Finding The Purpose Of Your Office

Global office attendance is still lagging as we emerge from the pandemic, and many companies are still struggling to reimagine the future of their physical space and its implications for their culture. Approximately 87% of organizations have adopted Hybrid work policies according to CBRE’s occupier sentiment survey. What leaders can focus on now, is the incredible opportunity they have to utilize their working spaces to more strategically align them with the organization’s overall purpose and strategy.?

A silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is what some are calling the “Great Reset” - a pivotal moment for organizations to reflect on their fundamental mission and impact in the world, what they want to prioritize, how their culture will drive performance, and how to create a sense of community that will draw employees back into the office with a regular cadence.

In order for leaders to answer these questions, they first need to understand the value of their office, not just to their bottom line, but more importantly to the people who will utilize this space to drive productivity and performance. Over the last year I have personally had conversations with Boards, CEOs, CHROs and employees in more than a dozen leading Canadian organizations across many industries. And yet, a consensus on best practice has yet to emerge -- each organization is a unique ecosystem and has approached these questions with their own lens. Some organizations like Tesla are forcing people back into the office full-time, while others like Salesforce have made remote work a permanent recruiting incentive.

Like many recent hires in companies around the world, I was on-boarded virtually during the pandemic. From Day 1, I only knew my direct working team and my manager. Though deeply driven by the content of my work -- helping companies align their strategy for people and space -- I often struggled to feel part of a global organization with over 100,000 employees from a makeshift desk in my daughter’s bedroom. Though I was fully engaged with my work, I wasn’t able to make meaningful connections with people in other departments to further my knowledge of the organization and benefit from the serendipitous encounters in hallways and common spaces that designers deliberately embed into modern offices to inspire creativity and innovation.?

As restrictions began to lift, our team of thought leaders in Workplace strategy began to test out some of the more innovative approaches to hybrid work that we were observing in the marketplace, which matched the unique culture of our team. We selected two “anchor days” to encourage team members to meet in our physical office and began to plan our schedules to avoid Zoom calls while in-office. We met weekly for mentoring and 1:1 sessions with Managers and Directors. We shifted our activities to more collaborative team sessions -- leveraging our physical presence to come together around a table, ideate and share perspectives and do so in person for the first time in years.

Beyond a redesign of meeting format, I also used my in-office anchor days to introduce myself to my new colleagues to build out a more comprehensive understanding of the organization. I made connections outside of my direct working group to support my personal growth, knowledge and network. These lighter conversations and novel introductions also allowed me to ask my novice questions in a more intimate and accessible format than large virtual gatherings.

What we have observed over the last eight months is that there are certain situations and conversations that virtual interactions cannot replicate or stimulate. As cliche as it sounds, watercooler sessions are critical for individual growth, learning and community building.?

So what can companies and leaders learn from this experience? How can they leverage the best of what the office has to offer while also recognizing and even celebrating the benefits to wellness and productivity that our forced experiment with remote work has revealed?

Views about this dilemma are quite polarized. Truthfully the office is not going away, but a return to business as usual pre-pandemic is also no longer tenable for workers who have experienced one of the largest structural shifts in workplace dynamics since the surge in female participation after the Second World War.

All-or-nothing approaches or knee jerk reactions like the one from Elon Musk as reported by CNBC who demanded a 5 day return to office only to realize the lack of space and tools to accommodate its employees are not productive or good for employee morale. Instead, the most productive path forward starts with understanding the unique value of the office to each organization and its employees.

Check your Pulse - As organizations grapple with the shifting relationship between the employee and the office it is important to understand the gravitational pulls for your employees to return to the office. For example, you can go on listening tours, conduct surveys and interviews, and facilitate focus groups to understand where they are in their return to office journey.

Be Introspective - For many leaders, this is the first time that their strategic planning requires a deep reflection on the alignment between physical capital and human capital to unveil the purpose of their offices. Leaders need to be introspective and honest about what the organization values, what it wants to prioritize, and what guiding principles they will follow to define their unique intrinsic value.

Think Systematically - Organizations are finding that they need to make investments to transform their businesses “post pandemic”, these investment opportunities need to be founded on data and metrics. An example is a past client that was solving for their physical space and footprint when the data revealed that the investment needed was on the culture of the organization to draw employees back to their physical space. Understand what you are transforming by systematically seeing how these pieces fit into the wider context of the transformation you are trying to achieve.

Communicate & Move Forward - Leaders will need to make decisions and move forward to align their organizational time horizons, be it a return to office plan, a hybrid work implementation, or a remote first strategy. Whatever leadership decides communication, consistency, and clarity are imperative to move your workforce forward, manage expectations and make thoughtful decisions for the employee and employer.

Verify - As with any strategy, verification of the intended outcome will need to be measured. Frequently check-in with employees to verify outcomes, measure where possible, be flexible, and be prepared to pivot.

Culture is the common denominator in defining the purpose of the office. As was the case for many during COVID, our closest personal relationships grew stronger, and our weakest faded through neglect or misalignment. In the same way, without investment our organizational culture is diluted and loses its gravitational pull, particularly when there isn’t a strong culture to begin with.?

As much as we’d like to think its possible, culture isn’t easily cultivated on Zoom. It grows with the energy that people bring into the office, the emotional speeches at a retirement party, the awards and promotions ceremonies celebrating success and hard work, and the training and knowledge sharing that happens when we invest time together as a collective and cohesive unit. These are some of the actions that create, illustrate and build culture -- provided that leadership teams agree on the purpose of the office, are willing to make the necessary investments, and are ready to support potentially large-scale organizational change.

Under these conditions, the office experience will be meaningfully enriched, and the design and functionality of the office and the broader approach to workplace strategy will not only unleash productivity but also become a competitive advantage. For some, this will mean more real estate, for others it will be less. For both, it will need to be grounded in the organization’s core purpose and the culture it will take to achieve it sustainably over time. It will also take leaders and teams thinking differently about the future of work.

Make work a destination - I continue to enjoy the benefits of working from home, particularly the flexibility and autonomy it has provided to support my young family and achieve a healthier work-life balance.?In the past, I used my one day of working from home as a wellness day. Today, my wellness days are going into the office, recharging my social batteries, learning from other teams, meeting new people, popping in and out of 1:1 in-person meetings, and occasionally sticking around for Thursday’s drink cart. It’s a different kind of in-office experience, and a different kind of productivity. The secret lies in the balance. How has your return to office experience been? How are you striking your balance, finding your purpose and building your culture???

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About the author: Nathalie DeCiantis is a Senior Consultant in Workplace Strategy at CBRE. Her approach focuses on employee experience to create future-ready workplace environments. By employing design thinking methodologies, and design research techniques, Nathalie seeks to better understand the complex challenges facing organizations, and effectively develop strategies that are unique to each client’s vision, culture and brand.

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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee, or other group or individual.