In Knowmad Society, John Moravec, came up with the term knowmad or knowledge and innovation employees. It joined the words know and nomad to refer to these qualified professionals without a fixed work place. “While the industrial society required people to have a fixed work place to carry out a very specific duty, employment associated to knowledge and information employees has turned a lot less specific with respect to locations”. “Technologies allow this new paradigm of employees to work at a specific place, virtually or in any other configuration. Knowmads can reconfigure and re-contextualize instantly their work environments and relationships. The possibility of a greater mobility offered by technologies creates these new opportunities” says in this reference.

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This means that the knowmad does not have a fixed work station at the office, rather – as it is used to traveling- it works from anywhere or teleworks. With a smartphone, notebook or laptop, the whole world can be its office and hence the need to have a fixed work space reduces.

They are creative people because they are used to leaving their comfort zone and they do not seek high positions in companies but rather they focus on developing at the most their personal brand as independent workers. 

The office cannot respond to this new labour force with concepts for the design of traditional spaces.

The office of knowmads

Although they work anywhere, we all have the basic need of feeling part of a community and sharing with others. Therefore, companies have to offer these new professionals the necessary tools to work under the same brand from anywhere in the world. They will have to provide them also with spaces where they can temporarily feel “at home”.

 

 

Shared stations in non-territorial work spaces

A good approach for the design of offices with digital or knowledge nomads are non-territorial work spaces. There is no work spaces assigned to employees; all stations are shared.

Thanks to flexible work, ever more companies resort to this “non-territorial” system.

Many companies opted for the implementation of this type of work station due to the savings involved in the reduction of the space but the truth is that this type of configuration has also offered benefits from an incentive to collaborate between employees to the reduction of paper or the increase of creativity.

 

Lock Lock, the locker for non-territorial work spaces

Meanwhile, non-territorial raises new equipment requirements. Where do employees without a fixed work station keep their personal items? The best thing for these nomad employees is to have a locker to keep their personal items or office materials without problem. Like for example Lock Lock by Ofita. You get to the office, open your personal locker identified with a number, check if you have received mail and …off to work!

 

 

New furniture designs ease new working methodologies. For example, the use of chairs with self-weighing system which allow adaptation to each employee semi-automatically with chairs such as Hara by Ofita.

 

hara chair

Hara

 

Informal spaces to feel “at home”

Nomad employees go to offices to collaborate and share with the team. Therefore it is important to make a correct use of informal, added value and collaboration spaces. For example, when an employee has to quickly meet with a colleague it has to use these informal areas next to operating work stations instead of using a meeting room (to avoid losing time and using without need rooms that are intended for collective meetings).

Connectivity of these areas is an added value as despite seeming a more relaxed environment, actions carried out are similar to those of operating stations.

 

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Finally, flexibility, non-territoriality, technology and co-working are the baseline premises of new offices which bear in mind the boom of this new talent. Not forgetting their design, attributes such as sustainability and the care for people.