The purpose of the office has totally evolved in the past year. Instead of being a place for people to put their heads down and focus on individual work, itโs become an environment about collaboration and making connections with colleagues.
This means that office experts need to have a better understanding of what building users need, and how exactly to provide the best experience possible so the workspace becomes a place people actually want to commute to.
โThe inconvenient truth for the office market now is that things like high quality lighting and air conditioning are just entry level merits for todayโs office,โ said Tanya Lambert, senior asset manager at AXA Investment Managersโ alternatives investment business, AXA IM Alts. โPremium fixtures and fittings alone are not good enough, and most importantly we really need to understand who our customer is.โ
Moving forward, office design will need to use a customer-first approach and in this case, employees are the customers. The best way to accomplish this is to incorporate bespoke spaces for departments that help nurture interaction with workers.
โYou donโt want to be coming into the office locking yourself away doing emails or back-to-back video conference calls,โ said Stuart Davie, head of corporate real estate in Australia for HSBC bank. โThe office must be used as a vehicle for human interaction that also helps promote the culture you want to build for your organisation.
