Meet the member: Betsy Brady on the human-centric future of office

BCO NextGen member and Knight Frank development surveyor Betsy Brady has always loved buildings and development. That passion comes across loud and clear in the BCO’s Workspace Unwired podcast, in which she proposes that offices are no longer just places of work—they are spaces for connection, purpose, and human flourishing.

At the heart of Brady’s philosophy is the idea that the office must serve a human-centric purpose. She challenges superficial post-pandemic design trends – remember the slides, basketball courts and ball pools? – and instead advocates for deeper thinking about what human beings really need to be productive, happy and fulfilled.

For her a great office, a functional office where people choose to go, is one that goes beyond the aesthetic and thinks about how space works as a reflection of a company’s ethos and how it enables the human beings that inhabit it to perform to the best of their ability.

A great workspace is one that enables businesses to get their best out their workforce.

“There’s real work going into how can we make spaces where you can nurture your young talent, bring returners into work and feel valued,” says Brady. “As we move into a very human-centric workplace, the human element isn’t just about whether people want to be in the office or do they want to be at home, it is about things like how the psychoacoustics affect someone who’s 20, who’s 30, who’s 40.”

With the workforce now spanning more generations than ever before, creating spaces that are adaptable and flexible for different workstyles is vital, says Brady.

Ultimately, we have to create offices where people want to be.

“The office has been around for years and it will continue to be around for years,” says Brady. “But we now have an opportunity to make it something where people leave being happy that they went.”

Listen in to Workspace Unwired: Beyond the Aesthetic to hear more of Brady’s optimism, why workspace is the best place to build a career and why our offices can—and should—be a source of joy and purpose.

Tune in to a new episode of the BCO’s Workspace Unwired every fortnight. Available on all  good podcast players including Apple, Spotify, Amazon and Podbean.