The office is dead, long live the office

"Working nine to five, that's no way to make a living," sang Dolly Parton, and over the last decade and, in particular since the COVID pandemic, many have been inclined to agree with her. "The nine-to-five has been fading for a while," says Dr Millard. "It's a change that's been led by the fact we have devices that are always connected and always on us. They demand our attention all the time and effectively tether people back to their work, regardless of whether they are in an office or at home. Over the last few years, we've been observing a blurring of the boundaries, largely because technology was blurring them for us."

According to Millard, technology offers three components that have enabled progress and made the need for a physical office less relevant – connectivity, collaboration tools and the cloud. "It's a holy trinity that enabled organizations to rapidly deploy homeworking during the pandemic that simply didn't exist 20 years ago."

The COVID pandemic has acted as a catalyst for hybrid working, allowing people to experience the power of these technological tools to flex the boundaries of work towards their own needs. For example, in research BT conducted with Cisco, 73% of 1500 executives surveyed said they believe using collaboration apps from home improves employee well-being, seeing cutting ties with the office as an opportunity to live and work in a place of their choice. "Home working was not as mainstream as it could have been prior to the pandemic," says Millard. "Now we're in an interesting period where we're taking the learning from the pandemic and are trying to adapt to a world where the big word is 'hybrid'.

In research BT conducted on hybrid working patterns globally^[1], they found that neither five days in the office, nor five days at home is the norm anymore, but something in-between. And that that 'in-between' ebbs and flows: "February was the peak for people being in the office in the UK earlier this year," she says they found, highlighting the coincidence of cold temperatures and high cost of living meaning a day spent in the office offers employees what she calls greater "value for commute".

^[1] https://www.globalservices.bt.com/en/insights/whitepapers/the-best-of-both-worlds-building-a-successful-hybrid-workplace

Empowered by the possibilities opened up by technology, people are looking again at what they value from their work and how they can achieve these. "Pay is one," says Millard "But it's not the be-all and end-all. People want flexibility. They want purpose. They want autonomy and they want trust." She points to research conducted by LinkedIn that found jobs advertised on their platform had around 40% more applicants if they had the words hybrid or flexible as part of the job description.

"Does the nine-to-five really make sense in a digital environment?" Millard asks. "If organizations want to create an environment that attracts high performers, they need to be able to offer these four key things: flexibility, purpose, autonomy and trust. If you're a knowledge worker, then the boundaries are down."

She believes the intersection of technology, a desire for new ways of working from employees and organizations benefiting from engaged and productive employees, means now is the moment to rethink the workplace, working hours and even the career lifecycle.

"The traditional way of thinking about work is broken," she says, citing the difficulty of keeping people in their 50s and older in the work environment as one of the symptoms of this. "Why doesn't the traditional work pattern fit somebody who's over 50? Because often you're sandwiched between caring for young people and older people, which means you don't want to work a nine-to-five or commute."

Core to the idea of sustainable employability is diversity and inclusion. BSI's research, Lifting the Second Glass Ceiling explored how to empower women to remain in the workplace for longer, highlighting the ways women's needs can change around menopause and the opportunity for organizations to respond. "We can't just design work to be one-size-fits-all," says Millard, adding that organizations can think about and address the different needs people face at different stages of their professional lives.

This also includes the needs of those who are neurodivergent, she adds. "A noisy, crowded and late-running commute can leave an autistic person, for example, exhausted before the working day even officially begins. Bright and noisy offices are great for people who are extroverted, but if you're on the neurodivergent scale, they're an absolute nightmare."

Offices can have a positive impact when they are places of "communication, collaboration and community" she continues. "They need to be attractive places to be, and to be fairly fluid in how they're used, adaptable to being used for different things at different times. The question can't be ‘How many desks can I get in?' anymore."

BSI's best practice guide PAS 6463 recommends designing spaces for different needs - for example creating a more organic environment with plants, natural lighting and minimal audible and visual noise - can be an environment that's positive not just for neurodivergent people, but for everyone, in which creativity and collaboration can become easier.

Unlike the traditional nine-to-five, the new office can be one that is bespoke to each organization and designed around the people in it. "No one has all the answers at the moment," says Millard. "Keep an open mind, innovate and experiment. Set a hypothesis and boundaries, and if it fails, it fails, because that's how we learn."

Technology and an increasingly diverse workforce have the potential to fundamentally change the traditional work paradigm. With collaboration, experimentation and playfulness, the opportunity is there to remake work in a way that means it has a positive impact on individuals, organizations and society.