It is incredibly easy for real estate people to focus on the office. Most of our metrics are space first because that is what we can control. Cost per square foot, square feet per person, square feet per desk, and desk per person are all space-centric. Sure, some of the have people as a denominator,…
Tag: design
Improving Employee Experience goes hand-in-hand with reducing real estate costs. 5 areas to reduce costs while improving the experience.
There is a stereotype that improving employee experience within a workplace requires increasing costs. Companies often attempt this approach in practice but it rarely actually works for a few obvious reasons when you step back and think about it. Cost and experience are related but it follows a curve. The more you spend, the more…
Offices versus Homes: Should the office be competing with homes in an attempt to draw employees back?
It has become standard fair in real estate circles to talk about how the office is in competition with people’s homes. The thinking goes that if employees can either work from home or the office, then the office must be made more enticing to draw people toward that option. Unstated in this theory is the…
Workplace design has never been more important, but overanalysis can be extremely dangerous.
The pandemic is over! The pandemic is over! I’ve heard the cries up and down the streets worldwide from individuals, colleagues, business leaders, and governments. The declaration of freedom has been loud and excited from all quarters. The theory seems to be that by saying it often enough will also mean that it never happened….
The good, the bad, and the unnecessary of workplace surveys.
Workplace surveys may be the single most popular and common way of collecting data about how employees within an office work. When change events impacting an office are planned, you can be nearly certain that a survey will be coming out in advance to gauge employee thoughts on various aspects. Insightful questions often include classics…
Productivity targets should never drive your workplace standards.
Productivity is the seeming Holy Grail of real estate/workplace consulting. A never-ending wave of MBAs come crashing through businesses spouting their ability to design real estate standards and strategies that will improve your company’s productivity. Every ounce of these pitches is snake oil. There has never been a study that can effectively link workplace design…
Future-proofing – by definition – requires effort beyond today and into the future.
As the nature of corporate real estate shifts before our eyes, there is a lot of talk about future-proofing real estate portfolios and workplace designs against on-going change. This makes perfect sense as a concept. Anytime things are in a state of constant change, making yourself resilient against future state impacts is wise. The challenge…
Absolute solutions do not exist today for Corporate Real Estate. Planning must be focused on adapting as conditions change.
I am absolutely amazed at the number of CRE professionals that act as if they know what workplaces are going to be after COVID-19 is behind us. There are articles and white papers and case studies all pretending to have certainty on what people are going to want from the office when returns are allowed….