Meet your future workspace

By 2016, the centennial of The Boeing Company, the U.S. work force will experience a major transition.

A recent report on U.S. labor trends by the Rand Corporation points to a shift toward a balanced distribution by age, sex and ethnicity. Key trends driving this shift include increases in U.S. immigration rates and in the number of women entering the work force. In addition, in the next 10 years, members of the "baby boom" generation will reach retirement age, creating opportunities for younger workers: Those in the "Gen-X" and "Millennium" generations.

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SSG's new headquarters a model of office flexibility

The new headquarters for the Boeing Shared Services Group builds in the workplace flexibility future workers will demand, while integrating Lean concepts. The relocation to the Triton Towers 3 building in Renton, Wash., occurred this spring. Key to the novel space design: furniture on rollers and reconfigurable spaces that let teams rearrange themselves around the changing needs of their work. Shared offices, shared desks and more meeting spaces add to the built-in flexibility. 

Here's what two employees in Triton Towers had to say about the site.

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'A great addition to the site'

My first thought when I heard Boeing was going to open an Employee Service Center here in Final Assembly, offering services such as dry cleaning, DVD rentals and banking, was "That seems crazy!" But now it makes perfect sense to me. I'm an hourly employee with a 30-minute lunch break. Banking is a common errand for me. It's about seven miles from here to the [Boeing Employees'] Credit Union. If I need to run an errand like that at lunch time, it's a 10-minute walk to my car from where I work and 10 minutes back. That leaves me 10 minutes to drive there and take care of business.

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Let's get persona(l)

In the next 10 years, about two-thirds of Boeing employees will be eligible to retire. What's assured in these 10 years is a workplace developing with a diversity of work styles.

With the help of Callison Architecture, the Future of Work project at Boeing looked hard at what this generational shift will bring. The FoW team's efforts ultimately focus on creating workspaces that help make Boeing and its employees more productive—and meet the needs and expectations of these diverse employees.

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Training the work force of tomorrow

In the world of training and development, flexible work habits, informal learning and cutting-edge technology will be key components that both appeal to and allow the future work force to be most effective.

According to Rick Coffey, director, Manufacturing, Functional, and Employee Development—a part of the Learning, Training and Development (LTD) organization—plans include expanding online learning programs to allow individuals to access more training courses from home or work computers. Coffey also said Boeing is exploring ways to develop module-based learning, customized to the individual's specific needs, to reduce the time necessary to complete training requirements.

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