lorem

With the pandemic’s lockdowns behind us, many corporate leaders are ready to take a second or third more considered approach to office space.

Research from MIT and others shows that return-to-office mandates often back-fire. These mandates send employees the message that management does not trust them to work with commitment off site. One documented result is that high-performing employees with other options disproportionately choose to leave the mandating employer.

At the same time, a majority of employees wish to spend some time in the office – connecting with colleagues, benefiting from real-time, face-to-face communication.

All of this means that the office landscape performs different functions than in the past.

First, employers must learn how office space can enhance employees’ productivity and the experience of coming together. Hint: the answer is not ping-pong tables and coffee bars.

Second, the physical design must account for the new reality of hybrid, sometimes-in, sometimes-out office users.

When a five-day a week office user claims space that a three-day user reserved online, what happens to the office atmosphere? Is the space dominated by territorial squabbles and insider cliques?

Are some spaces inherently more desirable? Say, near a window?

Or, are some seats less functional? So densely packed that visual and auditory privacy are not possible?

CTRR’s long experience helping clients articulate and quantify space needs can help you develop functional, effective criteria for your new office landscape and the preliminary space program to satisfy those needs.