Are People the New Workplace Amenity?

Everyone seems to be asking, “What are the new workplace amenities that will bring people back to the office?” Before the pandemic, the best workplaces were becoming more choice-based and amenity-rich. However, we saw in Gensler’s 2019 workplace research that not all amenities were worth the investment. We uncovered that those amenities that deliver the greatest value directly connect to people’s needs and connect to innovation, making, and collaboration. At that time, the top amenities were innovation hubs, maker spaces, quiet/tech-free zones, outdoor workspaces, focus rooms, work cafés, and the tools to assist with the management of these spaces. After more than two years working remotely, some of these spaces and amenities are now baseline expectations, others like foosball and gaming rooms are even less valued, and new ones may be emerging.

People-Centered Amenities Are Key

The role of the office has changed. Per Gensler’s global workplace research, office workers cite that “working in-person with team/colleagues” is the number one reason to come into the office. And it was the top reason by industry, by generation, and by country, regardless of when we surveyed throughout the pandemic. In the U.S., connecting and socializing with coworkers were also important. Being with people may be the new workplace amenity — and the draw back to the office for those companies that haven’t already returned.

When many of us suddenly had to work remotely well over two years ago, we already had established personal and professional relationships with our colleagues. We understood how they thought and what each person needed from each other to work as a cohesive team. We have all missed the informal collisions and opportunities to build trust, learn cultural norms and values, and strengthen existing relationships naturally just by being together. Many companies have hired a number of new employees during the pandemic who we are still getting to know. These new employees have often missed out on learning, coaching, mentoring, and relationship building except through Zoom. As companies return to office, spaces to foster connections, networks, and relationships will build social capital within and between teams. This social capital, in turn, promotes trust across an organization — a key ingredient for innovation.

Design Implications: Simply providing a work café for employees is no longer enough. Today’s workforce is craving amenities and tools that foster community, connection, and collaboration, and that support their overall health and well-being. Offer a variety of people-centered amenities such as community-focused events spaces, impromptu huddle rooms, scrum spaces, maker labs, and respite rooms. Also consider multimodal spaces, such as a work café that doubles as a place to socialize and network or relax and focus. Utilizing a space management tool can assist with measuring the demand and use for these spaces so organizations can better understand the current need and anticipate the future demand.

Don’t be limited to spaces within the tenant space, but encourage use of surrounding neighborhood amenities such as walking meetings, convening in nearby parks or rooftops, and socializing in the neighborhood coffee shop or café — as these are often the preferred places for mentorship, unplanned meetings or socializing. JLL research shows that by 2025, properties that incorporate a diverse roster of amenities will experience 12% higher demand from tenants versus their plain commodity counterparts.

Being Alone Together Is Equally Important

In our global workplace research, we also saw another interesting reason to return to the office — “to focus on my work.” Coming to the office to work alone for deep concentrative work activities was the other top reason in every country that Gensler has researched. In fact, after “working with my team/colleagues,” it was the second most important reason cited in China and India. In the U.S., we found this particularly important for top-performing companies, as well as younger generations.

Design Implications: Focus requires spaces where people can deeply concentrate with minimal unwanted noise, visual distractions, or interruptions. Some companies are experimenting with established times for no calls or meetings to create select timeframes for deep focus work. Others are relying on focus work to occur at home before coming to the office. Not everyone can focus at home and deep concentrative work occurs throughout the day. As employees envision new ways to work and how to better support how they work best, providing access and setting up a way to easily access private spaces has never been more important. Perhaps it is time to “flip the script” and provide open spaces to collaborate with ample private spaces for deep concentrative work. Places to focus are not amenities, but a critical attribute of the post-pandemic workplace.