Looking to right-size your portfolio and improve efficiency? You can do more with less, but companies must be intentional if they want to implement cost-saving measures without compromising employee comfort.
Corporate real estate and workplace experience teams often appear to be speaking different languages. The former wants to improve efficiency and reduce costs, while the latter is focused on improving spaces to enhance experience.
But certainly, in recent times, as the workplace shifts from underneath finance into the organization, it shows that we no longer see the office as just an asset on a spreadsheet.
We’re moving away from metrics like dollars per square foot to qualitative employee engagement and satisfaction data. Utilization figures might give you a barometer of the office, but ultimately, you need employee sentiment data to tell you what they like and dislike and why.
Companies working to give their employees a Return-on-Commute (a metric discussed in one of our previous blog posts) are seeing benefits like higher space utilization and improved engagement. But, of course, this investment needs to be balanced with your organization’s objectives.
If, like most, cutting costs is at the top of your agenda right now, here are some ideas on how to do it without disgruntling employees (or even better, actually making them happier.)
Optimizing your CRE portfolio: Doing more with less
1. Smaller, but better: The social club
Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to the workplace. Rather than thinking solely about size, consider how the office performs to give employees what they need.
In his blog, Daan van Rossum outlines four critical types of spaces: Social, Meet, Focus, and Balance. Optimizing the office to meet these needs with fewer square feet can be a win-win.
Here’s a great case study that Daan shares:
“A great example is architecture and design firm NBBJ, which transformed the former offices of clothing company Eileen Fisher in New York City’s Flatiron district into a 28,000-square-foot ‘living lab’ to test the best design and layout for hybrid work.
The space doesn’t force employees to be in the office five days a week but instead creates an appealing place for hybrid work despite the long commutes in the area. NBBJ will use this as a basis for designing offices for clients looking to the future.
The Flatiron space opened in November. It has a mix of office and social club vibes with homey bookshelves and couches in conference rooms, a lab displaying tiny models of buildings the company is designing, green carpets throughout, and rotating art projects on its high ceilings.”
And they’re not the only ones following the trend. As Phillip Youakim wrote in a recent blog:
“I see the office becoming more like a ‘social club.’ Dropbox made a great choice because offices need to be more purposeful—that’s going to be the main reason people decide to go back to an office. And that’s only accomplished when space is intentionally designed to improve at-work experiences—it’s a movement towards creating a more meaningful workplace.”
Of course, while socializing is one of the biggest draws for employees to come to the office, companies should be careful not to over-index. They should still facilitate work with spaces like quiet nooks for heads-down tasks.
2. Monetizing space: “Twice the experience, half the space”
As many companies demonstrate with their “twice the experience, half the space” strategy, footprint doesn’t have to correlate with experience.
But as Ex-Standard Chartered Bank senior property leader Denis McGowan elaborates in a recent blog post, it’s not as straightforward as it sounds; delivering twice the experience required optimizing and monetizing the existing space.
“It’s focusing on twice the experience using whatever assets you have to hand, whether it’s dollars or space, to ensure you can invest in the experience piece.”
Denis advocates generating an income from excess space rather than getting rid of it and using technology to automate mundane tasks so you can invest your resources into the employee experience. After all, it can be tempting for organizations with inflated space to look at their utilization scores and chop off a big chunk of their real estate. But then the pendulum swings too far the other way and they can’t flex when they do require more space.
Modern working styles demand a flexible approach, and companies should acknowledge that real estate requirements will shift and evolve throughout the week, months, and years.
If an ambitious strategy like the above isn’t on the cards yet, companies can secure immediate wins by experimenting with flexible furniture, moving partitions on wheels rather than knocking walls down. That incremental approach can help optimize the space and get employee feedback to increase your confidence in future decisions.
3. Location, location, location: Less space, better place
A desirable location is high on the list of what employees want from the office. That means they may tolerate a smaller office if the trade-off is a palatable commute to a more vibrant part of town.
A lively location can do a lot of the hard work for you. Nearby amenities allow employees extra choices of off-site spaces, the opportunity to run errands during their lunch break, and the opportunity to socialize after work, even if on-site and subsidized amenities aren’t on the immediate agenda.
Being part of a buzzing atmosphere can entice employees into the office, and anything that helps lubricate those social interactions, like choosing a site that people want to hang around in, will help. Compare that to a bigger office out of town with nowhere to grab a 5 pm beer, and you can see why employees will be eager to head home on time or not show up at all.
Going back to the four critical types of spaces, you can see how location can help tick the boxes, such as restaurants to socialize in or a local gym to feel balanced before work.
Want to increase employee satisfaction? Listen to your people
You don’t need a crystal ball to predict whether employees will like your proposed changes to the space.
Alongside analyzing space use, companies need to understand employee needs as they consolidate and optimize the office. With Saltmine’s cloud-based platform, you can gather all your data and stakeholders in one place, engage your people in the design process, and get their feedback on your current or planned space to help create a workplace they’ll love.
For more on consolidating office space without compromising a positive office experience, check out this blog on aligning your CFO’s goals to your workplace strategy.
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