The employee experience is at the core of current office design trends. Architecture supports the experience of employees at all levels in many ways – from wellness to spaces designed to support specific work activities. Some of the recent items that we’ve incorporated into office design include:
Also in office remodels today, owners are more likely to engage their staff from various levels in the design process. This engagement enables activity based work (ABW) scenarios to be better understood and developed in the form of needed and useable work spaces and in general underscores transparency. We have also encountered scenarios where staff involved in the design process then become ambassadors during the move-in process, particularly when a company is making a significant shift in the way space is organized. This supports ownership of the space and that has a direct impact on culture and employee engagement.
We have also seen more owner focus to integrate culture into design. Designers should always focus on this important aspect and tend to do so, but trends seem to include owners asking for and focusing on making culture visible in the built work environment in both subtle and overt ways beyond pure branding opportunities.
AE Works was featured in the Pittsburgh Business Times’ architecture feature on office design trends. Read more here.