by Shane Henson — October 15, 2012—With alternative workplace strategies such as telework and flex-work transforming the way people and organizations do business, the workplace of the future is set to change. According to the recently released Citrix Workplace of the Future report, organizations are set to reduce office space by almost a fifth (17%) by 2020.
The workplace of the future will provide just seven desks for every 10 office workers, with each person accessing the corporate information technology (IT) network from an average of six different computing devices, says Citrix, a developer of mobile and cloud technology. The figure for 2020 is as low as six desks for every 10 workers in Singapore, the Netherlands, the United States and the U.K. Some of the highest desk-to-worker ratios in 2020 will be in Japan (8.77), South Korea (7.95), and Germany (7.90), says Citrix.
Almost every organization says they will redesign office space to be more appealing, with many replacing the current cubicle-style working arrangements common in so many companies with an arrangement that gives employees more freedom of movement. According to Citrix, the workplace of the future will foster creativity, be inspiring, and encourage collaboration by enabling people to work from wherever, whenever and on whatever device so that work becomes something people do, not a place people go.
The Citrix Workplace of the Future report, which polled 1,900 senior IT decision-makers across 19 countries, shows that a third of people (29%) will no longer work from their traditional office. Instead, employees will base themselves from various semi-permanent locations, including the home (64%), field and project sites (60%), and customer or partner premises (50%). People are also expected to access corporate applications, data and services from locations such as hotels, airports, coffee shops and while in transit.
The trend towards fewer office-based employees—who use multiple computing devices to access corporate apps, data and services from a range of locations outside of the traditional office—is part of a global trend called mobile workstyles, says Citrix. Globally, a quarter (24%) of organizations have already fully adopted mobile workstyles. By the middle of 2014, 83% of organizations will have embraced mobile workstyles, predicts the company.
The mobile workstyles model has been adopted widely and rapidly because it offers a number of benefits. For organizations, workshifting—where people move work to more optimal times and locations—creates a more flexible, agile workplace (73%), lower employee-related costs (53%), and reduced real estate costs (48%), and helps attract (47%) and retain (44%) top talent, according to the report.
In addition, employees benefit from workshifting with more flexibility (65%), increased personal productivity (62%), less commuting time (61%) and a better work/life balance (55%). It also helps them spend more time with customers (48%).
Also, according to the Citrix report, the majority of organizations (83%) will use bring-your-own-device initiatives to manage the growing number of devices that people use to access the corporate network. Employees will generally choose and purchase their own computing devices, with 76% of organizations reimbursing the employee in part or fully.
