Lease Expiry Coming Up? Do This First!

3 Reasons to Speak With a Workplace Consultant Before Briefing Your Broker

Here’s a quick summary of three reasons why a company would benefit from talking with a workplace strategy specialist before making a leasing decision.

1. If your office design pre-dates 2020, it’ll likely not be optimized for enabling employee productivity, or for attracting and retaining talent - no matter what label you use: hybrid, agile, smarter, remote-first, office-first, distributed, dispersed… the list goes on. Want to know more? Check out this article: Why Office Design Needs to Change.
2. How much space you need will depend on (in addition to M&A, business growth and reduction plans) to what extent your company has adopted more flexible ways of working. Why? Because activities become distributed, office use by employees changes, see link to article in 1) above. Workplace consultants will also take a holistic look at your office needs, identifying opportunities for rationalization/utilization across a portfolio of buildings/locations.
3. Impartiality; workplace specialists have no vested interest in the quantity of space or technology or furniture solutions that your company needs; which means we are not influenced by these sectors. Our role seeks to understand work processes, activities, interactions and culture, and bring this information together to create the configuration of worksettings and the type of workplace experience that is best suited for your company and employees.

Workplace strategy specialists solve the 'space needed' puzzle for companies, so you have confidence when seeking Board approval and briefing your broker.

?And here’s the three further benefits:

? Office right-sized for the future – no guessing as to how much space you need.

? Workplace experience that enables productivity, and if co-created with employees, can actually increase productivity.

? A workplace that employees enjoy using and one that helps attract and retain talent.

Traditionally, one year ahead of the lease expiry date was a good time to make stay or go decisions.? In today’s climate, where additional work is needed to formalize the way of working, and work through the workplace strategy in order to inform the real estate strategy, it would be wise to add an additional 6 months.

If your lease is expiring in 2025 or 2026 then reaching out to a workplace strategy consultant now for a chat would be a great idea!