How to future-proof your workplace: four moves that matter

The workplace is not waiting for anyone. Hybrid schedules have settled in as the norm rather than the experiment: 52% of remote-capable employees now work hybrid, and roughly 100 million people worldwide split their week between home and office (Gallup; Stanford/Nature). At the same time, expectations around health, comfort and environmental responsibility keep climbing.

At Lyreco, we’ve spent 100 years equipping workplaces through every one of their reinventions, from the paper-filled offices of the last century to the hybrid, health-conscious, footprint-aware workplaces of this one. That century has taught us something simple: a future-proof workplace isn’t one that predicts every change. It’s one equipped to absorb change without breaking stride. An environmentally conscious workplace, in the fullest sense, is a workplace designed for tomorrow and that comes down, more than most organisations realise, to what you equip it with.

Here are the four moves we see the most forward-looking workplaces making, and how we help them make each one.

The defining feature of modern work is that it happens in more than one place. 88% of employers now offer some form of hybrid arrangement (Robert Half), and the returns are real: 69% of employers report improved retention after introducing hybrid policies (Cisco), while a landmark Stanford study found resignations fell by a third on a two-day hybrid schedule — with no loss of productivity.

The defining feature of modern work is that it happens in more than one place. 88% of employers now offer some form of hybrid arrangement (Robert Half), and the returns are real: 69% of employers report improved retention after introducing hybrid policies (Cisco), while a landmark Stanford study found resignations fell by a third on a two-day hybrid schedule — with no loss of productivity.

But hybrid only works when the friction is removed. Every dropped call, every half-heard colleague on a laptop microphone, every meeting lost to a missing adapter quietly taxes the model.

The move: audit one hybrid employee’s week and find where they lose time – connecting, syncing, being seen and heard. Then close those gaps. This is where Lyreco’s hybrid & digital workplace essentials do their job: wireless accessories that travel well, quality webcams and headsets, conference audio that makes the remote participant a full participant.

The future of work is often told as a technology story. The bigger story is physical. Roughly three in five European workers report musculoskeletal complaints – backache, neck and shoulder pain chief among them – making MSDs Europe’s most widespread work-related health problem (EU-OSHA). These aren’t dramatic injuries; they’re the slow accumulation of poor posture and desks that fit nobody in particular.

Wellbeing is also shaped by what’s in the air, on the surfaces, and in the shared spaces around us. In a hybrid world, the office has to earn the commute and employees read hygiene, air quality and a breakroom worth gathering in as signals of how much their employer cares.

The move: treat wellbeing as essential infrastructure. Lyreco’s product range covers the full physical reality of a working day: ergonomic seating, sit-stand solutions and monitor arms that protect bodies through long hours; hygiene and air-quality solutions that keep shared spaces genuinely healthy; and breakroom essentials that make the office a place people choose. Healthier teams take fewer sick days, stay longer and do better work, and equipping that outcome is precisely what we do.

Sustainability has crossed a threshold in B2B buying. 92% of B2B buyers now research sustainability before making a purchase, and 27% will walk away from a supplier if that information is missing. Bain projects that by 2028, sustainability will rank as the second-most important purchasing criterion — behind only quality. And 63% of business buyers already rank improving sustainability in their purchasing among their top objectives (EcoVadis).

Here’s the part that matters for the workplace itself: the products you buy are part of your environmental footprint. Every chair, headset, cleaning product and coffee cup is a line in it. An environmentally conscious workplace is built one purchasing decision at a time, which means the challenge is trust. Green claims are everywhere, and procurement teams don’t have time to verify each one.

The move: Stop vetting green claims one by one and use a standard that does it for you. That’s what Lyreco’s Planet by Lyreco (to be rephrased locally if the term is not in use) is. A product only earns the Planet icon if it clears a real bar: a major globally recognised environmental certification, or refurbishment, or a set minimum of recycled material, or at least two environmental features like being refillable, compostable, returnable, or built to last longer. The whole selection follows ISO 20400:2017, the international standard for sustainable procurement, so you’re not taking anyone’s word for it. Nothing here is self-declared. When your supplier has already done that work, buying responsibly stops being a project you have to run and turns into the thing that happens by default.

The workplaces that struggle with the future treat adaptation as a one-off renovation – a big refresh, then stasis. The ones that thrive treat it as a rhythm: small, deliberate updates that track how work actually evolves. That’s also how Lyreco approaches innovation. Continuously scouting products with new technologies, smart functionality and genuinely better design, so that when your quarterly workplace review asks “what one improvement would our teams feel most?”, the answer is already curated and ready to order.

The move: put the workplace on the agenda quarterly. Ask what’s changed, where the friction is, and what single improvement would land hardest. Then act small and act often with a partner whose job is keeping the shelf of “what’s next” stocked for you.

Designed for tomorrow, together

Four moves, one common thread: every one of them is a purchasing decision made with intent, and every one is a decision Lyreco exists to make easier. That’s what our Future Workplace Range – Designed for tomorrow brings together: hybrid & digital essentials, employee wellbeing from ergonomics to hygiene and the breakroom, certified products, and innovation that earns its place. The most considered range curated from a century of equipping workplaces for whatever came next.

Sources: Gallup / Stanford via OfficeRnD · Robert Half · Cisco via WorkTime · EU-OSHA · Musculoskeletal Key · Supply Chain 24/7 · Bain & Company · EcoVadis via Procurement Tactics