Offices meeting the expectations of Generations Y and Z

In today’s digital world, offices stuck with the former designs and technologies make new generation employees unhappy. Now is the time where comfort is at the forefront, in terms of offices and office furniture for the new generation employees

Generation Y; also known as digital locals; born between the years of 1981 and 1996, all their daily activities accompanied with a screen, unsatisfied with the world around them, ambitious and wants to achieve their goals, is the generation described as  “me me me” generation’’ by Time Magazine in 2014.

The Z generation, which will take the lead of the business world within the next 20 years; born between the years of 1997-2000 and grew up with tablets and smartphones at hand, neglecting social interactions with people due to their dominancy over digital world, has short attention span, independent and demanding, is the generation which will have the professions that doesn't exist for the time being.

Along with the fact that as of 2020, Y and Z generations make up the 75% of the total employees, they have more to say in business life now. 9am to 5pm working hours and attractive retirement plans have come to an end. The biggest expectation now is flexibility.

Nobody wants to be chained to a meeting desk all day, and this can never be the case for the Y and Z generations… For the very same reason, the desks which allow them to work both standing and sitting is a reason for preference.

With intense work pressure, it is not enough for the employees to work comfortably only at their desks because thanks to mobile devices and Wi-Fi, the majority can now work anywhere they feel comfortable. The comfort to be provided to employees in all areas of the office such as cafeteria, new generation meeting rooms or resting areas will have a positive impact.

What is most important now is to create employee oriented working areas. According to HubSpot, along with mobile working options, the workplaces are becoming smaller. As of 2020, the average work space per employee will be down from 37m2 to 14m2. Increasing number of remote working will help avoiding overcrowded offices.

For the smaller offices, it becomes important to create multi-purpose areas such as divided areas that will provide focused work, as well as shared lounges and recreational areas.

In Deliotte’s 2019 Human Resources Trends report, teams’ communication webs are more similar to the ones in Hollywood film productions rather than the ones in old tradiational corporates’ ways.

The employees come together to work through a project and when it is completed, they go separate ways to take on other tasks. This new definition implies that future offices should be designed in the same purpose. Comfortable working desks and office chairs, modular seats, armchairs and sofas that can be combined for the team work.