Even In The Office Millennials Want an Experience, Not Stuff

Creative office has become ubiquitous this cycle, but “creative” might be the wrong term. In the chase to attract quality talent, employers have focused on the workspace, but the amenities and campus setting are as important as the design and configuration of the space. Millennials and other young professionals want an experience, and what is on the outside is as important as what is on the inside, according to office expert Christopher Pascale of CBRE.

“Employers are trying to offer an experience to their employees, and that experience is vast. It is food and dry cleaning and show shine and fitness and happy hour and gaming and indoor outdoor amenities,” Pascale, an SVP at CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com. “The people that are delivering the highly amenitized experiential opportunity are winning today, and not only are they winning in transaction volume and absorption, but they are winning in rental rates. People will pay more money for the experience. Millennials want an experience. They don’t want stuff.”

Because this experience is created through amenities and services offered onsite, a quality experience can be created in a traditional office as easily as in a creative office. “You can do all of this in a traditional office environment,” says Pascale. “Creative office has a certain look and feel and may be a little more communal—but what happens outside of the space is just as important as what happens inside of the space.”

While the space is less important—whether open and industrial or high-rise traditional—the amenities and services need to be vast, from onsite food options at reasonable price points, to happy hour events to games and activities, like onsite ping-pong, to outdoor works spaces and far reaching free Wi-Fi. Not only do these amenities help to attract talent, but they also help retain it. “Those kinds of things are really attractive to employers and they will pay extra for them,” says Pascale. “It also keeps employees closer to home and to keep them in-house. There is also the opportunity for collaboration and for them to become better at what they do.”

Experiential office spaces are the real future of office, whether it comes in a traditional building or in a creative campus. This is the long-standing office. “If you have an opportunity with those amenities on campus, you have created an ecosystem on the campus that can sustain businesses,” says Pascale. “I think that people are trying to avoid traffic and have the most productive day, from a work perspective but also from a personal perspective, while also making it as fun as possible.”