Modern Spaces, Traditional Sensibilities

- Sharmila Chakravorty

The financial services industry is often said to be the most reluctant to change. Be it technology adoption, or office space design, the industry remains largely behind the curve and very traditional and cautious in its approach. And one can’t really blame them. There is a lot at stake if technology, or design, fails to put their employees, or clients, at ease.

But there is progress, slow and steady. FinTechs are now commonplace, as are relatively modern office spaces. A few years ago, an American global design, architecture, engineering and urban planning firm released a benchmarking research report that focused on the design and work-style trends of leading financial services firms. This report provided key insights into recent trends that the industry was faced with, adopted, or ignored and an indepth analysis of how organisations of the industry used office space. What were glaringly obvious were the gross underutilization of space, and a lack of mobility strategy. While the report looked at countries like New York and London, the realities of the findings are also applicable to us in India. There is indeed a strong push for ergonomics, employee comfort, and realization of how office space design affects productivity, with more and more organizations opting to actively look towards design to enhance employee output.