The Future of the Office

Heil. Thanks for taking the time out of you and

listen to this presentation on cars behalf.

Last week I attended the office of the Future Discussion

held by Side Business School, part of the University of

Oxford. I'd like to run through the key points and

learnings of this discussion.

There were two main focus areas in their discussion.

One regarding the return to normality.

Post coded how long it may take on whether behavioral

changes inherited during this time would become permanent.

Secondly, the other focus area was regarding what's next for

office space.

A ZX.

We see vacant space at a high during this pandemic.

The panel provided a range of views from an empirical

investment. Unoccupied Perspective Panel was made up of Ronin Journal,

head of operations at Hinds Marshall, Kay's ASEAN director of

real estate.

Sherman and Sterling Andrew Baum, professor of practice at Oxford

University and director of real estate initiative for Oxford University

and also Sabina Carryin global head of real estate, Real

Assets Research and C B R E.

Well, firstly, look into the impact the Cove in 19

Pandemic has had on the office.

There were three questions that I believe the discussion helped

answer. What has changed looked like this focuses on behavioral

changes in these current times well, the way officers are

designed to manage to have to change as a result.

So this follows on from the changes discussed.

What were the consequence of these?

Be lastly, how does working in the office or remotely

coincide with the organizational culture?

Does it fit the brand identity of the business impacts?

So what do we see when the pandemic hit?

I should discuss this initial emotional response.

It caused the surge of early retirements.

This, alongside the encouragement to work from home, leads to

firms considering how much space they really need.

Ronan emphasized this point.

He elaborated by staying, stating 40 to 50% of office

space was underutilized.

Already, this was reaffirming the consideration of flex working.

Lastly, businesses businesses were quick to ensure that these new

ways of working we're not causing a variance toe, organizational

targets and gold.

The discourse then developed to focus on the change of

management and design due to changes observed.

The general consensus in the presentation was at the office

certainly wasn't dead, Roland highlighted.

His prediction was that office space will be repurposed to

become a richer, collaborative hub for a working community rather

than a routine process driven environment as well as this.

It was noted that flexibility, optimization and digitization were inevitable,

but simply catalyzed by the Kovar 19 pandemic.

The prediction was also there would no longer be a

binary office environment, that it would become a rich ecosystem

of destinations and settings, with employees having choice in space,

behaviors have changed as barriers have been introduced, it was

highlighted. The officers now need to change with the shift

from process to allow for a cognitive collaborative.

Yeah, we're all aware that this is a new world

to all of us.

So evaluation is to be embedded in every business.

To get the most accurate data on the new demands

and requirements of employees, real time investigation should be undertaken.

The last point in the section relates to cultural fit,

Andrew said.

The following the future of work is here it is

human centric data.

Insights had to be driven, dedicated, the choice, trust, safety,

health quality, well being on experience.

It promotes, um, thought, doesn't it?

What does the bleed style of the new ways of

working look like Do we know what it is now?

In a world full of anomalies than the unexpected, it

was highlighted that there was a need to better measure

and analyze office metrics.

Post covert It's safe to say data on response toe

working during a global pandemic is scarce.

So Andrews empirical view was that more research needs to

be undertaken to create a model of work is.

Currently there was no perfect response in the form of

a model to put forward financial efficiency.

Metrics needed to be embedded mawr effectively.

Also, with some firms reducing costs in office space.

Does this an entail increased costs and aspect, such as

enhanced salary allowance?

Following this, does the change in productivity look favorable, if

not our investments in areas such a salary and well

being? Even a smart investment if profit in general is

down due to levels of productivity for them.

Lastly, leadership on landlord boot blueprints for this scenario do

not exist, so analysis into productivity need to be clarified

in order to establish what productivity should look like during

a global pandemic and in what is being referred to

as the new normal.

Lastly, there were three considerations for the future.

Third, space, communication, change and cost.

So what does the future look like?

So, firstly, a definition of third space.

Third space refers to a space that is not the

office on is not the home.

Businesses are commonly investing in flexible working space with the

likes of we work in Spaces.

The first point discussed was that the consequences of this

pandemic were underdressed.

No employees chose them.

So where possible, employers needed to support staff in helping

create a correct environment.

The value of face to face physical meetings have enhanced

as there is an incremental time and travel investment.

To ensure these go ahead, Sabina highlighted, businesses should cater

for this going forward.

84% of employees and we weren't respondents.

Survey that was discussed in this online lecture stated that

getting out of the house to an alternative environment for

work was a priority.

What was drawn from this is that the consensus was

correct. The office is not dead.

In fact, employees understand the importance in having access to

the work environment personally.

One of my favorite topics with regarding communication changes ah,

4% of employees stated they would miss the workplace and

60% say they would miss colleagues.

This again shows evidence that the Office of the Future

needs to cater for access for networking connecting with colleagues,

Ronan elaborated, stating that employers needed to promote the central

hub of an organization to ensure this connection was upheld.

Whilst we are somewhat limited and lastly, the discussion moves

on to cost naturally, change results in cost implications the

hot topic because I'm sure many of you can imagine

with the justification of London salaries whilst teams were remotely

working, some firms in Silicon Valley have began to pull

back salary for home based workers, so it is happening

in the world.

Sabina discussed space per worker, and inevitably, if less people

were attending the office, then space per worker would increase.

So this imposes the question.

Is capital efficiently invested for space required in any business?

And lastly, with landlords now increasing tenure term to ensure

stability in this market, it is key that the right

spaces acquired for the length of the investment, Therefore, the

criteria for occupants needs to be stricter, Sabina suggested ruthless

focus on quality.

No compromise on location on demand for flexibility.

Now I hope you're found.

This is insightful as I did.

Please don't hesitate to send me any questions.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

The Future of the Office

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated