Office space now shaped by workstyle changes

It’s hard to keep up with trends as it takes several years to complete an office project from its design to its actual delivery. The office market is however doing its best to keep up with changing trends and workstyles by offering bespoke tenant solutions.

The pursuit of flexibility

Amidst a backdrop of automation, digitization and rapid economic transformation, companies are trying to avoid making long-term commitments. There’s a growing number of companies that work on a project basis, hence the changes in workstyle which are leading to different approaches to employment. Companies cannot predict how many people they will need to have on board in a year or five years’ time and are unwilling to commit to a traditional office lease of five or ten years. This is because halfway through a lease a firm’s head office may decide to send a team to Warsaw or its Kraków office may win a tender for a big project that requires for instance 60 new employees to be hired right away. The need for flexibility has become so strong that commercial real estate professionals face now the same challenges on a daily basis. Contractual provisions such as the right to upsize or downsize leased space as required could be a solution. The time required to implement such provisions and have the space fitted out will however remain an issue since given the current state of the construction market such space can only be delivered at best within a few months.

Tenants who are pressed for time could take advantage of serviced offices and coworking space, the growth of which has greatly accelerated recently in Poland. In 2018 alone, more than 40,000 sqm of coworking space was delivered to the Warsaw market. Coworking operators offer short-term solutions and unlimited flexibility by adjusting office sizes and desk numbers to changing requirements, renewing or terminating lease agreements on a monthly basis, and offering additional conference space at a single hour’s notice. Tenants are provided with fitted and furnished offices and can make quick decisions. After a tenant identifies its needs it can move into a new space within just a couple of days.

War for top talent

The labour market has become tight with the workforce dominated by millennials, who now have the upper hand. To meet their demands, companies need to build up organisational cultures that are appropriate. According to a report by Deloitte on millennials, how positive the organisational culture of a company is as well as its flexibility in both the workplace and working hours are critical factors when choosing an employer. The office is instrumental in building up such a culture and such a flexible workplace. As a result, an HR team needs to be involved in the search for office space. To meet growing employee expectations regarding workplaces, developers are offering tenants higher quality space. They are trying to outdo one another to gain a competitive advantage by introducing new green technology and systems as well as all sorts of wellbeing features. LEED and BREEAM certification was introduced 20 years ago so it can hardly be called a new trend today. Well certification is new and fashionable. It measures the effect of a building and an office on a user’s health and wellbeing by examining the quality of the office fit-out, but primarily the quality of air, temperature and humidity.

As certification is not enough for some, developers will go the extra mile for them and offer building applications, which are an extremely attractive amenity. Such apps have already become a must-have for office buildings in many countries, but are just coming onto the market in Poland. These include, for instance, SpaceOS or Connected by Skanska. Building apps combine various features: they can replace access cards, inform the user about events, attractions and show the lunch menu in a building. They also serve as a virtual reception desk that registers visitors and notifies tenants about their arrival. Apps that are connected to a car park management system can help find free spaces for guests. Such apps are so flexible that the tenant himself can decide what functions the app should include. It can be linked to a booking system for conference rooms or used to monitor the use of office space and improve efficiency.

Has the office market not caught up with changes in mentality?

Changes to offices occur over the long-term and require changes in employee thinking. Open spaces first became fashionable before their real functionality was really appreciated. “One size fits all” is going out of date and tenants expect fully bespoke solutions. This is the reason for the growing importance of workplace strategy specialists. If they are engaged in the search for a new office, we can take account of employees’ habits, monitor how efficiently space is used and create an office concept that fits the changing workstyle. Spatial solutions need to match a company’s organisational culture. Would an agile workplace approach work in an organisation where managers keep watch on desk-sitting times? Technological advancements enable us to work anywhere and employees expect employers to allow for flexibility and agree to them working remotely. Taking into account holidays, sick leave and other reasons for workers being absent, desk occupancy in a typical organisation will average 50-80 pct. This was not taken account of in open space plans, but by creating an agile workplace environment the issues of low desk occupancy and the continuous lack of conference rooms for ad hoc meetings can be easily addressed. In addition to desk sharing with around 0.7-0.9 desks per employee, there should be an increase in alternative workplaces such as rooms for ad hoc meetings or silent work rooms. This helps to optimise the use of leased space by designing a flexible office without assigned desks. This also allows office space to be easily adapted to team reshuffles and additional project work. This may be the single trend that the office market adopts sooner than the changes that need to be made to organisational cultures or employee thinking.