How your workplace can help win the talent war

The war for talent is getting more intense with every passing day and potential employees now find themselves firmly in the driver’s seat.

Record low unemployment is putting enormous pressure on U.S. companies and top organizations are seeking new ways to compete for the best and the brightest. This March, a Barron’s article by Avi Salzman reported that we are facing a “great labor crunch,” including a shortage of at least 8.2-million workers across the U.S. over the next 10 years. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that the labor shortage is so acute in some regions of the country that even if every unemployed person across the Midwest filled a job opening, this 12-state region would still have 180,000 unfilled positions. 

In this unprecedented climate, workplace has become an important strategic tool of many top companies, helping them attract and retain good people.

However, at the same time that labor shortages are upon us, the question of where and how people work is undergoing significant change as new technological and real estate models become more prevalent. Not all of these changes have had positive results for companies trying to attract talent. Many organizations are realizing that the move to disbursed, nomadic workforces has depleted their culture and limited the growth and development of their people. Also, it’s been proven that arbitrarily reducing square footage per person in a workplace can impact the ability for people to focus at work.

At the recent “Future Offices 2018 Conference” in New York, a range of speakers offered important insights into how top organizations are using their respective workplaces to their advantage. From BuzzFeed’s Julia Goldberg who spoke about how and why organizations are leveraging design and technology to attract top talent, to Tracy Hawkins of Twitter who talked about how the workplace can trigger new behaviors and shape organizational culture, it was instructive for me to hear other top executives from around the world describe how the workplace has become a critical component of their business strategy.

For more than a decade, the Gensler Research Institute has studied the relationship between workplace design and business outcomes. The results are clear: people thrive in companies and organizations with certain types of workplaces. We are finding that these workplaces are based on four trends that the Gensler Research Institute forecasts as driving the future of the workplace, and which organizations should embrace to create success.

Trend #1: Individual + Group + Community

The Gensler Research Institute has studied the shifting priorities of people in their workplaces with its proprietary Workplace Performance Index? (WPI). The WPI has conclusively proven that there are three impactful building blocks in a great workplace:

• The first is improving the work environment at the individual level. We found that any form of workstation can be part of a high-performance workplace, including an open floorplan. But, an individual’s workstation needs to be designed to support their particular work -- with consideration of noise, light and layout.
• The second is to provide a greater variety of collaborative workspaces to support group work. For these spaces to be functional and effective they need a diverse range of spaces equipped with meeting places, and include technology, especially access to WiFi and outlets.
• The final building block is to empower the whole community -- meaning that everyone in the office has equal access to different spaces. The WPI findings indicate that people are more effective when they work in a variety of spaces throughout their day. Workplaces that give equal access to important amenities and working areas are higher performing, creating a better return on investment.

However, the most important part of community is creating and communicating a common purpose and shared values. This is why generic, anonymous workplaces are problematic. The clear articulation of purpose in the design of the workplace reinforces the goals, vision and strategy of the organization, allowing it to move faster and achieve success.

Trend #2: The Workplace Is “Always in Beta” 

Technology is evolving faster than ever, and each year billions of new devices are connecting to the internet. Also, investment in IoT technology continues at a rapid pace. The scope and scale of this unprecedented level of connectivity is revolutionizing the way we think about the future of work and the workplace.

At a time of so much change and development, organizations must develop techniques to strategically determine where to direct their technological investments and how to plan for an uncertain future. In response, organizations’ workplaces must adopt an “always in beta” mindset, recognizing that the workplace must be prepared for constant experimentation and evolution.

But to do this, organizations should commit to the following tenets of beta: uncertainty, continuous change, experimentation, vendor partnerships and hedging risk. 

The planning and operations of Gensler’s New York office offers a window into how an “always in beta” mindset leads to better, more flexible workplace design capable of meeting the needs of today’s competitive organization. The result is a workplace that is both customized to the needs of the people who work there, and flexible enough to adjust as new needs and technologies emerge. 

Trend #3: Experience Matters  

Gensler’s Experience Index? -- a rigorous, mixed-method research study focused on identifying and quantifying the factors leading to a great experience -- provides a roadmap for organizations looking to provide a differentiated workplace experience. The two most important catalysts for great experience are the integration of social space into every type of environment and the preference for a fluid mix of spaces.

As most experiences are multi-modal today, single-use spaces are simply becoming obsolete. In terms of the workplace, this means that there should be plenty of space to allow for all kinds of activities. As people look to create their own differentiated workplace, organizations would do well to empower them to do so through a kit-of-parts approach.

The Gensler Experience Index shows the growing importance of socialization at work to create employee engagement, retention and overall levels of inspiration. Organizations that support this socialization are more likely to succeed in building an attractive and creative workplace culture.

The importance of this kind of community-oriented workplace culture can be seen in the rise of co-working. As The Atlantic recently noted, co-working has “captured the Millennial id,” not because the idea of adding beer on tap and shuffleboard tables to the workplace is a radical concept, but because young creatives are attracted to a community-based working culture that co-working represents.

Trend #4: Act Like a City

Cities are becoming increasingly prominent on the global stage. The 21st century has ushered in an age of historically unparalleled global urbanization, with city dwellers representing the majority of the world’s population for the first time in history.

Cities -- with the ability to attract specific and specialized arrays of talent in dense clusters -- are creating the innovation ecosystems that drive economic value creation. Today, the 54 percent of the world’s population that is urban is generating more than 80 percent of global GDP.

So, this allows the workplace to: harness the creative diversity of the city, connect people in new and exciting ways, and foster the serendipitous encounters that lead to new ideas and innovations among colleagues. Indeed, the best workplaces act like the best cities.

Urban-ness is ultimately “human-ness” and builds on the innate qualities of individuals coming together with shared values and culture to achieve their goals. Some of the unique tenets of the urban experience can also serve as workplace design principles. These include characteristics like supporting higher density, diversity, being highly social and amenity-rich, walkability, constant change and embracing local culture.

Hyatt’s global headquarters in Chicago illustrates how a workplace can leverage the power of urban in innovative new ways, while using these principles to promote an organizational sense of purpose.

Given Chicago’s rich architectural history and Hyatt’s sponsorship of the Pritzker Prize, there was a clear need for the company’s new headquarters to be rooted in groundbreaking design capable of transforming the traditional office environment. The result is a dynamic and supportive new workplace that encourages cross-functional interaction in ways that simulate innovation in a rapidly changing industry.

A More Human Workplace

“People-centric,” “Evolving technology,” “Experience-rich and urban” …

These are the earmarks of the most sought-after workplaces today. These are the types of workplaces people are looking for and, consequently, are connected with the most successful business outcomes. The four macro trends shaping the future of the workplace suggest that we are headed toward a future where work and the workplace will be even more focused on optimizing human potential.

I expect that the organizations that are most successful in our new economic landscape will be those that recognize and seize the opportunity to use workplace as the means to double-down on their greatest asset: their people.