Let’s stop talking about workplace…

‘We need to stop talking about the workplace’ is not a phrase you would expect to hear at a workplace conference. But nonetheless, Lendlease’s Natalie Slessor acted as provocateur at WORKTECH Sydney 17 as she explained that we need to move away from thinking just about workplace and focus on place as a whole.

In this video, Slessor describes a work-life approach that recognises community as the best workplace strategy. In order to achieve this, designers need to focus on creating familiar and easy places at a human scale, focuses on team-based working, health and wellbeing, workplace flexibility, technology and precinct.

Slessor presents three propositions to align physical and digital organisational strategy. First, organisations need to recruit cities and precincts to be part of the workplace strategy. The workforce is built of consumers who dictate how they want to work and live in urban environments.

‘We need to stop thinking in containers in a world where we can work anywhere more than ever…’

Second, organisations need to focus on the experience. Place is vital, but it does not work if the experience is not right. Designers should create spaces for people to connect and engage. Third, there is a need to engage with community. The commercial property sector needs to act as ‘the sports coaches to the business community.’