Expert Insights

An innovative, digital, direct-to-glass printing technology known as Alice ® allows custom, multi-colored artwork or images to be permanently printed on glass quickly and cost-effectively.

The recession and introduction of sophisticated mobile devices created the perfect recipe for organizations to identify new, efficient ways to design work environments. These new environments offer employees a chance to embrace technology and compete in the global economy while decreasing real-estate expenses.

Productivity, efficiency, and flexibility are three common themes that arise when our industry talks about the future of the office. Mobile work is a reality, and studies consistently show that employees are choosing be work outside of the workplace in order to be more productive.

Digital Natives have an inherent understanding of digital technologies, as they've been integrated into their lives since early childhood. They are part of a tech-savvy generation at the forefront of technological progress and want to be connected when they wish, from anywhere. Now graduated from secondary education, the first generation of Digital Natives is entering the working world and transforming it at a fast pace. Is the workplace ready to embrace this change?

For more than 15 years, my colleagues and I have worked with some of America--â„¢s "Great Places to Work.--  We've implemented workplace flexibility initiatives to increase workplace productivity, effectiveness, and resiliency. Yet we've been met with real resistance and challenges while implementing these initiatives, from compressed workdays and flextime to part-time schedules and job sharing.

As a follow-on to Part I of this series, Bob Fox explores how the workplace has responded to massive shifts in our cultural and technological underpinnings.

Given the high uncertainties in the economy and employment, it--â„¢s doubly important for workplace professionals to look well beyond the horizon, even when the air seems filled with fog.

Like it or not, smart devices have become the norm. People assume that you have one or several, that you are always connected, and very convenient to reach. Smart devices offer quick and simple solutions to larger real-world issues in a compact, portable, and sometimes beautiful way.

It's with visions planted by this program that I now imagine a future workplace as an amusement park for adults. The typical cubical will be for the history books, replaced with coffee shops that can transform into personal offices or meeting rooms simply by pressing a button on a iPhone or iPad.

Despite our best efforts to anoint our creative intuition as the vanguard of modern design, our genius goes only as far as prevailing technology can carry us, and for good reason. The technology of today has been developed and field-tested to ensure our creations can stand the test of time --“ in addition to the test of unexpected client demands and abuse.

Technology has had a big impact on how we work. As few as 5 years ago, there were still people working very closely together in shared office spaces. They depended on accessing the same information at the same time -- which was probably on a server in some closet that was in the office.

While we've seen growth in how many employees telecommute, this growth is likely set to continue to expand in dramatic fashion for several reasons that are all converging. Changes in technology, psychology, and the environment are going to spur more people to work at home on a more frequent basis in the coming years. Do not be surprised if we see a large shift towards telework sooner rather than later.