Teaser: What Will the Future of Work Hold?

As 2016 draws near, many are penning resolutions or making plans to help ensure a bright 2016. Here at EventBoard, we’re prepping for the new year with a list  of predictions about what to expect in the enterprise in 2016, with an overall forecast on what the future of work holds and where we fit in.

Private Offices: A Thing of the Past

Private offices were a staple at many companies in decades past. However, private offices are slowing going extinct, with a reported 70% of today’s modern offices employing open floor plans.

Next year, EventBoard predicts that 20% more of offices will adapt to the same open floor plan, with more than half of office space dedicated to meeting rooms or huddle spaces. By 2020, we foresee private offices will be nearly extinct from today’s technology businesses.

A key ingredient to this change is millennials. Once they take over the leadership of corporate America, they will employ the open office floorplan to evolve with how business is conducted and to create an efficient, inclusive work environment.

What this means is that there will be a rise in “huddle rooms” or “war rooms” – small private spaces for people to meet and where sensitive decisions are made. There will always be a need for insulated consulting areas, but the key word is “small,” as open space will dominate the office area.

Dark Data: Shedding Light on Productivity

Dark data, or data that is present but has not surfaced yet, will be the key to unlocking companies’ optimal levels of productivity and will help them save time and money.

EventBoard predicts that by the end of 2016, more than 35% of U.S. companies will be using dark data to give insight into how much meeting time is productive. For example, in today’s workplace, more than 30% of meetings wind up not happening at all. And one Silicon Valley giant reports that 15% of existing meetings had been added to the room reservation calendars by former employees.

Wasted time is costly and it depletes resources. Companies are becoming less tolerant of this inefficiency. Dark data will also allow companies to track employee productivity, to let workers know if they are impacting this productivity in a negative or positive way. Tips for improving productivity will be available and consumed by employees who wish to improve their habits, skills and more.

Videoconferencing the De Facto Communication Method

EventBoard predicts that videoconferencing will be a part of 40% of meetings by 2018. There is no substitute for face-to-face communication, but as the workforce becomes more mobile and remote, companies will look to video to stay connected.

Additionally, cloud videoconferencing solutions like BlueJeans are providing an easy-to-use, easy-to-implement and cost-effective solution, so one doesn’t have to be an IT pro in order to adopt this technology and reap the benefits from it.

We’re no Nostradamus, but one thing we know for sure is that the tech world is constantly evolving.

Because of this, as well as the trends we’re seeing from our own experiences and clients here at EventBoard, we’re willing to go all in and bet that open office floorplans continue to spread  throughout corporate America and dark data acts as a catalyst for office productivity, ensuring that the future of work in 2016 looks very bright.

Read additional predictions in the Real Time Communications article by our co-founder and CEO, Shaun Ritchie.

Top photo by Paweł Gulewicz