Offices are Getting Smaller. And That’s a Good Thing

September 27, 2012

By 2020 companies will reduce office space by almost 17%, according to a new study by Citrix. The workplace of the future will provide only six to seven desks per 10 office workers, with each person accessing the corporate network from an average of six different computing devices.

Organizations are looking forward to an office redesign that fosters creativity and inspires collaboration. Telecommuting will continue to rise in popularity as the trend of “mobile workstyles” takes over, depleting traditional offices of their cubicle-chained nine-to-fivers.

Mobile workstyles have been adopted widely and rapidly because they offer a number of benefits, Citrix says.

• For organizations, workshifting—where people move work to more optimal times and locations—creates a more flexible, agile workplace (73 percent), lower employee-related costs (53 percent), reduce real estate costs (48 percent) and help attract (47 percent) and retain (44 percent) top talent.

• Employees benefit from workshifting with more flexibility (65 percent), increased personal productivity (62 percent), less commuting time (61 percent), and a better work/life balance (55 percent). It also helps them spend more time with customers (48 percent).

80 percent of organizations that have already implemented workshifting and BYOD have seen cost-related benefits as a direct result. 96 percent of organizations implementing mobile workstyles will invest in redesigning the workplace to create a more inspiring, collaborative and flexible environment equipped with the latest technology.

“Organizations are encouraging people to operate outside of the traditional workplace on their own personal devices to improve the bottom line – by making the organization more responsive, improving productivity and reducing the cost of real estate and device management,” explains Mick Hollison, vice president of marketing and strategy at Citrix. “At the same time, organizations are investing in the space they have to create enticing workplaces that foster collaboration, innovation and creativity.”

“The result is a stronger organization, with high caliber people performing at their best,” he concludes. “The technology to enable the workplace of the future is already available and proven, and plans for workplace redesign can easily be put in place. The real winners will be those that get the people management and culture right, to empower the workforce of the future.”