only the personal lives, but also professional life for the GenNext or #Millennial. For this group, innovation is a way of life. Collaboration comes naturally.
Work-life congruence/integration (‘balance’ is for the older generation!). If organizations can make feel less like ‘work’, productivity will improve & also retention of young work force.
Connectivity will play a big role. Indian Govt is talking of new smart cities and metros are looking at free Wi-Fi. Just a couple of years ago, the main street of a GCC capital got free Wi-Fi with some fanfare. Will that become a norm for all cities?
Need to create ‘collaborative’ platforms, else it will just happen, informal ones!
Needless to add, cloud computing will play a big role to facilitate this.
A Nurturing Office Space:
The above can be facilitated through creating such a space. If some of the popular employers have already done it, why can’t it become a norm?
The important shift in mindset has to be in terms of moving to employee-centric way of working, facilitate collaboration over competition (bell curve!!), performance over attendance and excellence, customer-centric outcomes over academic-innovation/process improvement.
Here & Now
The Cloud of Things will anticipate an employee’s goals, understand their behavior, then try to create an environment where they can concentrate on what’s most important – ideas.
Data – big or small
Data, which is the core of everything, is a valuable commodity, and all are approaching it with an objective to leverage it best possible way. It is being used to predict consumer behavior. An opportunity to harvest it from clients, suppliers, channels, workers and perhaps even competitors to enhance effectiveness.
The future office will look less like the old, dull “go-to-office”. But a multi-purpose place for “leisure” (serious & not so serious, being work and life, respectively). Also, where all work collaboratively, leveraging on each other’s innovation and efficiency & effectiveness.
It is estimated 1/8th of global business has or is in the process of moving to a collaborative working. It is gaining critical mass!
So, is the future of workplaces to be ‘location-less hubs, friction-less’ ?