Office Design Changing as Millennials Emerge

MIAMI—The quest for worker productivity is driving changes in office space design—and a CBRE study is offering insights into how it may be paying off. Indeed, office space design can drive a stronger sense of community and help attract Millennials to a company.

The overarching takeaway from the CBRE study is this: Offering different types of workspaces within an office environment is the key to improving worker productivity. In fact, when a company offers a variety of workspaces and allows employees to make an officing choice, satisfaction levels increase 10% to 15%.

“By creating workplace solutions that reflect how people work and what they value, organizations can drive measurable improvements in employee satisfaction and business productivity while reflecting their brands and value to customers,” says Gary Baragona, director of research and analysis for CBRE.

Last-generation office layouts determined future space needs by examining existing office configuration and deciding what needed to be rearranged to accommodate future growth—and lower real estate costs were a key driver. Now, CBRE reports, companies are looking to create a more thoughtful workplace strategy by understanding work environments and implementing open and private workspaces that meet the needs of how employees actually work.

“At Cresa, we have a multigenerational workforce—and so do many of our clients,” says Matthew Goodman, a managing principal at Cresa. “When we relocated our Miami offices in 2012, we did it with that multigenerational workforce in mind. We created an environment that facilitates an ideal way of working, responds to their evolving structure and helps fulfill the strategic objectives of our brand.”

The CBRE offered several other takeaways. In an increasingly virtual world, for example, employees have a stronger sense of community and value the opportunity to connect face to face. That, CBRE says, is leading companies to create more transparent environments where employees can see each other working, with easy access to spaces for formal and informal interaction.

Another trend is remote information accessibility. CBRE says employees identify it as the most important workplace attribute but it's also the poorest-performing measure of employee satisfaction. The study shows companies are responding by increasingly allowing employees to self-select the type of technology that supports the way they work, in addition to self-selecting the type of workspace that is best suited for the task at hand.

Finally, the report finds that Millennials prefer a mix of work environments. Fifty-two percent want a mix of working at home and in an office, while 41% prefer to work mainly from one office. Only 7% of Millennials prefer to work mainly from home.

“Collectively, this data suggests that organizations that can provide flexibility and choice will create greater office efficiencies and higher levels of employee satisfaction,” says Lenny Beaudoin, senior managing director of Workplace Strategy for CBRE. “By more intensely using their real estate assets, companies are able to reinvest in technology and a suite of services that can make the new workplace environment a reality for their employees.”