Work Design’s Katie Sargent, attended WORKTECH’s 2023 New York Conference. Here are four key themes from the event.
WORKTECH, the global workplace conference brings together interdisciplinary speakers and learning experiences to enhance creativity and forward thinking. Convened at NYU in Manhattan for their 15th year in New York, 200 attendees with backgrounds in design, tech, CRE, Workplace and HR came to hear 35 speakers discuss topics ranging from AI to the case for the four day work week.
Speakers and panelists included: Melissa Fisher/Future of Work Expert and Strategist; Alexandra Levit/ Business and Workplace Author; Gabor Nagy/Meta; Nicole Turner/Mastercard; Chris Butterick/LinkedIn; Willie Jackson/ ReadySet; Jon Leland/ Kickstarted; Joe O’Connor/ Work Time Reduction Center of Excellence and more. Our hosts for the day were Amanda Kross and Giles Wrench with JLL.
Here are the four main themes that emerged throughout the day:
1. AI: Embrace it Now
You won’t lose your job to ai, but you might lose your job to someone who knows how to work with ai.
– Alexandra Levit, Business and Workplace Author, Analyst, Consultant, and Futurist, Founder and CEO, Inspiration at Work, Columnist, WSJ
AI is here and it is here to stay. Don’t be afraid, embrace it now! The more intelligent AI gets the better we will be able to use it. Mastercard uses AI for their online chat system; the more information AI receives, the more sophisticated chat bots can become. AI can also be used to sift through large amounts of data to come up with patterns. From ChatGPT to Microsoft Copilot, AI is being integrated into technology across the board and can be used in any job function. Pro tip! (from Keynote, Alexandra Levit) – Understand what tech is available to you in your workplace to make your job easier or can make you better at your job!
- We also received an introduction to Generative AI – artificial intelligence that can learn patterns and structures to create new data with similar characteristics.
- Generative AI could help in employee experience, recruiting cancer trial patients, and so many other applications.
- Regulations for AI are coming. Ethical uses on a federal, state and even corporate/HR level will have to be implemented into how we use AI today.
- AI can be even more biased than humans. Training data and AI matters.
When the audience was polled on how they are planning to use AI in their organization the top two answers were: (1) Facilitating data-driven decision-making in executive management and (2) Optimizing workplace design and space utilization; while 19% of responders indicated that they are not using AI.
2. People: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Match your space to your people, not the other way around.
– Nick LiVigne, Enterprise Solutions Lead, The Instant Group
So you have done surveying and have all of this data, you have management on board, you have all of this new technology and tools AND you space has been thoughtfully re-designed to support employees when they are in the office. That’s it, right? According to the WORKTECH23 NY speakers, that’s not the end! People have different needs, different job functions; one size doesn’t fit all. Even a well thought out and designed space will (or should) go through numerous iteration, trials and errors and refits. If something isn’t working, or your people want something else, be willing to change. A practical lesson shared by BNP Paribas speakers Jeremy Vandel and Pauline Balland is to put money aside for changes post project completion. Build this into your budget from the beginning and be willing to change your design standards. Commit to continually the space and giving employees what they want.
Use AI and Technology to your advantage! You can use simulations and games to help prepare for the real world and get user feedback prior to implementing on a large scale. Joanna Średnicka, Co-founder of Game Changers Academy and Assimilate, reminded attendees that you can win hearts and minds with games! Games are a great communication tool, playing is more engaging than listening and can be used for behavior mapping and spatial computing.
Melissa Marsh, Founder and Executive Director of Plastarc discussed with attendees that people differ in what they want. Some people value work-life integration and others want work-life separation. Being able to accommodate both employee types through your hardware, software and policies will help give your employees options for what work style best suits them.
3. Place: Intentional Usage
The office is like a gym, we know it will feel good to go, but getting the motivation to go there is tough!
– Aaron Taylor Harvey, Architect, Founder & Creative Director, Spaces Of
The office isn’t going away, so let’s talk about it’s purpose. The office is even more purposeful than before, according to numerous speakers. When employees are coming in, they are coming in to execute specific tasks. Creating an environment that supports employees in their intentional work is key.
Following earlier discussions in the day, the theme of testing and failing and testing more came up again and again. Piloting, using simulations, games, surveys, any way to engage your employees to be part of the trial and error time we are currently in of figuring out how an office best fits your culture and employees is crucial. “The worst thing you can do is nothing” said speaker Tomi Teikko, Founder of Empathetic Building and Workplace Advisor, Haltian, Inc. Get as much feedback and data as possible and make sure that you include all employees. Sifting through data to find key metrics and themes is easier than ever with AI! Things are changing rapidly right now, with technology, employee needs, and how we work. A continuous loop of feedback is key to stay on top of changes.
- 100% Inversion! Everything we used to leave the office for, we come to the office for now. Experiences that were once held offsite are now core reasons for coming onsite – think client meetings and coffees.
- Expectations for space are extremely high. Organizations used to not have to complete on where people worked, now your office has to be amazing for employees to want to come in. “Dining is key, people will come in for free lunch to a bad office. The next level is wanting to host people for lunch in your office,” said speaker Aaron Taylor Harvey.
- Offices, just like school, are for learning. And if the teachers don’t show up, that learning can’t happen.
4. Technology: Ease of Experience
If it isn’t easy, we don’t want it! Numerous speakers, including Courtney Elling, Hybrid Work Leader from Cisco, stressed the importance of having technology that integrates in all of your work solutions. Having your employees work flow disrupted because of technology is a deterrent from coming into a workplace. Ensuring ease of accessing your accounts for an employee no matter what location they are at or device they are using will help create a seamless hybrid experience.
- Real estate and technology are no longer separate, they are blended. Technology is changing rapidly and it is the organizations responsibility to keep up and be adaptable. Get HR and IT together very early.
- The virtual conference room and the physical conference room are equally important! AV, acoustics, lighting, software all play into that experience. No one wants to be starting up at a monitor 3 feet above them and feel like a tiny ant while they are trying to negotiate.
- Eliminate any little hiccup in the process that you can – having to log in multiple times, lagging and speed of internet, etc.
- Technology is expensive – make sure you are leveraging it and training your employees on how to best use it. Tech should allow people to work flexibly!
Additional WORKTECH23 NY Insights:
The case has been made for the four day work week! Speaker Joe O’Connor, Director & Co-Founder at the Work Time Reduction Center of Excellence and the Former CEO of 4 Day Week Global, shared with the audience the irrefutable evidence that organizations that move to some structure of a 4 day work week see employee retention, engagement and productivity go up significantly. The 4 day work week is more than an emotional decision, there is data that backs up this decision. Speaker Jon Leland, the Chief Strategy Officer of Kickstarter, who successfully piloted the 4 day work week at Kickstarter stated “Productivity goes up. That’s all I care about.”
We hope you’ll join us for more WORKTECH in 2023.
Photos courtesy of Katie Sargent
