Agile Workspaces – The Need of the Hour

Gone are the days of traditional office spaces that were incredibly mundane and boring. Today, workspaces around the world are dropping away from their stereotypical image and are transforming into inspiring spaces. Not only the offices, but also the nature of the work has undergone a seismic transformation, and every role is agiler than it was a decade ago. Ever since the disruptions in technology began in the early 2000s’, work has taken a front seat and is more strapped to people than ever. With the numerous smart devices available, people are now collaborating round the clock and making way towards high-performing teams.

Since the workforce is evolving, it becomes imperative for workspaces to follow the similar suite. Agile workspaces are the need of the hour, and they must support a diverse range of workstyles ranging from quiet and secluded archetypes to collaborative spaces.

What are Agile Workspaces?

Agile workspaces have two factors viz. creativity and science. These spaces create a balance between these two factors and provide a workspace that is vibrant, space-efficient and productive.

The Significance of Activity Based Working

Activity-based workspaces are characterised by different environments that fulfil different settings as per an employee’s job role. These spaces can either have support for an individual employee or an entire team collaborating on a specific activity. Since every role in an organisation is different, providing an activity-based working environment improves not only productivity but also paves the way towards efficiency and happier employees. Here’s how activity-based working can be fruitful for both the employees and employers:

• Increased focus on balancing work and life that promotes a culture of ownership, collaboration and proactive engagement
• Greater control over remote teams
• Attracting and retaining talented employees
• Increased productivity because of increased employee satisfaction

The Elements of Agile Workspaces

All agile workspaces are backed by some elements to be truly ‘agile’. They also provide a 360-degree environment to employees for all job functions. They have technologically advanced infrastructure such as indoor LED lighting, IoT framework, and other smart and connected lighting systems. These spaces can be improvised and curated for diverse needs and activities. Workspace design must be scalable and based on creating on-demand spaces that also promote employee health and well-being. Furthermore, a scalable area that supports hot-desking is another element that distinguishes an agile workspace. They are truly flexible in all regards. Typically, there can be many elements of an Agile Workspace, namely:

Open Plan Area or Collaboration Space – These areas essentially offer excellent communication and have a high density of workers. It is space-efficient and is ideal for project teams, and hot-desking.

Quiet Zones or Focus Space – These areas inside a workspace offer privacy for confidential work or when an employee needs high concentration and requires focus. They can also be used to provide on-demand space.

Breakout or Relaxation Space – They serve the purpose of relaxation and can even be used for brain-storming sessions. As multi-purpose areas, these spaces are also ideal for impromptu and ad-hoc meetings.

Inspirational Space – Most agile workspaces rely on design to inspire their workforce. An inspirational space can run through the entire office by using appropriate graphics, quotes and themes on the walls, desks and such.

Team Meeting Space – These are enclosed spaces where a specific team can meet and discuss tasks at hand.

Touchdown – It is a highly flexible area that supports a range of tasks. This space is more suited for short duration tasks.

Resources – Areas that contain stationary storage, printers, copiers, team filing and even coffee machines. They need to be strategically placed, away from working areas for less noise intrusion.

The significance of Indoor LED Lighting in Agile Workspaces

Lighting plays a crucial role in defining agile workspaces. It has a pronounced effect on humans, as it stimulates our activity levels and mood. The interplay of light and space essentially creates workspaces that are human-centric. Lighting helps in giving agile workspaces the required illumination for specific functions. Moreover, when agile workspaces are created using indoor LED lighting, the chances of automation increase and these semiconducting diodes can be easily controlled and monitored over a network using IoT. The factor that they can be used with different lighting control systems, including microwave sensors, occupancy sensors and even scene select system make them highly scalable. Apart from their functionality, we at Wipro Lighting lay special emphasis on the design. For instance, our recessed lighting such as VERGE LED is an award-winning indoor LED lighting that fulfils both the function and design parameters. It has also won the Red Dot Award for product design of the year.

Wipro’s Smart & Connected Solutions empower you to create such ‘Agile’ workspaces that promote employee well-being, offer choice and control to suit the task at hand and present actionable insight into workspace utility to enable optimisation.