With the changing needs of employees, how do you appeal to corporate tenants?
The secret sauce for getting workers back to the office?
Marinara.
While many offices remain at less-than-full capacity, developers are looking into collaborative spaces. Accessible workspaces. And pizza.
“Human contact in the office space, collaboration and socialization are the top reasons why people are going into offices,” Jessica Pernicone, principal at JLL, told reporter Jackson Chen for his article “What Corporate America’s New Office Looks Like.”
After three years, companies know that work can be done remotely. But what can’t be replicated at home is the camaraderie. (Zoom happy hours were a good idea in theory, but in practice, you’re just drinking alone at your computer. Does it even count as a happy hour if you’re not getting half-priced mozzarella sticks?)
Some office designers are looking to lure employees back by getting rid of cubicles and unused office spaces to create bigger areas for brainstorming and working together.
Of course, newly designed spaces that emphasize teamwork, no assigned seating and the promise of weekly pizza parties can only do so much to get workers to voluntarily come back to the office more frequently. Because of this, corporate tenants might need less space than in the past, even if they intend to hire more employees. Or they might be looking for shorter lease terms. To succeed in a post-pandemic world, owners need to learn to be adaptable.
“(Corporate clients) are trying to manage risk and get it right,” Rick Bertasi, CEO of Global Corporate Services for Newmark, told Chen. “Hence, (they) are either looking to make more cautious or more flexible commitments in order to be able to pivot if needed.”
Read the November 2022 issue of CPE.
