Ten years ago, workstations were on their way out. Or so it seemed. In an era marked by increasing enthusiasm for open arrangements and ergonomic solutions, the buzz centered on ideas about the “social office”— a somewhat abstract concept grounded in the rise of hybrid, height-adjustable desking. The prevailing zeitgeist spurred both analysts and manufacturers to frame the workstation as a well-nigh relic—a fixed and inflexible artifact verging on obsolescence when compared to more agile products. At 3rings, we’ve been keeping our eyes on the trajectory of this forecast.

As it turns out, during the last decade, workstations aren’t just surviving, they’re thriving, a discovery that runs counter to orthodoxy about the open office and surprised even us! Just so, we ran the analysis every which way—a deep dive into workstation trends during the last three years. While the slope line shows subtle changes in these different iterations, the essential outcome doesn’t change: workstations aren’t merely holding steady—they’re climbing. The common belief about their demise has proven flat-out wrong.

How This Data Is Measured

In the interest of full transparency, we remind readers that our dataset is A&D-centric: this data reflects interior designers’ specifications, so our read doesn’t offer the full picture of dealer or end-user demand. We also measure spec share by frequency rather than order size or volume. Thus, our analysis differs from other data sources, such as BIFMA. Even with those distinctions in mind, the trendline is unmistakable: designers are putting more workstations into projects today than they were three years ago.

Looking even closer—specifically at which brands’ spec shares have grown the most among the top 10 workstation players on Designer Pages PRO—we find that Haworth is at the top, with a linear regression slope of 0.00570 over the past 36 months. Among Haworth’s competitors, only HNI comes close, then growth drops off quickly beyond these top two, with several brands even slipping into decline. Notwithstanding HNI’s proximity, Haworth is easily the fastest-growing brand in the category amongst A&D specifiers—their share of workstation specs has jumped from 2.43% three years ago to 7.64% during the most recent year.

To place this data in context, we’ll emphasize that Haworth isn’t the most specified workstation brand overall. In the past three years, they’ve ranked fifth at an average of 6.60%—or effectively fourth if you exclude generic workstations without a brand indicated—behind MillerKnoll (21.96%), Steelcase (19.82%), Generic (11.70%), and HNI (10.83%). But when it comes to momentum and growth trajectory, Haworth is setting the pace.

With our interest piqued by the workstation trend—and particularly by Haworth’s impressive growth trajectory—we reached out to Kimberly Lake, Group Business Unit Director for Workspaces and Surface Materials at Haworth, who has been shaping the brand’s workstation strategy for more than a decade.

Always All In

Re-winding a decade back—to that era when consensus held that workstations were on the way out—we find that Haworth took a different tack. Preferring precision to punditry, Lake says that Haworth took a more measured approach. The brand analyzed its customer base in core markets  —particularly government and financial services—and determined that these kinds of systems would be continue to be instrumental. Even in view of recent drop-offs, Haworth understood that workstations would remain a core element of the office landscape.

While other brands publicly pulled back, believing the decline to be permanent, Haworth employed a customer-centric line of thinking—grounded in the baseline needs of their core markets. Even though the data was similar across the board, Haworth made the better reading of it—a potent reminder that discerning future demand is as much art as it is math.

Strategy Before Sentiment

But there’s nuance herein. Haworth didn’t so much sit back, confident that workstations would rebound on their own, but rather realized that the category needed to evolve, that future products would have to exhibit more “agility” and “flexibility”—pervasive buzzwords pointing to exciting concepts that had captured the collective imagination of office culture. So coasting wasn’t an option. Instead, Haworth doubled down, making steady investment in user-oriented design predicated on the evolution of the modern workstation, which would include the following:

• Features with purpose: innovations to solve real user problems, not just to follow trends
• Value-driven systems: platforms designed to integrate seamlessly with prior generations, thus protecting customer investments
• Flexibility at the core: options to reorient, shift, and adjust—timed uncannily well with pandemic-era demands for personal space and choice.

Zooming in on the Top Three Workstations

How has Haworth’s strategy played out? Do the above elements now characterize the highest-performing workstations? Here are the most specified products for July 2024 to June 2025 in this category (three products tied for the #3 spot—bringing the total in our analysis to five systems).

The strong showing of Compose, Haworth’s most specified workstation, elated Lake, who attributes the product’s success to the brand’s long-term bet on adaptability: “We built Compose to evolve with the customer—to anticipate every reconfiguration, every technology change, every shift in how people work. That’s why it continues to gain traction.”

Compose: Built for Change

Compose—which tied at #3 overall for the past year and is among the highest growing workstations on a three-year trend curve—illustrates how the investment has paid off. Compose wasn’t conceived as a stopgap or a cosmetic refresh—it was built to withstand change. The system’s architecture reflects the lessons Haworth drew a decade ago: that customer needs would evolve, hybrid demands would grow, and workstations would need to flex without losing their purpose.

While many systems are modular in theory, Compose places the concept at the heart of its value proposition. Built around an ethos of adaptable longevity, Compose is designed so that each generation is compatible with all previous components. This agility is evidenced in each and every element—panels, worksurfaces, storage, and electrical infrastructure—enabling not just reconfiguration, but true evolution, all free from the organizational burden of going back to square one. In the way it frees designers from rigid grids, Compose gives projects a level of adaptability rarely found in peer systems.

Haworth has also kept the line fresh with purposeful extensions. Compose Echo, introduced in recent years, answers the demands of the hybrid era with mobile sit-stand surfaces. Tethered to a central spine, these surfaces pivot for quick collaboration and tuck back in for focused work. Privacy screens and markerboard tablets move with the user, embodying the same principle Haworth bet on ten years ago: the category isn’t static, so the product can’t be either. Echo also underscores Haworth’s focus on user control: large casters, intuitive grips, and clear visual cues make it easy for users to adapt Compose to their working style—a flexibility that feels natural rather than forced.

Adaptability as a System, Not a Feature

In sum, Compose offers a compelling illustration of how Haworth translated their early beliefs about the workstation category into product strategy and market growth. Notably, only two other products in the top three (actually five as three of them tied) showed increased growth compared to their three-year averages—both from Steelcase. Looking at Currency and Migration SE alongside Compose gives us a fuller picture of how leading manufacturers are finding different ways to keep workstations relevant—and why the overall category is stronger than expected.

• Currency gained 43% penetration compared to its three-year average. A casegoods-meets-systems hybrid, Currency is a flexible desking and storage kit that blends easily with panel systems. The product’s momentum comes from its breadth: it can furnish private offices, open-plan workstations, and everything in between, all in one line.
• Migration SE, up 47%, reflects another dimension of workstation innovation: the rise of height-adjustable systems at scale. This product’s story is about ergonomic accessibility—bringing sit-to-stand functionality into large deployments with smart space-saving layouts like 120° pods.

Different Paths to the Same Outcome

Both products echo some of the broader workstation trends—flexibility, integration, and wellness—but they represent different approaches. Currency thrives by spanning categories (desking and systems in one), while Migration SE leads on ergonomic simplicity. Compose, by contrast, distinguishes itself with systemic adaptability—panels, power, and surfaces designed to be reimagined repeatedly as organizations evolve. Most critically, Compose is not a one-off product line but rather a dynamic, evolving platform—iterated, expanded, and refined over time in  a way that preserves its value proposition. While competitors often sunset one system to launch another (Canvas, Montage, Dividends), Compose has steadily grown as a living platform, protecting customer investments while continually layering in new capabilities.

Workstations Recharged

Perhaps the fundamental takeaway is that there’s no single playbook for workstation success. Steelcase’s Currency has thrived by spanning categories, offering a hybrid of casegoods and systems that can address virtually any space. Migration SE capitalizes on the ergonomic imperative, delivering sit-to-stand capability at scale with layouts that minimize footprint and maximize wellness. But arguably, Compose is the most agile of the three. Haworth’s flagship workstation is distinguished by its systemic adaptability—it’s a platform built to evolve with every reconfiguration, every new technology, every shift in workstyle.

What Success Looks Like Now

Taken together, the above strategies demonstrate that the category didn’t fade into obsolescence: it transformed. Manufacturers who invested in flexibility, ergonomics, and integration have redefined the workstation’s role in the modern office. No longer a compromise between openness and privacy, today’s workstation is a versatile foundation for how people actually work. Lake seconds this notion by emphasizing that Compose’s adaptability is likely a harbinger of the future workspace. “The way people work will continue to evolve to accommodate the in-person and virtual changes throughout each day. The workstation needs to do the same in order to remain the focal point within the modern office that balances flexibility with productivity.”

The larger point is that while ancillary spaces and comfortable furniture are important elements of a holistic workspace, the workstation is still where work gets done, and it’s likely to remain so. In fact, the modern workstation is so prevalent that we could call it the connective tissue of the office—exceedingly adaptable to support hybrid demands, sufficiently robust to carry technology forward, and flexible enough to remain relevant for another generation of work.