Workplace Experience 2.0: Why taking a step back can be a leap forward

The webinar focused on two major WORKTECH Academy reports: World of Work in 2025 and The Global Pandemic Five Years On: How Are Employers Really Handling Hybrid? Former Workplace Geeks guest Jeremy Myerson set the stage with the first report by highlighting five broad trends shaping the future of work:

1. Leftfield Leadership – Developing empathetic leadership skills for a new generation and hybrid work era.
2. Persuasive Placemaking – Creating diverse, welcoming workplaces that justify the commute.
3. Serious Wellbeing – Prioritising employee health beyond corporate virtue signalling.
4. Data-Driven Design – Shaping workplaces based on real, evidence-based needs.
5. The AI-Powered Workplace – The most transformative and potentially disruptive force in the workplace today.

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‍Workplace experience redux: taking a step back to leap forward

My contribution to the report, Experience Redux, argued for a strategic rethink of workplace experience. In 2024, conversations were dominated by return-to-office mandates, diverting attention from meaningful improvements to workplace experience. Looking ahead, I proposed that businesses need to revisit, repurpose, and reimagine workplace strategies to better support employees.

The concept of ‘redux’—popularised by Francis Ford Coppola’s 2001 re-edit of his classic Apocalypse Now—means ‘brought back; revived'. This perfectly encapsulates the approach needed. We need to revisit workplace design pioneer Frank Duffy’s critique of facilities management (FM) in our role as curators of experience. Duffy and his peers at DEGW have had a seminal influence on office design since the 1980s, with groundbreaking thinking about buildings as enablers of organisational success rather than cost overheads. They also helped establish FM as a recognised profession.

Yet, years later, Duffy expressed regret during an interview for the British Library’s National Life Stories project for the inability of FM to influence anything beyond its boundaries. As he explained: “They saw themselves as part of the supply chain. They didn’t see themselves as defenders of the users. It’s an ethical problem.” To truly reset workplace experience, organizations must shift from a supply-chain mindset to a human-centred, ethical approach.

Unlocking the value of existing workplace data

A workplace experience reset requires data-driven decisions, but this doesn’t necessarily mean gathering more data—it means repurposing what already exists. Organisations often overlook valuable insights hidden in, for example:

• Helpdesk tickets – exposing recurring workplace pain points.
• Supplier feedback – highlighting inefficiencies and service gaps.
• Social media activity – offering real-time sentiment and trends.
• Employee engagement surveys – holding rich, underutilised workplace insights.

By mining these underused data sources, businesses can create environments that genuinely support people, culture, and productivity—reimagining workplace experience and course-correcting years of misplaced priorities.

Hybrid work: reflecting on strategy archetypes

The second major trend report, The Global Pandemic Five Years On, provided a valuable reflection on workplace strategy archetypes first identified by WORKTECH Academy in 2020. These six archetypes illustrate how organisations adapted to hybrid work:

1. Resolute Returners – Linking office presence directly to business performance.
2. Wellbeing Watchers – Prioritising employee health and wellness for the collective good.
3. Data Drivers – Using evidence-based decision-making to shape culture and strategy.
4. Choice Champions – Embedding flexibility and autonomy into workplace policies.
5. Tech Investors – Investing in new technologies to support hybrid work.
6. Space Shapers – Rationalising real estate to optimise costs in a hybrid world.

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Jeremy Myerson noted that while these archetypes aren’t mutually exclusive, the first three have gained ground, whereas the last three have struggled. Mandated office attendance has eroded workplace choice, and some tech-driven hybrid solutions have been overshadowed by the rapid rise of generative AI.

Final takeaways: reassessing workplace priorities

Two key recommendations emerge from this discussion:

• Use the archetypes as a diagnostic tool. Map your organisation’s workplace strategy against these six categories. A spider/radar chart can help visualise whether your approach is well-balanced or contradictory, revealing gaps and priorities for 2025.
• AI is a game-changer. Workplace professionals can no longer afford to ignore AI’s impact on workplace strategy. The data-driven insights it enables will be critical in shaping smarter, more responsive and human-friendly workplaces.

The challenge ahead isn’t just about where people work—it’s about how workplace experience is designed, measured, and continuously improved. As Simon Sinek aptly puts it when talking about his sequel to Start with Why, called Leaders Eat Last:

“Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge.”

By embracing a workplace experience redux, organizations can take care of their people while driving sustainable business success.

You can download the World of Work in 2025 report for free.

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