Workspace Fit-Out Trends For 2023

With 2023 approaching, is your workspace due a fit-out? Let’s explore some of the latest trends for your new office design.

During the pandemic, those people who were stuck at home working from a ‘temporary’ office suffered from the lack of interaction with colleagues, craving some form of variety and those sparks of serendipity. When it comes to creating a modern and agile workspace, it’s important to bear this in mind. Long gone are the days of rows upon rows of desks all facing the same direction, managers separate from the rest of the workforce and dedicated sections for meetings. Instead, offices are being redesigned to be transformable, embracing the ‘hot desking’ mindset.  

According to a study completed in 2013, workers that are given a choice of their workspace are more satisfied with their job. Following the pandemic, this feeling is only going to be amplified. In order to be able to transform your workspace, you need transformable equipment that can help you create flexible spaces that have a range of uses, from modular office partitions that can be seamlessly transformed, to dedicated office pods and phonebooths that are available to move at will. 

Your office fit out isn’t just about getting new furniture, equipment, and partitions in place. It’s also about ensuring that the workspace is an environment that provides a positive response to mental health, wellbeing, and hygiene concerns. Designing workspaces for improved wellbeing should be at the top of your fit out agenda in 2023. Having to work from home during the pandemic has opened our eyes to the realisation that humans rely on interaction with other humans. Making sure that your office fit out can accommodate this is essential.  

Selecting equipment that provides a flexible workspace, as well as helping to provide more natural light, clean air flow and areas for collaboration or relaxation is essential to ensure wellbeing is being considered. The quality of air within your workspace is vital in promoting employee wellbeing and reducing the use of volatile organic compounds such as those produced by cheap paints and dry wall repairs. Not only this, but it helps with hygiene levels too.  

And it’s easy to admit that hygiene has never been a bigger concern as it is right now. Employers and organisation leaders know only too well the repercussions of team members quickly becoming ill and incapable of working for a number of days.

Turn on the news and it is easy to see that sustainability and adopting environmentally-friendly actions in our everyday life is more important than ever. With COP26 recently concluding, the outcome suggests governments will be pushing for net zero carbon and a more sustainable approach. On top of this, large corporations are also adapting their approach, creating a universal mindset for greener environments the world over. 

Many offices, particularly in big cities with heavy pollution such as London, are opting for flexible workspaces with low or even zero carbon emissions which employees are now considering essential. When reports indicate that 20 firms are behind a third of carbon emissions, you want to ensure that you’re doing what you can to help the environment, too.  

But a green workspace doesn’t just mean green in colour.  

Although studies show that introducing plants increases mood levels, you can also be green with the type of fit-out approach and construction methods you are choose. By choosing prefabrication and modular construction from the start, you are creating room for waste and energy savings. What’s more, because of their construction and modular design, fixtures and fittings can be removed, recycled, and reused elsewhere in your building, creating a virtuous loop of resources. 

According to the 2019 McKinsey Report, modular construction can increase construction speed by as much as 50% as well as cutting costs by around 20%. Following the pandemic, these are going to be the two key factors in getting any project over the line. It’s no different for your business either and knowing that prefabricated office partitions are readily available and efficient to install makes the process much easier, ticking all of your requirements. While modular office partitions are essential from a construction and project perspective, they’re also a fantastic new trend that looks to be set to take huge strides forward in 2023.  

Building static walls can be extremely time consuming and limiting for a forward thinking and dynamic workforce, after all walls are essentially physical barriers and can limit the amount of collaboration. With prefabricated modular office partitions, you can make use of every inch of your workspace, configuring it to make the most of the spaces that you want and need. Then, when the time comes for a shuffle, it can easily be moved with minimal disruption, maintaining the levels of interactivity, and creating a more cohesive team.   

This blog has given a small slice of what you can expect from office trends in 2023 and hopefully it’s helped create a rough plan of how you can evolve your workspace for the new working world. Modular partitions are going to be a critical part of future office investments, offering a more diverse office workspace as well as helping to improve the speed with which projects are completed. 

Due to their design and manufacture, they are also helping the industry become more sustainable. This leads into the one of other points and how ‘green’ offices will become extremely common in 2023.  Everything has an impact and making sure you’re being sensible with sustainability is critical to your business’s future.  If your business is making post-covid changes to your workspace and you’d like to discuss a complete office fit out for your organisation, then contact our team today.