The commercial interiors industry has studied the future of the office since its inception. It is the one common question that drives the industry forward: What will the workplace of tomorrow look like? The answers to those questions have driven strategy, product design and sales since the first industrious salesmen (they were all men at that time) sold desks and chairs into an office.
The future of the office is a topic that is broadly discussed, even among those not working in the industry. Everyone, it seems, wants to know how to get the most out of their workers and workspaces.
So we went to the front lines â office furniture dealers â and asked them to take a stab at predicting what might be coming to the workplace of the future. After all, office furniture dealers are the point where manufacturers connect to customers. Who would know better what the customers want and what the manufacturers are providing?
And while hybrid work seems here to stay in one form or another according to the dealers we spoke with, the office and the workplace will remain an important hub long into the future. The office is changing, they say, but it is not time for hand-wringing. The office of the future is taking shape before our eyes and the dealers we spoke to believe that opens up many opportunities for the industry.
Russell Frees, president and CEO of Chicago-based Henricksen, said he is excited about the overall direction of the office and its future. There is a renewed focus on what it means to gather together and how the industry can help create spaces that are perfect for its clients, he said.
âI believe that more and more of the main use of space will center around culture building, team dynamics and cultivating great internal and external experiences,â he said. âIn the past, so much of what happened in the workplace happened unintentionally: conversations and connections by walking into someone â impromptu happy hours after a long day of work â engagement with new people entering into the work force and engagement and a transfer of knowledge from more seasoned members of a team. I think many of us and many organizations took for granted those encounters and the benefit that those had on a companyâs business and overall culture. Now many of our clients are seeking to direct much of that type of behavior with their internal teams through cool, intentional spaces.â
Things are changing on the other side of the country as well, according to Joe Lozowski, CEO and president of Tangram, a Steelcase dealer based in Southern California. He said the office is evolving, but it is far from obsolete.
âWhile weâve grown comfortable working remotely, nothing replaces the energy and innovation that comes from face-to-face interaction. The future office will pivot away from being just a place to work and more towards being a hub of collaboration, creativity, and connection. Itâs about designing flexible spaces that can easily shift from collaborative areas to focused work zones,â he said.
With the increase of choice in product and application, the final solutions continue to vary, said Harry Chalker, CEO of PMC Commercial Interiors, a Haworth dealer in Raleigh, N.C.
âThe change we have seen is the customers that donât give a crap about their office or employee experience are not building offices. They send them home and save money. The customers that believe they need to create an employee experience with their space continue to push us to meet their objectives with beautiful, flexible, well integrated space,â he said.
Mark Williams, president and chief executive officer of Elements IV Interiors, a Haworth dealership in Dayton, Ohio, said offices will become spaces of community and culture. The human part of work is most critical for success and companies with the strongest cultures will be the ones who have spaces that encourage teamwork, collaboration, focus, and well-being.
Small business may be able to operate in a virtual/remote structure, but larger companies will still require offices for a variety of reasons, said Scott Hartkopf, founder and CEO of POSH Contract Interiors. Those reasons include offices:
- As a symbol of strength and stability in the eyes of investors, customers and the recruitment of key new associates.
- As a place to gather and drive active communication that takes place in face-to-face settings versus video conferencing.
- As a physical place for hands on product development, experimentation, collaboration and just plain âdoing business.â
Customers are asking a lot more questions post-pandemic, said Williams. The questions have all been very industry specific. For example, during the early stages of the pandemic police stations were talking space dividers, and insurance companies were talking technology.
âThe tone has shifted from reactive urgency in getting spaces that are government-mandate compliant, to now proactive strategies of design making the most of their real estate and creating spaces where organizations/employees can thrive in the highest degree,â he said.
Hartkopf said his customers are asking questions like: How can I balance what I need to effectively and efficiently run my business and also address the change in preferred work styles of my team members?
Pre-pandemic, customers were telling dealers what they needed and it was pretty much copy-paste from the prevailing design trends of the day, said Chalker. Many assumed that if someone else had success with it, they would too. Now, he said, the ambitious customer is asking questions on how to achieve their desired results. There is less of a âproven conceptâ that they can follow, and they need to create their own path.
Many of Henricksenâs clients are looking at how to re-engage their employees in a physical space. Many of its clients were thinking about the most efficient use of space. Many discussions were held on ratios of collaboration areas, meeting areas, conference areas and headâs down areas.
âI believe it is clear to most leaders that a vast majority of companies need their people engaged together,â said Frees. âThat is not to minimize the multi-sensory needs for work and the need for private, quiet space, but it is to put an emphasis on the overall social needs of us as humans.â
Still, hybrid work is here to stay, according to the leaders.
âIt may look more like flexible work instead of hybrid, but not being in the office for 40 hours a week is here to stay,â said Chalker. âIt sure looks like companies will need less space. This is why a customer needs to define what they want the space to provide before they design their workplace. 30% or 40% less of their 2019 space is probably not the right solution for most customers.â
The evolution of the office continues, said Frees. If done correctly, he thinks a companyâs position on hybrid can create value to its brand and help with recruitment and retention of employees. Engaging âin officeâ also means clearer visibility with leaders and peers, which ultimately helps career pathing and succession planning at all levels.
In traditional commercial spaces Williams said he believes hybrid is here to stay. Companies with great cultures embraced this long before COVID, and overall, it is a positive thing in encouraging other companies to offer that flexibility and trust. However, he believes that the majority of time will shift to in-person work over the next couple years as human nature will continue to move in that direction. And many forget that for most jobs, hybrid simply isnât possible.
âHybrid work is a privilege,â he said. âMany of our customers are not fortunate to have that ability to execute their work remotely. We have the respect for all of the healthcare heroes, police officers, high security clearance spaces, and manufacturing facilities who are not able to do their job from home.â
Regardless of how large the office is or how often it is used, customers need the industry to lead them in the right direction. The industry needs to focus not just on products, but on consultation and leadership.
âThose who lead the customer to their office of the future will lead the industry,â said Chalker.
That leadership must come from customers as well, said Hartkopf. Companies with strong leadership and corporate cultures will do what it takes to succeed and that will include finding the optimal workplace environments, he said, adding that companies with poor leadership and dysfunctional environments âhave larger challenges than what their offices will look like.â
Current workplace trends prove that the industry is at a point where it can really make a difference by leading on design. And according to Frees, the industry needs to get away from a âone size fits allâ mentality.
âSome great minds are trying to figure out the best solutions and I think if we are smart, the office of the future will keep evolving, however, it will take courageous leaders on both the supply side (us) and the user side (clients) to be able to move past the status quo and be willing to take some risk on change,â he said.
Tangram is fundamentally changing. It is moving beyond just being office furniture providers to becoming true workplace consultants. âItâs not just about selling furniture; itâs about helping companies create spaces that reflect their culture and support their goals. The future office needs to be seen as an ecosystem where furniture, technology, and space all work in harmony. Our role is to guide our clients in creating these integrated environments that make collaboration seamless, whether people are in the office or joining remotely,â said Lozowski.
Thought leadership is critical, said Williams. âIn our industry, the majority of our thought is design led, and renderings can tell more than a thousand words. As we continue to track how different verticals are navigating hybrid impactfully, those key insights will help other organizations improve. Knowing there isnât a one size fits all solution is important, and also more critical for space makers to understand their customer at their core and guide them on a space creation journey that helps the organization and employees thrive,â he said.
So what will office furniture dealers look like in the future?
Williams said the role of the space maker has never been more important within the commercial, healthcare, government, and hospitality spaces. âWe arenât making deals, he said. âWe are making spaces, so thatâs how we describe our industry title.â
Dealers are getting larger and consolidating. Large manufacturers are pushing administrative and general overhead costs down to the dealer channel. Margins are not improving, according to Hartkopf. Ownership is changing as well. He said dealer principals will see fewer options for profitability exiting their businesses and the dealer world could see more employee ownership (ESOP) programs. Private equity funds have started entering the industry as well, he said, and they have short-term financial goals and objectives. They will see that the industry is challenging and many of their investments will fail, according to Hartkopf.
The pandemic and the supply chain issues have made the connectivity between its clients, manufacturers and influencers way more important than they have been in the past, said Frees. As a dealer, early engagement is spelling success in ways Henricksen has not seen before. Early engagement helps clarify budgets and helps level expectations across the board, he said.
The future of office furniture dealers will depend on individual dealers, their philosophy and their ambition, Chalker said. âMany are quite comfortable with the value proposition of being the exclusive local source of âAligned Brand A B or C.â Others are working hard to create more value for the customer, becoming integrators of many types of solutions,â he said. âWe think the strong, relevant, future dealer will not be a dealer at all, but rather a partner of clients and design firms bringing their vision to life.â
Many in the industry â dealers included â are seizing on the positive evolution of the industry, said Frees. He said Henricksen is engaging at a closer level with its major manufacturing partners, which is being seen as a benefit to its clients. On the flip side, the dealer has also seen a completely different approach with some other competitive manufacturing partners.
âIn many instances, across all of our locations, there are great competitive dealers we see every day. It is very interesting how a few of our competitive manufacturing partners completely take those dealers for granted. Sometimes it seems almost to be an attitude towards them as a ânecessary evilâ in the market. This is speculation on my part, but we see some of this through press releases and some of the dialogues on earnings calls,â he said.
The evolution of the office and a vision for the office of the future will continue, though it remains difficult to see what an office furniture dealership will look like in 10 or 20 yearsâ time.
Lozowski said that in 10 to 20 years, Tangram â and dealerships like them â will be much more than just places to buy office furniture.
âWeâre going to become the nerve centers for creating the workplaces of the future,â he said. âOur showrooms today are already transitioning into these spaces where clients can see and interact with the latest in furniture, flexible design, and integrated technology. But looking ahead, I predict something even bolder: a seamless fusion of physical and virtual experiences that completely transforms how we approach workspace design.â
âImagine walking into a Tangram showroom, where you not only see physical products but can step into fully immersive virtual environments. Youâll be able to don augmented reality glasses and walk through a digital twin of your future office, interact with furniture, move walls, change lightingâall in real time. This isnât science fiction; itâs the direction technology is taking us. Weâre talking about an era where virtual collaboration tools allow clients, architects, and designers to co-create spaces in ways that are as tactile and intuitive as moving objects in the real world.â
Hartkopf said he envisions large office furniture dealers who expand into areas like technology integration and flooring â and possibly commercial real estate holdings. Niche, specialty dealerships like his own will become more popular. âIâm in the process of rolling out dealerships focused on the high-end design niche (think Porsche car dealerships versus Ford dealerships),â he said.
It will be important to lead with services, said Williams. âWithin our organization we are very proud of our space maker services. Our designers are extremely talented, but our furniture installers, and service technicians make us shine. It will be important to lead with services, and leverage technology to bring design further to life. We also think our industry is growing even more sustainable and inclusive. We are a proud minority owned dealer, and think that support will continue to grow,â he said.
Frees said he expects dealerships to continue to grow. Some larger dealers will be able to leverage resources, financial strength and technology to provide the very best in class service for their clients, he said.
Another large component of the future of our industry has to do with AI and technology.
Lozowski said he sees the industry becoming fully data centric. He said the industry will leverage big data to provide insights into how every aspect of the workplace functions â down to the desk level. This will allow the industry to offer hyper-personalized solutions that are not just responsive but proactive. Imagine a future where your office adapts in real-time to the needs of your employees, creating environments that maximize productivity, well-being, and creativity without you lifting a finger.
Frees said: âWe are all on the cusp of seeing what that means for us, but right now at Henricksen, we are exploring how best to leverage AI in order to improve internal processes and enhance client experiences. The dealer model will evolve with the industry. I see much more collaboration both with technology tools and with people engaging and sharing best practices across the board. This collaboration will take place with all stakeholders: CRE, Design, PM and Construction,â he said.