Millennials make the largest part of our population today, and soon they will become a majority in the workforce, and there is no doubt that the way of doing business, managing the infrastructure and other work-related circumstances will change under their influence. This is probably the most visible in the offices, where millennials are bringing the most obvious changes (e.g. open office design vs. the traditional cubicles and other traditional layout features like corner offices). Let us see some of the must-haves for a millennial-approved office, how to implement them, and why they are important.
Saving the environment – one paper at a time
Millennials are the generation which is the most invested in preserving the environment, and they send the archaic paper-printing and document filing practices where they belong (not the shredder) – to history. Nowadays, everything can be stored on computers or uploaded on the cloud, so the use of paper can be minimized. This also decreases the need for printers, which can be true energy vampires.
Greening up the equipment and supplies
Energy accounts for almost 20 percent of total costs in a typical office building, which is a noteworthy operational cost that needs to be addressed. Fortunately, millennials are not in it only for the money, and even without this staggering number, they still insist on working in an office equipped with Energy Star rated equipment, energy-saving light bulbs and, if possible, eco-friendly produced office supplies.
Where the plants are green, the air is clean
The indoor air quality is a significant factor that affects worker’s productivity and health. Millennials are well aware of that fact, so they made houseplants in the offices a normal thing. Besides being a huge design trend, introducing plants in the offices can improve the mood and focus, decrease stress and purify the air from harmful toxins. An extra step towards improving the air in the office i relying on air purifiers. Since there is a vast variety of purifiers for all kinds of purposes, they usually tend to rely on the best HEPA air purifier they can find to fit all their needs and that provides their work spaces with healthy clean air.
Clean as a whistle
No one says that baby boomers kept their offices messy and chaotic, but millennials do make the hygiene of their workplace a priority. Regular and thorough office cleaning makes the company look good, inhibits spreading of bacteria and viruses, prevents injuries at the workplace (slips, falls, etc.), and makes the workplace more pleasant to spend time in.
Greening up the cleaning
Speaking of cleaning, this is another aspect of office maintenance that has become green. The generation that is taking over the business world has a lot to say about chemicals used in conventional cleaning products, and none of it is good. Their cleaning tools of choice are steam cleaners, organic products and water.
Casual workplace design
As we already mentioned, millennials stepped away from the conventional office design and traded privacy for collaboration and flexibility. Throw everything you suppose the office should look like out the window, and you’ll get the millennial dream office – open design, flexible furniture arrangement, brainstorming hubs, personalized work stations, entertainment and relaxing zones (these include everything from gaming rooms to yoga studios)…
Offices we’d like to live in
Function above form is the ancient way of thinking. Millennials are making these two equal and require to have the best of both world. Today’s offices are beautiful to look at, designed with the latest décor trend in mind, but also conducive to focus and concentration. A millennial office is the place where color psychology and color of the year live in perfect harmony, where décor trends like Scandinavian don’t disrupt ergonomically sensible design and where the eye can rest, but still remain focused.
Technology as a design trend on its own
It’s no secret that millennials are a tech savvy generation, and the impact of technology is huge even in the companies only loosely related to technology itself. However, technology is obviously shrinking each day, and it doesn’t occupy as much space as it used to. As a result, the workstations can be smaller and the work meetings can be done everywhere in the company premises, since we can take our technology with us as we go.
Fighting the conventionality, millennials have managed to overhaul the archaic offices and introduce a breath of fresh air into them. We can still be struggling to understand what does this mean and where we go from here, but one thing is for sure: everything we think we know about offices is obsolete.