The Changing Nature of Work: 30 signals to consider for a sustainable future

SIGNAL 24. Creating inclusive workplaces

At the most basic level, all employees should be equipped with a healthy office building and a suitable workspace to fulfil their functions. With the rise of widespread health and safety awareness and contemporary demands of the workforce, it is becoming necessary for employers to be committed and to provide choice and flexibility with respect to building design and even office location.

The work environment features that will be required to meet the needs of a wide range of employees in the coming years include: modular and tiered seating solutions; wider corridors; less density (i.e. number of workers per physical area); adjustable desks; ergonomic seating; accessible plug sockets; adjustable displays; spacious meeting spaces; natural lighting; a variety of work areas for different tasks; temperature control; good ventilation; and touchless controls. In addition, due to a shift in the mindset regarding issues such as health and environmental sustainability, there will be growing expectations to have areas dedicated to resting and relaxing [109], showers, exercise areas, healthy food 37 .The Changing Nature of Work options, access to fresh air, charging points for electric vehicles, bicycle storage, and private rooms for breastfeeding mums. An interesting trend is ‘resimercial design’, which brings the homey feel of residential furniture into the workplace. These can all contribute to employee satisfaction and retention.

The physical properties of a building are obviously important in terms of creating inclusive spaces, but they are not sufficient alone. Equally important are the less tangible work environment features such as creating equal opportunities for people to move around the office and interact so that they can be encouraged to engage in collaborative work, which often sparks innovation. Some of the emerging environments include: (i) open offices, which are great at reducing silos, but with ‘neighbourhood zones’ in them to accommodate employees who perform similar functions and can interact easily when needed; (ii) activity-based working, which allows people to choose from among a variety of work spaces that best support the type of work they do on any given day; (iii) co-working spaces that are shared with others who are not necessarily from the same organization; and (iv) hot desks and hotelling where people work where they want without an assigned desk or an office.

All of these environments will also need to accommodate new digital ways of working. In addition to today’s infrastructure needs, such as videoconferencing, even within the office to avoid crowded conference rooms, large displays, projectors and digital whiteboards, virtual reality is expected to play a significant role in reducing isolation, especially for remote workers. The Internet of Things (IoT) is also expected to play a major role in creating frictionless, integrated office experiences.

Check out the next signal, #25: The rise of start-ups.

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The Changing Nature of Work: 30 signals to consider for a sustainable future

Work helps sustain livelihoods and largely determines the quality of life. Its changing nature is at the frontier of development. This report is the result of a broad horizon scanning by six UNDP Accelerator Labs across Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.  They reveal 30 signals that shape the “where, who, how, and why” of the changing nature of work. From the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce to new work models and entrepreneurial ecosystems, the authors explore opportunities and threats, as well as solutions from local contexts that can be scaled up into positive answers to the challenges people around the world are facing.  Download the full report here.