As companies continue to refine, re-think or double down on their workplace strategies, questions around what a successful return to office (RTO) looks like still remain. How many days in the office? How should it be implemented? How can it evolve as businesses grow and employee expectations shift? It’s true that 5-days-a-week mandates have worked for some. However, in the years following the pandemic, a broader consensus has emerged: there’s a balance to be struck. Long-term success relies on intentionally bringing people back into the office while avoiding a command-and-control approach.
To share some insight, we tapped the experts: Newmark’s President of North American Leasing, Elizabeth Hart; Ryan Jans, the Head of Leasing, EMEA & APAC, for WeWork; and Kovi Reichman, Senior Transaction Manager, JLL for a webinar led by Phuong Truong, WeWork’s VP of Global Real Estate, on ‘How to Make this RTO Push Your Last.’
The Shift from Mandate to Magnet
A large portion of companies have implemented RTO mandates, and when deployed without firm dictates and harsh ultimatums, they can be used to build momentum and bring people in. It’s a way for employers to take a more active role in shaping how and when people come together. The most important piece is finding a strategy that works for your company. As our experts explain, the “one-size-fits-all” real estate solution doesn’t really work in practice.
The companies thriving in this new normal aren’t the ones fixated on whether everyone is following the rules to the letter. It’s the organizations committed to leveraging the workspace as a tool to give people a genuinely good day at work that are seeing sustainable success.
They’re the ones that create what Ryan Jans, Head of Leasing, EMEA & APAC at WeWork, calls magnets: workspaces that attract and invite employees in and make them want to come into the office.
The Strategic “Why”: purpose and performance
Turning your office into a place employees want to be begins by creating a workspace that reflects your company’s culture. It should complement and elevate everything you’re trying to build. It’s what our experts call the “identity” of the office. What personality do you want your workspace to convey, and what do you want it to achieve? Answering that means asking a lot of questions: Are you a performance-driven organization that sees better results when teams work together in person? Is creative brainstorming and impromptu idea-sharing essential to the success of your business? Think about what you want to happen inside the office to meet business goals that can’t be achieved remotely, then build and iterate your workspace strategy to drive that forward.
The Experience Layer
Culture may be king, but a thoughtfully designed space is still a large part of the equation. Offices need to work harder than ever to compete with working from home, and create an experience that employees don’t want to miss out on. As Jans puts it, “if an employee’s day at home looks the same as their day in the office, something’s gone wrong.” Amenities that can elevate the office experience can be as simple as high quality coffee, the opportunity to connect with colleagues later in the day, or designated decompression space.
Our experts suggest a blend of hospitality, curated community, and flexibility. The ability to switch up the space also enables your office to adapt to shifting cultural and functional needs. “I think it’s a flexible design that really comes into play,” says Kovi Reichman, Senior Transaction Manager, JLL. “Not necessarily creating a desk for every person, but creating thoughtful spaces in the design that can be utilized as touch down space on those peak days when people are in the office.”
Measuring What Matters: The future of dynamic metrics
Current metrics like badge swipes and pings let you know if people are in the office, but they don’t tell you much else. Jans thinks we should think bigger. While anonymously tracking use and occupancy is important to understand how an office is being used, he suggests looking more towards KPIs that are tied to business objectives and reflect an organization’s why. Is there a way to measure cross-functional collaboration? Can we follow the growth of connection? As the future unfolds, we have to be willing to ask these harder-to-answer questions and reevaluate the ways we currently measure success.
And as AI and big data empower new ways of measuring, Elizabeth Hart, Newmark’s President of Leasing, North America, is eager to expand the scope and use of these metrics to improve the way we utilize and design our spaces. “I think that we are just starting to scratch the surface of how that’s going to be possible. And I think that there’s a lot of things that have come out, deep studies that have taken a lot of time intensive work around the physical qualities of space and how certain characteristics of buildings, and design can influence productivity and creativity.”
Leading by example: visible leadership and modeling behavior
Consistency is key when it comes to showing up at the office. Whatever your strategy, whether it’s 1-2 days a week, 3-4 or a full 5 days back, it is essential to have leadership inside the office, easily accessible, and working alongside everyone. It’s especially important for younger generations, who not only expect to have access to leaders within their organization, but also lean on these interactions to learn and develop their own skills.
Jans explains, “I think certainly as younger generations come into the office, they’re looking to have accessibility to executives. We can’t have our leaders behind closed doors and not accessible. We need them in the office, out on the office floor, approachable and creating more opportunities to teach, connect and grow with them.”
It’s about more than setting the example; it’s about providing employees with learning opportunities that would be impossible to recreate when working from home. It leads to what Jans calls “the flywheel of success.”
The New Normal is Fluid: finding your flexibility
There is no longer a one-size-fits-all approach to how companies use office space, according to Hart. Each organization has different goals, cultures, and workforce needs, which require a more flexible and iterative approach to the workplace. “You have to find what works for your business and your employees,” Hart said. “There’s going to be a much greater need for flexibility, and more of an iterative approach to your way of working.”
Creating a sustainable culture that drives results
It’s become clear that the power of the office lies in its ability to drive productivity, bottom-line efficiencies, and workforce engagement; when used correctly, and it’s an incredible strategic tool. And employees have shown that they are open to, and often appreciate, having an office. It all comes down to execution.
Already, the success of the magnet approach is paying off for the organizations that have embraced it—and it can be implemented by anyone. Start with a strong culture at the center, and prove to your employees that leadership is just as committed to showing us up as they are. By encouraging and leading by example, rather than dictating and distancing, you invite them. If your workspace offers them things they can’t get anywhere else, along with a great vibe and strong leadership, they’ll be eager to be there.
The other reality is that things change, and often change fast. The more entrenched we become in our expectations, the more we lose the ability to adapt. Flexible workspaces enable agility on all fronts, and give businesses the power to meet the future as it comes to them.
