Which is the coolest office you can think of? One with a gym on the premises, a pool at the back, a cafe? Some lucky employees are already enjoying all this and more. But how about an office anywhere you want it to be, including on the beach? This is no pipe dream. According to a recent report, titled Agility@Work, by the Regus Group and Unwired Ventures, the end of cubicle farms draws near. Based on the collective insight of global organisations such as Nokia, Barclays and the BBC, the report chalks out the corporate six pack. And while the six factors will help corporates cut the working cost per head by more than half, employees too will have a lot to look forward to.
Culture and workstyle: In order to enforce the flexible workspace concept, companies will have to first move from the current 'management by supervision and physical presence' model to a resultbased approach. This means more empowerment and decision-making opportunities for employees.
Real estate: Employees will be free to choose their workplace in the future. Corporates won't do this purely out of goodwill for the staff but compelled by the escalating real estate costs. Instead of a host of office spaces in multiple cities, we will see a gradual transition to a single, 'thin' head office, and an increasing reliance on other destinations for work. For instance, Vodafone's office in Auckland, New Zealand, is one of the first to break the one-person-per-desk mould. The 1,300-strong staff has no desk, and are all equipped with the latest mobile technology. They choose to work either at a shared workstation or in one of the cafe-style environments. This has made a substantial impact on the recruitment and retention of staff.
Technology: What is the biggest stumbling block to the work-anywhere model? The cafe you like may not have a printer, the beach may not be Wi-Fienabled and so on. But digital technology is rewriting the rules. The combination of Wi-Fi connectivity, better mobile devices, high-speed networks and new, software-led connectivity have, in effect, sounded the death knell for the desk phone and the desktop computer. For example, Microsoft's campus in Amsterdam has adopted a unified software interface, which provides converged telephony and messaging that is delivered to a person, not a desk. The big takeaway for employees is that they have to up their tech quotient or risk being left behind.
Transport: According to the report, people spend an average of 80 minutes a day commuting to their workplace, and double this time in some cities. The accompanying stress and 'need to carry work home' syndrome has reduced the concept of work-life balance to a joke. In the future, companies will focus on cutting down their employees' need to travel through polycentric work environments and increasing adoption of technology.
People: For the first time ever, there are four generations at work, from the retired but working parttimers, born between 1928 and 1945, to the Gen Y workforce. So one of the key drivers for the sixpack thinking is to accurately profile the needs of each group to push up efficiency. At the same time, they will have to prepare for the arrival of the Net Gen. This generation, still at school, will be the first to be able to live online— and embrace virtual workplaces in entirety—thus ushering in a paperless work environment.
Sustainability: All the above are bound to have a big impact on sustainability. Two of the key contributors of carbon emissions are commercial buildings and commuting to those buildings. The Macquarie Group's new building in Sydney, Australia, has reduced paper usage by 73 per cent and, in turn, brought down the required storage space by 78 per cent. 
As organisations begin to implement Agility@Work, they will be able to achieve growth in headcount and motivation levels without taking on additional square feet. And adopt it they will, for this is the new shape that a company has to aspire to in the post-recession world if it wants to thrive, not just survive. Indian companies will follow suit, sooner or later.
