Over the years architecture firms (and more recently real estate firms) have claimed that the right workplace strategy and design can improve employee productivity. It’s a bold claim because an increase in productivity is the same thing as reducing costs while increasing revenues. Improved productivity is the Holy Grail of business operations.
As I’ve dealt with these claims I become more and more hesitant about them. Sure, a well-designed workstation with the latest technology could make an employee more efficient. Two monitors are theoretically more efficient than one. Three monitors may be more efficient than two. Although I doubt many people believe four monitors are better than three currently. But it’s not the workplace that is enabling this efficiency, it’s the technology. The workplace enables the technology.
Similarly, a well-designed office plan can make seat sharing and inter-office collaboration feasible which promotes work-from-home and flexible scheduling which improves employee productivity. But here again, the workplace is enabling an HR and management policy of work-from-home and flexible scheduling. Without both pieces then none of it matters individually.
Real estate is at the heart of everything that happens in a business but real estate does not directly make any given piece work more effectively in isolation. Real estate works best when in partnership with HR, IT, supply chain, business leads, finance, etc. It’s the partnership piece that is really where real estate is best.