The Workplace You Need Now. Sanjay Rishi
much as multigenerational workers desire workplace flexibility and personalization, that flexibility is driven or limited by the availability of tools and technology. The speed of corresponding workplace evolution will be driven by the level of organizational commitment to change.
The responsible workplace, with its various dimensions, is emerging as the next major driver of change for organizations. Corporate responsibility now goes much farther than it did in the past, when it mostly comprised well-intentioned initiatives to further the corporate culture. Part II lays out the case for change and uncovers a mandate for organizations to invest financial, human, and social capital to effect fundamental change.
We define four macro responsibility imperatives: health and wellness, environment and sustainability, diversity/equity/inclusion, and resilience. Members of today’s workforce are driving as they seek to blend working from the home, from the office, and from anywhere. They care about societal causes, including glaring problems of social and racial injustice, income inequality, and environmental sustainability. They want the workplace to support a distinct culture and opportunities for collaboration, creativity, and community, and they’re relying on their employers to build such a space. The challenge, of course, is to address the divergent needs and preferences of workers themselves. We examine four worker profiles whose divergent needs are a source of challenge and opportunity.
In Part III, we explore the experiential workplace. Experience indeed is everything – in personal lives and in lives at work. Individuals are motivated to come to work to find social interaction, mentorship, collaboration, and learning. Workplaces are evolving rapidly to accommodate these heightened needs of individuals. C-suite executives increasingly recognize that workplaces should be inviting and healthy, and facilitate a rewarding experience. Talent attraction and retention rests on this focus on workplaces that help create a brand and a sense of belonging that can be illusive in a digitally enabled world.
We unpack design influences that are affecting physical spaces. The innovation and creativity in the physical design shape the first visual experience for the visitor. Much can be leveraged from ideas and concepts that leading enterprises are creating and adopting. We further explore the intelligent experience – the coming together of the physical and the digital. In leading companies, digital transformation is enabling not only new business models but also new workplace experiences. Mobile apps are making navigation easy, space reservations efficient, occupancy management effective, and the entire spectrum of sustainable, responsive, smart workplace operations a reality.
Not unlike industries that have harnessed digital and cloud technologies to power innovation, workplaces stand to benefit from the enhanced postpandemic attention to the domain of corporate real estate. Commercial property technology – “proptech” – has been fueled by investments across the globe, and the pandemic has enabled a marked acceleration of a whole new spectrum of capabilities, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, and touchless technologies, to name a few, into the workspace.
The dimensions of transformation are diverse, with no panacea or “one-size-fits-all” approach for organizations and workers to embrace. Yet, the trends, the needs, and the capabilities for transforming workplaces are undeniable and the opportunity vast. The call to action has never been louder and the foundation of support never stronger, for organizations to navigate their individual journeys through the labyrinth of options.
The workplace of the future is here and now, and the lines between where we live, work, and play have become blurred. The experiential workplace is now the new metric by which spaces are being evaluated, as organizations seek to optimize their use of space while fostering employee engagement and productivity through dynamic workplace strategies.
We conclude the book in Part IV having described the emerging demand, the paths to fulfilment of those demands, and the risks of inaction. Relying on the assessments and views of the entire ecosystem of workspace participants – investors, occupiers, brokers, managers, proptech entrepreneurs, corporate real estate officers, human resource leaders, chief information officers, and more – we aim to help organizations and individuals think through the continuum of needs and priorities across six facets of workplace transformation.
Since many of these issues and trends are still emerging, with no one “right answer” for the workplace, we have sought to provide a strategic framework whereby companies can discover the approach that will meet their unique corporate management, organizational, workforce, and cultural needs. The proposed framework is a tool for decision-making and capital investments that can be customized to each organization. It reflects approaches that leading organizations are adopting to fit their particular circumstances.
PREFACE
From climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic, crises, and mass disruption – the likes of which we have experienced in past eras – we have seen devastating and yet fundamentally transformative consequences emerge. Across history, crises have catalyzed innovation and business model transformation, and have been followed by a sense of optimism. The idea for this book first emerged just as the world had been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic and hopes of a quick recovery had been lost. For months, humanity reeled with uncertainty, fears, grief, and loss, and socioeconomic challenges that, combined, more closely resembled a gripping science fiction movie than real life. From dining with friends or cheering at a baseball game to taking a child to school and heading to the office, normalcy was displaced.
In the aftermath of all that despair, however, optimism, innovation, and an acceleration of lasting changes have emerged. CEOs of world-leading organizations have been on the news talking about their workplaces. The evolution of work – a perpetual journey – has become front and center as organizations begin to reconcile priorities of collaboration and culture with the learnings and implications of mass remote working. The idea of “workplace” as we knew it has undergone unprecedented and unplanned transformation.
Traditionally, of course, the office has had a central role in the business of work. “Going to work” meant going to a downtown high-rise office building or a suburban corporate campus, not your guest bedroom or kitchen table or, if you are fortunate, an actual home office. The pandemic shattered these conventional views of work and the office, and upended many other societal norms along the way.
Employee expectations shifted significantly during the pandemic, as many continued to be just as productive from home as in the office – and they didn’t miss the commute. Many organizations are now shifting their expectations, examining their workplaces and real estate portfolios as they ponder the evolving purpose their workplaces should serve.
The value of the workplace is being redefined, with the recognition that brand, talent, culture, and creativity are inherently intertwined. Enterprises large and small, public and private, along with communities, are assessing whether the current shifts we are seeing in how people live and work are cyclical or structural. Consumers are adopting new lifestyles and rethinking their value systems. Health and safety, social justice, and environmental impact are at the top of the agenda for many workers and, likewise, for many employees, customers, shareholders and other stakeholders. And yet, at the same time, there is broad recognition that offices and workplaces are at the heart of organizational culture, creativity, and talent attraction – fundamental keys to individual and organizational success.
The opportunity to write a book about this pivotal moment was too compelling an opportunity to pass up. Across diverse cultures and societies, work and workplace are evolving through multiple dimensions. The best thing I did was to enlist my colleagues Ben Breslau and Peter Miscovich – both prolific thinkers, researchers, and writers in their own right. To no one’s surprise, the response was an immediate and enthusiastic yes. Over many months, through holidays and long weekends, they juggled work, home, and family priorities, yet nonetheless were able to devote precious time to this endeavor.
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