Intro
This isn’t necessarily surprising, according to a recent report by Ernst & Young, four of the top ten reasons millennials - who will represent 75% of the global workforce by 2025 - have been found to quit their jobs related to a lack of flexibility in how and where they can work. Flexibility is now becoming a pressing issue not only for the way we work, but for where we work as well. Check out the full NORNORM report here.
While flexibility is clearly on the minds of many, what does it actually mean in practice? How will workspaces change in order to stay relevant in a post COVID-19 world?
Most importantly, with offices becoming increasingly more adaptive, what is the future of a flexible facility manager?
The Flexible Facility Manager
We know that as a facility manager, flexibility and the need to adapt is already in the DNA of the job. From managing perpetually changing expectations, solving problems continuously and being on the front lines of a rapidly evolving office industry, facility managers themselves do not need to become more flexible … the spaces they work in just need to start catching up.
For the average facility manager, maximising a space’s potential through optimised design and flexible spatial arrangements to meet people’s changing needs is the new status quo.
How to take advantage of constant change
1) Adaptable Services
Invest in services that adapt as you do. Recurring maintenance, repairs, offices that need to be redesigned whether you are scaling up or scaling down — if each of these changes represent new contractors, services or collaborators, then change becomes labour intensive, lengthy and costly. Search out services that can do all of this continuously, adapting for any necessary changes instantaneously and on the go.
2) Sensor Technology
Outfit your workspace with technology that informs you with what changes need to be made before you even think of them. The rise of sensor technology in office design is well documented — McKinsey estimated in 2015 that the Information of Things (IoT) market would be worth $11.1 trillion by the year 2025 — but it is still not considered the norm in day-to-day office design. Sensor technology can document how a space is being used and collect valuable data to inform how an office can or should be optimised.
3) Predictable Budgets
Reorganise your budget with expenditures that remain consistent. Instead of investing large sums of money sporadically and then having to account for unforeseen costs in between, subscription based services can be a useful alternative for services that remain consistent and budget costs that remain predictable on a monthly basis.
The NORNORM Solution
At NORNORM we are on a mission to make workspaces better — for the people they serve, the businesses they house and the planet they impact.
We are a subscription-based furnishing service, meaning that when you change, we change. Once you become a NORNORM member we design and outfit your workspace with an entirely circular furnishing solution. This means that if any piece needs to be changed, repaired or replaced, we are here for it. If you wish to change around the layout of your workspace to freshen things up or adapt to a change in your business, we do that too.
We have also integrated sensor technology into our offering so our design solutions stay relevant as possible. We can monitor the air quality of meeting rooms to ensure employee health, enable more informed COVID-19 precautions and track the use and “hot spots” of offices to inform future design modifications.
We are here to build the future of work — for people, for planet, for business and for the flexible facility manager.
Get in touch:
If you are interested in learning more or getting a 3D design proposal from us for no cost, please visit us at our website nornorm.com.
Contact us: Douwe Dirks at Douwe.dirks@nornorm.com, +31642681905, www.nornorm.com