Future-Proofing Your Office in 2024

As we enter 2024, businesses worldwide are bracing for a new wave of economic, geopolitical and climate shocks. As the corporate world undergoes significant transformations, adopting effective mitigation strategies will be crucial to ensure future success. 

This article explores the reasons why future-proofing your office is important and what you can do to meet changing conditions in 2024.

Despite the recent pushback to the office from some industry giants, the hybrid-work model seems to be here for good. A 2022 LinkedIn study recently showed that more than a third of UK office workers would quit their jobs if asked to return to the office full-time. 

Hybrid work supposes that employees’ expectations toward their work environment have shifted. Full-time attendance not being mandatory means that workers will go to the office on purpose. To stand out, offices now need to provide amenities that can foster interactions and collaboration. For some facilities, it will require a great deal of renovations and revamping to satisfy these requirements.

Unfortunately, most offices are not designed to be flexible and easy to transform. Fittings and fixtures are, for the most part, built-in and not demountable. Any change in the layout, whether adding meeting rooms or removing individual offices, will prove costly. 

By contrast, a future-proof office should be flexible by design and cater to current and future needs alike. The use of modular fitting and fixture elements allows for easy dismantling and relocation. This planning choice is now more relevant as hybrid work policies push the boundaries of work environments. Designing an office space that accommodates future changes is essential as there is no one-size-fits-all approach to office design. By doing so, you will be sure to meet your employees where they are.

It’s hard to comprehend, but we’re living in 2024, yet many workplaces are still stuck in the 1990s in their interior design.  

This doesn’t help anyone and is potentially harming your business. Rows upon rows of desks all facing the same direction offer little in the way of creativity and engagement, and the more engaged your workforce are, the better it will be for your overall productivity. 

Studies have shown a more engaged workforce can increase productivity by 21% and in order to create a more engaged workforce the physical space needs to be reimagined.

The future of work is going to look so different, it is essential to react accordingly. Rather than opting for a slightly newer cubicle and desk design, considering a more modular and flexible fit-out will help boost all aspects of your business.  

Optimizing the physical space with something like modular acoustic pods helps make way for this new approach to working, creating unique areas of collaboration, group thinking and creativity.  

Companies worldwide are using these office partitions not only for the aesthetic purposes, but also because the workplace is evolving. Adopting this more modular approach, with products like phonebooths and office pods, helps truly carry your business into the future in more ways than one.

Think about this for a moment. The building materials and construction industry are responsible for 39% of the entire global carbon emissions.  

This means each and every decision you make regarding your interior design project or office fit out has a potentially negative impact on the world, contributing towards increasing temperatures and sea levels.  

One of the biggest contributors to this carbon crisis is embodied carbon within building products. From the manufacture and assembly of products to their transport, installation and disposal, every aspect of their lifespan contributes CO2, so how can you protect your businesses future? 

The answer is quite simple. The embodied carbon of an office space keeps growing along its lifecycle. Every successive renovation will consume raw materials, and energy and generate landfill waste. By the end of a typical 20-year tenancy lease, the lifecycle carbon footprint of an office can amount to 3-times the initial embodied carbon.

By incorporating demountable fittings and fixtures, you can maximize the reuse potential of your assets and contribute to closing the loop on materials usage. In selecting modular office partitions, you are entering into a circular economy philosophy and an approach to reducing CO2 worldwide.  

Not only are these partitions manufactured from recyclable material and previously disposed equipment, but they are also designed to be used multiple times. Even after you’ve had them installed for a few years, rather than disposing of them, they can be moved to another area within your business or recycled.  

All of these small approaches to reducing carbon have a significant effect on the total global level of carbon and the crisis we are witnessing.  

With the responsibility on your shoulders, you need to show that you and your business are pulling your own weight and acting to work more sustainably. In choosing modular office partitions and interior furniture with less embodied carbon, you’re futureproofing your business and the world we live on.

The simple answer is yes. But you have to make sure you are selecting materials that help pave the way to the future.  

Wellbeing and hygiene are critical in this post-covid world and regardless of your opinion it’s changed the way we look at all aspects of life. Moving forward selecting the right equipment for your office fit out is key in not only keeping your teams happy, but growing your business, too.

Beyond personal wellbeing is global wellbeing. Sustainability and green office fit outs are a growing trend and essential to protecting what we all have. When it comes to future proofing your office, you want to make sure the materials are reusable, manufactured from sustainable sources wherever possible.   

If you want to future proof your business but also ensure you are doing your bit of the environment, speak to our team today and introduce sustainable and modular partitions to your business.