Modern Workplace Planning: Solving for Experience Part I: The Purpose

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In the years leading up to the pandemic, most medium and small companies defined their office space need based on headcount (current and projected), space programming, and industry/sector norms.  The exercise was mostly formulaic.  The primary differences in the offices of a small, regional law firm compared to those of an AM Law 100 firm would be scale, the cost of finishes, and the quality of the building and views.  It was planning for the same outcome, just at different levels on the cost spectrum.  Companies having a larger portfolio of offices would typically create a “workplace strategy” that included guidelines around programming (e.g., space layout, office size, critical adjacencies, growth factor, finishes, FF&E, etc.).  These guidelines could then be used to inform the real estate process across geography.
 
Today, defining the physical workplace starts by asking a simple question:  Why do we need a physical workplace?  There is a spectrum of workplace solutions, with the extremes being fully remote to fully in-office.  How each company determines its place on this spectrum is a highly individualistic undertaking, requiring key stakeholders to identify the experiences they seek to promote and consider how best to facilitate such experiences.   It requires a deep understanding of how the workplace supports the core values and most important objectives of the organization.  Importantly, whatever the workplace strategy, to be effective it must be fully aligned.  Approaches to workplace which are disconnected to the organization’s behavioral reality will be ineffective and harmful (e.g., leadership favors those fully in-office despite purporting to support hybrid).  There is no more “safety in numbers” where executives can hide behind the industry trend. 
 
The shift to individualized planning is not easy to process.  It has left many medium and smaller companies uncertain how to proceed.  They’re concerned about spending too much capital on physical space solutions that may prove insufficient due to continued changes in how we work.  They have fractured belief systems in which leadership operates one way while the employees prefer another.  They often take a “hedged” approach, resulting in garbled messaging, missed opportunities, and broad-scale discontent.  Leadership must take care to avoid supporting their chosen strategy with empty logic.  The classic example being “…we’re more productive in the office”.  If this is true, provide the data.  If it’s an unsubstantiated argument selected because it seems like the right thing to say, it will ring hollow and cause harm.  Remember, too, it’s a fact that most of the tasks of white-collar work can now be done from anywhere. 
 
The experiences you’re solving for with the modern workplace are those which involve human interactions which are not filtered by technology.  These include mentorship, collaboration, client-facing activities, and culture building activities.  Even remote-first companies create physical space for these activities, they just don’t (necessarily) view the office as the most effective place.  For a great example of the kind of intentionality and consistent messaging essential to an effective workplace strategy in this changed world, listen to David Solomon, CEO Goldman Sachs. He talks about the invaluable human networks Goldman Sachs builds through its offices.  These networks are vital to the firm’s success, part of its secret sauce.  Yes, there’s certainly employees at Goldman Sachs that don’t want to be fully in-office.  It’s a free market and they have a choice.  Importantly, Goldman’s leadership has clarity on their “why” and they communicate it consistently throughout the organization.  Those who determine working from home is worth more than being part of Goldman Sachs are free to do so.  In the end, leadership must determine which employee experiences it seeks to promote and facilitate and which approach to workplace best accomplishes the desired outcomes.  It’s about creating experiences.
 
What are some other considerations that go into defining the modern workplace?  Many.  For starters, it’s important to think about employee demographics.  Where do you find your ideal employee?  In which geographic region(s) are these employees most concentrated?  Do you believe in a fully distributed model, enabling the firm to hire from anywhere?  What are the implications of managing your workforce, given the range of approaches, local to fully distributed?  What are the cost and competitive implications of varied workforce outcomes?   It’s only recently that technology has allowed companies to migrate their white-collar workforce from local to global.  Who you plan to hire should drive how you think about your workplace. 
 
Once you’ve determined which experiences are being facilitated within your physical space(s), you must consider how frequently these experiences should occur.  This will guide you toward understanding where you sit on the spectrum, from remote to in-office, or somewhere in between.  Many companies have adopted hybrid solutions.  But these must be contemplated beyond just which days people should be in the office.  Purpose matters.  If your plan is to force employees to the office X days per week just to have them perform the same tasks they can perform from anywhere, why?  How should your physical space be designed to maximize its value in promoting the critical experiences?  What layout?  How much space?  What technologies must be incorporated?  What other aspects of the physical environment matter?  Things like location (proximity to transit and amenities), quality of building, FF&E, and natural light/views must be given careful consideration.
 
With the benefit of full consideration, most modern physical space solutions will look decidedly different than they did pre-pandemic.  How?  For starters, companies usually need less space because they’re designing for purpose, not headcount.  Design changes are also common.  Things like fewer private offices, more collaboration space, better client-facing spaces, and advanced technologies, including Zoom rooms and conferencing spaces built to facilitate both virtual and in-person meetings (simultaneously).  In many cases, companies will trade up for higher quality buildings offering more amenities, like restaurants, retail, and fitness facilities.  In fact, while the amount of space leased goes down, it’s often true the cost goes up. 
 
Who should be involved in these initial planning activities?   Executives from finance, people, real estate, and operations.  Indeed, determining the workplace strategy is among the executives’ highest value activities.  Real estate service providers like Cushman & Wakefield have already shifted their strategic workplace consulting practices to meet the demands of the modern workplace.  We draw from a large body of global client engagements to help guide clients through the planning journey.  The purpose.  This is where you begin.