As the culture of companies changes, Manchester offices are having to adapt.
An example of this is Overbury, an office fit-out and refurbishment consultants. Its director, Phillip Westwood, was interviewed in November 2017 by the Manchester Evening News. The major change he highlighted was that the working environment is no longer confined to the office. Workers work from coffee bars, at home or at clients’ offices. This means that the IT infrastructure needs to adapt to people working anywhere.
Westwood does not think that the office desk will disappear but an office worker will not be tied to one desk. For some tasks the desk is ideal, but for confidential phone calls that need to be unheard by fellow workers, there needs to be private space away from the desk. When a task needs a desk, a worker will use any available desk.
Another important consideration for companies is the health and wellbeing of employees, which is is of immense importance when Overbury consults on redesigning offices. An example of caring for workers’ health is desktops that can be height adjusted so that workers can spend some time working standing up in order to improve circulation.
Meeting rooms can include smart devices to automatically adjust heating, lighting and ventilation when a meeting is booked.
The key to future office space in Manchester is buildings that can be adapted to the needs of individual businesses. Prospective tenants are demanding more from offices than just desk space and a Manchester location.
