Workplaces and the AV furniture within them have changed significantly in the last decade, we expect this evolution to continue at a rapid rate.
Here’s some of the things we see as being important in the future workplace.
Standing desks
Workplace wellness includes physical and mental health activities. AV furniture’s sit-stand desks have been shown to have a highly positive impact on personal health and wellbeing.
Workplaces and the tools within them have changed significantly in recent years, with employees increasingly expecting to be able to work anytime, anywhere. The traditional office is no longer the centre of many people’s working lives, instead remote and flexible working is growing ever more popular. In addition, the expectations of work have also evolved with the idea of a job for life no longer appealing, and millennials in parti cular opting for the life of a ‘multi-hyphenate’ whereby they are able to use their multiple skills and interests to take on a number of different roles.
Technology’s role in the future workplace
Utilising Av furniture to create a productive and comfortable future workplace that takes into account flexible, remote and multi-hyphenate workers requires the tools that will enable employees to communicate, collaborate and make decisions effectively while ensuring they continue to feel part of a team whatever their location – and it is here that technology has a key role to play.
In many offices, the traditional boardroom has been replaced or supplemented by a number of different spaces, including huddle rooms, breakout areas for informal catchups and larger rooms designed for internal and external meetings. This is a trend that is only expected to continue as disparate teams continue to need flexible spaces in which they can collaborate with colleagues who could be situated anywhere in the world.
In each future workplace space, reliable and effective AV furniture and conferencing technology is crucial. An ideal setup will involve high-quality video and audio alongside sufficient desk space that maintains comfort for participants while offering the ability to share and collaborate on content, all while providing easy access to the necessary charging points for personal devices to ensure easy access to files and content.
As employees increasingly rely on a number of devices to carry out their work, there is less and less tolerance of environments that don’t enable them to access files quickly and easily, no matter where they may be stored. Looking to the future workplace, employers will have to embrace this and introduce the ease of use enjoyed by most in their personal lives into the professional sphere.
The most common complaint among end users continues to be that workplace technology can be time consuming, unreliable and ineffective, with videoconferences taking too much time to set up and oftentimes delivering a less than seamless experience. Systems already exist that enable users to begin calls at the touch of a button and the popularity of these is only likely to increase. However, it’s important to remember that user training is essential if they are to embrace any future workplace technology.
Future Workplace wellbeing
Another area of working life that will continue to gain in prominence in the coming years is workplace wellness. This can cover many aspects, from ensuring the HVAC system contributes to a comfortable workplace to encouraging staff to consider their physical and mental health through policies and practices that promote healthy behaviour.
One aspect of working life that has been shown to have a particularly negative impact on employee health is the fact that many office workers spend long periods of time sitting at their desk. This sedentary lifestyle has been shown to increase the risk of health problems such as heart disease and diabetes. Once again, however, AV furniture and technology can be used to encourage healthier behaviours. This could take the form of wellness software that promotes activity or standing/height adjustable desks that encourage employees to vary their sitting/standing position rather than remaining static throughout the day.
Voice, AI and machine learning
Looking ahead and simplification looks set to be the cornerstone of developments in future workplace technology. One big development on the horizon is voice control which will enable users to walk into a conference room and begin a call using only voice commands. This will take all the complexity out of learning new systems and remembering logins and passcodes.
As in so many areas, AI is also expected to have an impact on our working lives. In a meeting room environment this could include automatically recognising who’s on a video call and displaying relevant information such as name and job title, or automatic call recording and transcribing. As systems become able to self-learn they will be able to make decisions based on their knowledge of the room or building to adapt to users’ needs.
No matter the workspace or the technology within it, it’s essential that the environment created is safe, inclusive and conducive to effective collaboration and decision making.
Loxit has decades of experience designing and manufacturing a wide selection of AV furniture and mounting solutions that achieve this goal. To find out more about the services we provide and to plan your future workplace contact us below.
