The building as a social network

Hybrid is going to be different for every company, every function within, and within functions ... This is why we suggest?getting to know your employee at the personal level -?Julie Whelan

What happened when the world of ‘agile, flexible, and dynamic’ crashes into what my Wharton Real Estate Professor used to describe as?‘big, lumpy, assets’? Best-in-class Real Estate, Facilities, and Workplace Professionals are on board, and early results are out, including the recent opening of LinkedIn’s Office One, where 50% of the workstations were removed, and replaced with over 75 different seating configuration options throughout the building.

Who better to ask than?Julie Whelan, Global Head of Occupier Thought Leadership for CBRE? Julie has been leading a longitudinal study with occupiers since 2015 and shared some of the latest results on Work 20XX, a show focused on work and the future of work. In this episode, Julie shared some of the latest data from the?Spring 2022 US Office Occupier Sentiment Survey.?

Individual workstation occupancy has been in decline long before 2020. Ironically, Julie and the team published Global Outlook, “The Age of Responsive Real Estate’ in March 2020, foreshadowing a more flexible, activity-based real estate portfolio. And as we’ve repeatedly seen, Covid accelerated said transformation, compression 10 years into two.?

‘Activity based’ is the way to think about usage, which drives employee experience and productivity, which drives retention and innovation. No one wants to be considered overhead or SG&A. How can Real Estate and Facilities professionals use their expertise and resources to help make everyone more productive???

Real Estate also represents a huge lever in achieving corporate sustainability objectives, which are important for everyone from the boardroom to line people.?

These are still early days. Listen, watch the data, and be ready to adjust.?

Without further delay, enjoy this conversation with Julie Whelan?

(Editors note, this episode was originally published August 2022, just as the post Summer vacation and Labor Day (US), return to office mandates were rolled out. Six months on, we see how those are going. If you'd like to jump to the full length interview, Click for WebexAhead Showcase, Work 20XX Podcast Show Episode page with notes and transcript, Vimeo Showcase, Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Audible Books on Tape, or wherever you podcast

Select highlights from the interview

In 2019 we published Real Estate 2030, a 10-year look ahead, headlined 'The Fluid Workplace' ... where people came together to collaborate and to have a sense of belonging -?Julie Whelan

Love first-person longitudinal data.?Julie Whelan?shared the results of the Spring Office Occupier Sentiment Survey published by the?CBRE?Research Team. For more on the survey -?https://lnkd.in/g_RYF8sA . The office has been due for an upgrade for decades.

Hybrid is going to be different for every company, every function within, and within functions ... This is why we suggest?getting to know your employee at the personal level. What makes them tick??What are their drivers for wanting flexibility??And what does their actual job function need to succeed? -?Julie Whelan

We are in a world of hyper-personalization, we all have our own information feeds. Create a work environment, an ecosystem of environments if you will, that powers your people doing the best work of their careers. It's activity based. Sometimes working alone, sometimes in sequence, and sometimes together.

Flexibility means where you work, and it means when you work. And honestly, it also means how you work -?Julie Whelan

We measure and manage our time blocks of hours and minutes, not days. Give people the agency to manage their own calendars, around the norms defined in the group.

We're tracking 90 million sq feet (of flexible office) across 50 US markets, under 2% of inventory. Most of our clients are telling us that they want to expand their usage -?Julie Whelan?on flexible office space

As?Ryan Anderson?said, the office as an on-demand asset, As Julie said, flexible space can be used to solve a number of portfolio challenges.

So it begs the question, what amenities determine Class A space going forward?

Tenants are more sophisticated about what they want out of their space, the value that they bring by being a tenant, its a lot more operational than it's ever been -?Julie Whelan

We broke it into three buckets.

- human elements of the workplace that are changing

- digital elements of the workplace that are changing and?

- physical elements of the workplace that are changing?

Long gone are the days where you sign a lease and then you don’t see the landlord again, except to collect the check ... tenants are expecting more in an operational way -?Julie Whelan

In an increasingly dynamic world, tenants are looking for a landlord to accompany them on the journey.

We are in an extremely tight labor market that is structurally tight, because of demographics retirements and immigration. The talent (market) is extremely, extremely competitive ... as a result, organizations are really focused on the experience of employees -?Julie Whelan

Current layoffs included, the labor market tightness is systemic. Invest in engagement, employee experience, drives retention, and customer experience.

Real Estate is one of the highest levers in working toward corporate sustainability objectives.

This is having a real circular effect on the economy because really every single thing that you touch along the supply chain has implications on sustainability and real estate -?Julie Whelan

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Sustainability matter to people and people matter to the business.

And to finish on a high note, Julie is very excited about a bright future, are as many of the workplace experts I've spoken with.

There is acknowledgment at the highest levels of organizations that things need to be different, And that's when real change can happen when there is that acknowledgment by the people that can actually do something to change -?Julie Whelan

Everyone in workplace is excited about the future.

And this from Julie Whelan, Global Head of Occupier Thought Leadership at?CBRE, finger literally on the pulse of the industry with longitudinal first-person data.

Transformation isn't easy, and it isn't overnight, but it isn't impossible either. Julie's excited about the future. Much more useful than lamenting the passing of yesterday.

Thanks again?Julie And thanks to each of you for following along. Please like, subscribe, and smash that notification bell wherever you podcast.

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Disclaimer and Disclosure

This Episode of Work 20XX with Jeff Frick is brought to you by?Webex?by?Cisco?as part of the?Webex Ahead?program. For more information and leaders on Work, and the future of work, please visit?www.WebexAhead.Webex.com

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