Emma Weston
Published on 18 December 2025
Build a workplace for everyone—now and in the future
Future-proof your organisation by making work work for everyone. From hiring and HR to prioritising outcomes, read our blog to learn how to adapt your culture.
Future-proofing your workplace is something that everyone wants to do, but very few organisations actually do. While complex, focusing on making work work for everyone on an individual level will immediately put you ahead of competitors. What does this mean for employees and employers? How can we create and maintain an environment that lets people do their best work? How can we adapt to needs and opportunities we don't yet know about?
Change in the workplace is something we need to live with, whether it's driven by technology, opportunities, or expectations. The pace and nature of this change impact individuals and teams as much as they challenge organisations. As Head of People Experience, it's my role to view work from the perspective of both the employer and the employee. The better we support our people in terms of engagement, skills, and learning, the better it is for the organisation. This means anticipating the skills and practices required by organisations.
How to adapt an organisation for everyone:
- Anticipate change: prepare for shifts driven by technology and employee expectations.
- Personalise the experience: move beyond static policies to support individual 'moments that matter'.
- Prioritise outcomes: focus on what teams deliver rather than where they sit.
- Hire for skills: Look beyond formal education to experience, attitude, and aptitude.
Anticipating the work of the (near) future
For people entering the workforce today, their work experience is dramatically different from that of those who began their careers ten or twenty years ago. According to the World Economic Forum's The Future of Jobs Report 2025, 60% of companies expect digital technologies—mainly AI, information processing, automation, and robotics—to transform their businesses by 2030.
Reflecting on my career, I can see some significant shifts. When I entered the profession, HR was more functional and focused on employment as a transaction. Many in the industry viewed the relationship almost entirely from the employer's perspective. HR has become more strategic and also more balanced between the needs of employees and employers. Today, the function is more proactive in shaping the work environment and considering the entire employee experience.
| Traditional HR | Modern HR |
|---|---|
| Viewed employment as a transaction | Views employment as a journey of change |
| Focused primarily on the employer's perspective | Balances the needs of employees and employers |
| Reactive to issues as they arise | Proactive in shaping culture and environment |
| Standardised policies for all | Personalised support for growth and challenges |
Viewing employment as a journey of change is essential: celebrating the highs and providing support through growth and challenges sets a forward-thinking employer apart from the rest.
Adapting and evolving the workplace
At The Adaptavist Group, my team is responsible for 'People Experience'. We're primarily concerned with the working environment, culture, and learning and development. With a global, hybrid workforce spanning at least four generations, supporting collaboration and fostering culture has never been more crucial—or more challenging. People Experience isn't something set in stone or 'cascaded down'. It must be both responsive and aspirational.
A prime example of the necessary mindset shift concerns the attitude towards 'work-life balance'. Instead of viewing this as a static goal, leadership should focus on helping people make work fit around their lives. There are clear benefits for everyone in doing this, but the approach must continually evolve. Why? Because making 'work fit around life' is highly subjective—it varies across every team. Age, situation, and life stage influence how each individual needs work to adapt to them. While some may value a parental leave policy, for others, it is of no importance. Leaders must work hard to understand and adjust for everyone—whether that is buying a home, adapting to caring for a relative, or approaching menopause. By prioritising these 'moments that matter', you ensure you are making work work for everyone.
Work where you work best
The way we work—and live—will continue to change. When I think about my children entering the workforce (in approximately five and ten years), the impact of automation and AI make it difficult to know exactly what work will look like for them. What's for certain, though, is that we need to be ready to adapt how and where we work, and be prepared to interact and collaborate in new ways.
Constantly evolve how and where your teams work. Research from Gallup suggests that 59% of employees value hybrid working. Whether this reflects a preference for flexibility, a reluctance to commute, or something else, it enables people to work where they are most effective. Whether that's in an office, at home, with clients, or in some other setting, focus on the outcomes your teams deliver. The Adaptavist Group has constantly evolved how and where we work. For the first five years of the business, there was no office. Over the subsequent fifteen years, as we've grown to over 1,000 people, we've established 'hub' offices where people can work, meet, and collaborate. We don't dictate how and when they're used.
Building relationships in flexible working environments is something organisations should continue to develop in collaboration with their teams. Culture is not just something you write down and tell people. It's the feeling around the business, the energy people bring to their work, the way our people show up every day. Improve your work culture by:
- Communicating clearly, concisely, and effectively
- Listening and acting—showing up for people when they need it most.
- Being inclusive and celebrating your team's differences
- Humanising work practices—fair work practices, recognition, growth and autonomy
It's something that's never finished, though, and you should continue to evolve and adapt.
The benefits of all sorts of workplace diversity
Strive to build a team of individuals who are committed to the journey, continually learning, evolving their skills, and expanding their experience. Curiosity is an excellent and rewarding value, so ensure your culture encourages:
- Exploration
- Learning
- Collaboration
- Innovation
- Continuous improvement
Diversity of all kinds is a catalyst for growth and development. Incredible things happen when different skills, perspectives, and experiences come together.
The best way to anticipate the future is to ensure we aren't rigid in our thinking. We're committed to building inclusion—in its broadest sense—into our organisation, shaping our culture, practices, and approach. Consider diversity not only in terms of demographics, cognition, beliefs, or experiences, but also value different perspectives, needs, values, approaches, and ideas.
Diversity should also extend to attitudes toward formal qualifications. Evolve your hiring process to focus on the experience, attitude, and aptitude that are at the heart of each role and team. This cultivates broader diversity in terms of qualifications and educational routes. Challenge your talent team to consistently reinvent the recruitment process. Commit to considering alternative approaches, such as:
- Evaluating candidates with different levels of education, experiences, and ages, opening the door to a broader, more inclusive range of talents
- Locating a role in a different country for potentially different insights and ways of working, helping to create a more global perspective
- Employing alternative skill sets or even multiple people to address a requirement for more creative problem-solving, collaboration, and job satisfaction
Encourage people to come together and share their varied perspectives, experiences, and approaches. Recognise the importance of belonging: people are engaged by and excited about the work they do when they feel heard and connected to the business and its journey.
It's impossible to predict what your organisation will look like in a decade's time. However, if you continue to invest in your mindset and approach towards your team members and company culture, you'll boost your retention and attract the best talent. It's easier to handle change with a stable and growing team that feels supported and included, rather than holding rounds of interviews and training new recruits to replace those who left.