Is Your Office Ready for Gen Z

As a business, planning ahead is imperative, and creating the right space to attract talent - not just today, but 10 or 15 or 20 years from now - is paramount. With a typical lease being 10 years long, how do you seek out and design space today for Generation Z,  who may not join your workforce for another 5-20 years? 

Our managing principal, Jamie Grossman, was a panel speaker at the  Interior Design Show, speaking on the topic of - Is Your Office Ready for Generation Z. The panel discussed how to design and create a work space for 'Gen Z'. There were three key themes that came out of the panel discussion: 

1. Generation Z think, behave, and learn differently. While they are digital natives and are also very social. They crave face-to-face time, and learn best in social, casual settings. From an office design perspective, this means it's important to have different types of space to accommodate different types of working styles - more open concept, collaboration, and social spaces.

2. Design is not and never should be static. As your workforce grows and changes, your space should adjust. Look at furniture that is flexible, workstation panels than can be broken down, and a layout that can be easily reconfigured.

3. Its hard to imagine where your business will be 10-15 years from now, so how do you accurately plan for the future. A good option as you grow is to look at co-working spaces. This allows you to 'try before you buy' in terms of design, layout, etc.