Collaborators crave inspiration from their work and want to connect with their peers in a meaningful way. For most, however, that inspiration and connection comes not from a 40-hour week working remotely, but from intentionally choosing to go to the office to make connections with people and within environments that inspire collaboration, creativity and innovation.
We're in the people business now
This means that the office market – and the entire job ecosystem – has been drastically and permanently changed. But it also means that today, we're not just in real estate; we are also in the people business.
If we want our employees to be inspired and connected to optimize our workforce productivity and employee engagement, our buildings and work environments must meet the demands of occupant preferences or risk becoming obsolete. They must be engaging, efficient and sustainable, with amenities and provide the engaging experiences that employees want now and that will continue to meet the expectations and demands of tomorrow's workforce.
Recognizing this requires a mindset shift and a deep understanding of human psychology – and when the risks and costs associated with getting it wrong in the workplace are so high, that's exactly what companies need right now from CRE.
The pandemic has taught us to be flexible, to handle projects in a non-linear way, and has given us the opportunity to be more in tune with people when it comes to strategy and decisions in the workplace.
What we've learned is that an effective, long-term real estate strategy requires a clear plan of action that aligns employee experience goals with an organization's operational investment.
Since 2017, Cushman & Wakefield has collected more than 10 million data points, across 130+ companies and 100 countries, through Experience Per Square Foot™ (XSF), our industry-leading experience and engagement diagnostics tool , developed by a team of data scientists, quantitative and qualitative researchers, HR professionals, behavioral psychologists, and workplace experts.
We have more than 185,000 participants in our employee experience database – employees who are staying productive but tired of the pandemic. In addition to struggling with their well-being and connection to the company's culture, they are also less inspired at work.
XSF replaces guesswork with data and predictive analytics and provides the opportunity to create people-centric experiences that attract talent, inspire and retain employees, foster culture and drive business performance.
