A Cool New Office: Empowering Workplaces for Business Goals

NEW YORK CITY—In 2019, modern, open office settings are commonplace. Lists of the best new offices invariably show photos of spacious rooms with efficient and adjustable workpoints and breakout areas arranged for collaboration, high windows allowing abundant access to natural light, and plants, natural tones and colorful accent walls creating senses of calm and fun.

When employers decide to rejuvenate their offices, they understandably want these kinds of dynamic and collaborative spaces loaded with employee amenities to rejuvenate corporate culture and attract and retain talent. However, companies often haven’t strategized past this to consider how they can tailor their office settings to empower their unique businesses and not be just another office with fewer walls and more standup desks.

A major part of aligning office space with business goals is having project managers with workplace expertise on the team to advocate for owners, particularly in conversations with architects and general contractors, who may have their own ideas that aren’t aligned with a company’s business goals. Companies looking to build new offices should make sure they have expert advocates who can identify how to make a space that works for the company, rather than a space that simply looks great.

A Workplace Is a Strategic Investment

A new office is a significant real estate investment in a company’s future, and like all investments, it should be tied to specific goals. However, companies will often not individuate their new workplace designs to maximize success for their own business strategies.

Achieving a workplace that increases productivity, efficiency and health and well-being also entails having a clear understanding of where a company wants to go. Not all effective corporate cultures are the same, nor are employee demographics—and part of strategizing for an office is ensuring a flexible space for alternative work strategies, various employee efficiencies and even multi-generational needs. Swinging too far to entice millennials may alienate more experienced managers and executives, while not understanding the ways younger generations work may be an impediment to building the next generation of company leaders.

The key is to have a nuanced understanding of the unique company needs you have and how to use space to build the winning culture you want.

For instance, an open office can mean a range of situations. An open plan with hot desking might make sense for some organizations, while a team-based approach with operational neighborhoods might make sense for others, while some firms may want an activity-based workplace with zones organized for the task at hand.

In another example, staff mobility is important for well-being, as well as for communication. However, details matter, from workpoint alignment to how the hallways intersect. Even the placement of recycling bins matters when it comes to flow and office dynamics.

Managing Your Investment

Getting more for less is a major workplace consideration as well. It is no secret that having fewer individual offices and cubicles decreases square footage, but there are other factors. For example, staff-to-workpoint ratios are key—as are the types of workpoints available—and that depends on the kinds of tasks employees engage in. Employers need a robust sense of how the space will foster a winning culture and empower people. Gaining this kind of insight requires, like any investment, expert guidance tailored to business needs.

A workplace fit-out presents opportunities to integrate technology and collaboration into an office’s physical space to realize value. Wireless video conferencing or digital phones operated directly through PCs enable flexibility, while conferencing spaces can be suited to a range of needs, from informal breakout spaces to non-bookable small conference rooms and tables to traditional board rooms and conference rooms.

A company looking to cut down on air travel might build more phone rooms and dynamic video conferencing capabilities. Another company might build more breakout nooks with walls made of white board to foster innovative thinking. There are limitless possibilities and combinations even within the range of now-common workplace trends.

What matters is what kind of company you are and what kind of company you want to become. The space you build should be a strategic enabler to maximize your unique strengths and build your own future.

David Horowitz is a regional director at Colliers Project Leaders. The real estate services and investment management firm employs more than 6,000 people across more than 150 offices in 68 countries. The views expressed in this article are the author’s and not those of ALM Media’s Real Estate Group.