Employees want community, flexibility, and accessibility. In 2021, our office users increased their location count by 38%. That stat is the result of office occupiers adopting hybrid models and smaller footprints to accommodate employees who have moved away from cities. Employees want to be closer to home, closer to their families, and closer to their everyday lives.
Human connection is the biggest draw for offices, so businesses should offer employees visibility into who will be working in person and what days. If someone’s on the fence about whether they should come in, seeing their office buddy scheduled to work from HQ could convince them.
When people have options, we need to ensure we are creating compelling spaces that are enticing enough that people want to be there. Therefore, hubs, or main offices, must offer better technology, more intuitive work points, access to services and amenities and to clients and colleagues to make them desired destinations. And we also have an opportunity to create lifestyle studios that incorporate some of the best elements of remote working into our shared spaces. Be it neighborhoods that are pet-friendly; maker spaces that enable people to continue their newly adopted hobbies with their colleagues; or collective gardens or kitchens where teams can cook or eat together.
The redesign of the office space must also provide this flexibility where there are less individual "sole-owner" spaces and more open spaces designed for collaboration and interaction at the food market place or in team rooms, for example. Finally, in order to attract talent, today’s and future workforce desires the flexibility to work in both environments and enable a balanced work, home, family and social life–not to mention the benefits of reducing the stress of everyday commuting and impacts to the environment.
COVID, the flu and other illnesses will continue to hinder productivity, increase sick days and affect employee satisfaction. As we move forward, it will be integral to effectively measure the impact and performance of our cleaning vendors and teams so we can answer critical questions that can help mitigate this. Is the work being done? Is cleaning quality up to snuff? Are we over-cleaning spaces that are not being used? Your employees are already asking these questions with insufficient answers while your wallet has a giant sized hole burning through it from the “needed to be done” cleaning work as you return to the workplace. Data-driven cleaning decisions are the future to ensure employee health & safety while being able to optimize costs.
The lens needs to be more firmly on "where do people do specific tasks more effectively". Look at productivity, efficiency and human metrics to determine which tasks are typically carried out better where (by individuals, teams and departments). Collaboration, celebration and community are three strong use cases for the office. The power of casual collision cannot be underestimated. Forcing people into using the office, like forcing them to use PowerPoint for everything they do, is futile. They will quickly realize it is not always fit for purpose and in some instances can hamper their deliverables.
The 30 minutes experiencing a fabulous on-site food service may not be enough to overcome a day-long struggle against uncomfortable temperatures; eye strain from glare; headaches caused by poor air quality; or reduced productivity due to noisy spaces. Address the uncomfortable spaces. Additionally, an experience of belonging and being heard is priceless. A shared sense of purpose gets and keeps people together – even in a pandemic. Finally, perennial changes in technology, society, and climate require a new level of resilience to be designed into every investment. Put occupant experience, purpose, and flexibility first to continually earn employees back to the collaborative spaces we used to call offices.
Hospitality, convenience and ESG are now front and center with the same enthusiasm as a consumer environment. It is with this in mind that we move forward. From home to desk, we are looking for opportunities to increase the quantity of options and quality of service delivery, looking specifically at dynamic, frictionless and technology-driven innovations. In doing so, we can help occupiers find a balance between comfort and productivity. Just as important, we are empowering their ability to project culture and community onto one of their most tangible resources, physical office space.
To make the office a truly meaningful space for employees, it is crucial to have the spatial intelligence in place to measure space use along with employee behavior, and use this data to make predictions in real-time, so that the office can be constantly adapted to match evolving employee needs and expectations. This will define success for workplaces today and beyond.
