Co-Creating the Workspace: The Myth of Standard Desktops and One Size Fits All Work Environments

This 30-page report, Co-Creating the Workspace: The Myth of Standard Desktops and One Size Fits All Work Environments, is the first in-depth analysis of the way in which knowledge workers are customizing and developing their own unique work environments, often under the radar of management and IT departments.

The efforts of these knowledge workers are leading to increased efficiency and innovation, as well as challenging the traditional model of a one-size-fits-all desktop. Understanding these dynamics is critical for management who wish to leverage the creative and technical skills of those in their organization in a secure and controlled manner.

Basex surveyed over 1,000 knowledge workers to develop this report and conducted one-on-one interviews with over one hundred.

In this report, Basex examines:

• New types of work, autonomous work practices, and innovative tools that are driving knowledge workers to create new and innovative ways of accomplishing their jobs.
• The extent to which workers are taking matters into their own hands and enhancing existing tools or co-creating their own work environments to suit their needs.
• How the myth of the standard desktop is being replaced by increasingly customized tool sets.
• The benefits that enlightened companies can reap by encouraging responsible and open innovations shared across an organization.

What does this mean for management, IT departments, and knowledge workers? These dynamics are increasingly shaping the work environment, and in this report Basex offers insight, analysis, and recommendations for taking advantage of the tremendous potential gains offered through managed and thoughtful co-creation of work spaces.

Key survey finding covered in this report include:

• 90% of respondents to a Basex survey reported that they have downloaded enhancements, plug-ins, and add-ons with the goal of making themselves more effective and productive in their work.
• 80% have taken this one step further and have augmented the software they use by writing macros and other code, in order to automate and speed up their own work processes.
• Upwards of 98% of those surveyed report that their work is somewhat autonomous and that they manage aspects of their own work. Indeed, 50% characterize their work as completely autonomous. Only 2% state that it is heavily supervised.
• Almost 90% of knowledge workers surveyed indicate they use software in clever ways to find solutions. 80% say they like to find creative and new ways of using the software they are provided.
• Over 80% of those surveyed indicated that the improvements they make to their tools are far from complex. Repetitive tasks are fairly simple to automate and doing so can yield great savings.