Developers are failing to create offices that will meet the changed work patterns of the next generation, the BCO conference in Geneva heard this morning.
“It’s ludicrous we continue to build the same office environment for the new generation coming through,” said Richard Beastall, head of architect TP Bennett.
He said schoolchildren were already technologically proficient and established multitaskers when they came to join the workforce, “Then we bring them into the office sit them in sterile rows of desks and tell them to work nine to five.”
A minority of organisations were thinking differently, however. “We did a scheme for management consultant Accenture a few years ago and it was six people to one desk, he said. “Their staff were as much visitors to the building as visitors were.”
The session “Learn from the past to develop for the future” heard that Hammerson was already running board meetings on iPads. But Beastall warned it was often senior management that was the obstacle to new technology take-up.
“Those of us who manage businesses are used to command and control,” he said. “So change starts with management systems.”
