Mobile in business

The European labour market is being overhauled in a thorough 'individualist' revolution that is moving workers away from fixed-term contracts and towards collaboration and subordination, argues Denis Pennel.

Denis Pennel is managing director of Ciett, the International Confederation of Private Employment Agencies. He has just published a book in French 'Travailler pour soi' ("Me, Myself and I at work").

When it comes to the future of work there are a few key trends which business leaders need to pay attention to.  Understanding these trends will allow organizations to better prepare and adapt to the changes which are impacting the way we work.

These five trends are: 1) changing behaviors which are being shaped by social media entering the enterprise 2) new collaborative technologies 3) a shift to the “cloud” 4) millennials soon becoming the majority workforce and 5) mobility and “connecting to work.”

It’s official: Open-plan offices are wildly distracting places to work. About 70 percent of U.S. employees now work in open offices, according to the International Management Facility Association. But the collaboration-friendly environment with minimal cubicle separations “proved ineffective if the ability to focus was not also considered,” according to a new study by the design firm Gensler. “When focus is compromised in pursuit of collaboration, neither works well.”

The key to making workers happy and productive is having a mix of spaces for different activities. Gensler found that workers spend more than half their time at work in deep focus and about one-fourth in collaboration, with the rest split between learning, socializing, and other tasks. Of course, office workers still spend most of the day at their desks, but when it’s time to do some hard-core collaborating or learning, moving to a different environment can help them shift gears.