How your office can support your corporate health and wellbeing agenda

We interviewed almost 400 global business leaders to understand how they’re adapting their real estate strategies for the years to come. The below insights are based upon their responses. To discover the data behind the story, get the full picture in (Y)OUR SPACE.

This has undoubtedly been worsened by the lockdowns.

Real estate support

Against this backdrop, business leaders are prioritising their health and wellbeing agendas to a new degree as we emerge from the pandemic – and the office will become a widely adopted path to achieving that. It will rebuild social capital, reinstate wellbeing, mitigate the risk of Covid-19 infections and fulfil our innate need for community. Indeed, wellbeing and collaboration are inextricably linked.

When asked: “What strategic agenda items does real estate support?”, 37% of the global occupiers we surveyed said employee wellbeing, while 37% also said increased collaboration. And following months of remote working, it’s only natural that 55% of survey respondents believe they’ll increase the amount of collaborative space within their offices over the next three years. While the desire to work together has been supercharged after months of isolation, it is also a function of the need to drive innovation within business – most of which tends to be a collaborative process.

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A collaborative experience

In order to support the corporate health and wellbeing agenda, offices will serve to bring people together – inviting interactions, collaborations and, yes, socialising. These pillars are fundamental to the creation, curation and sustenance of a corporate culture; it’s what distinguishes the function of the office from remote settings.

Though that’s not to say that working from home cannot be collaborative, it can, but the ease of that collaborative effort is improved with physical proximity, and stunted by the unnatural form of video calls – which have also shown to further marginalise minorities.

In her book, referenced earlier, Noreena Hertz explains: “Laszlo Bock, the former head of human resources at Google, has investigated the optimal amount of “work from home” time. He found it to be one and a half days a week. With this combination, employees both have time to connect and build bonds with each other and also time on their own to do deeper, undistracted work.”

Working from home certainly has its merits, but businesses will likely instil initiatives that serve to replicate these merits, rather than rely on working from home entirely. Think shorter commutes through hub and spoke models, hybrid working policies which leverage the best of both worlds and the introduction of more agile and varied workspaces so employees can find that quiet remote-like solitude.

The office experience

All of these demands will shape the future office experience. In fact, 46% of businesses believe the office amenities expected by their employees will increase over the next three years. And notably, the top four amenities identified by at least 45% of respondents are all wellbeing related, such as healthy food and beverage offerings, the provision of gym and changing facilities, and the delivery of amenities that support mental wellbeing.

Amanda Lim, Head of Knight Frank’s Flexible Office Solutions team explains: “The office experience needs to move beyond just desk space - working from home cemented that. Workplaces need to facilitate social interactions and provide wellbeing amenities that help employees thrive. We’ve already witnessed flexible office providers meet this growing demand – from meditation tents and sleep pods through to yoga classes and biophilia - and that trend will only continue.”

Corporate spa

This clear wellbeing focus aligns with our first edition of (Y)OUR SPACE, where we advocated the idea of the corporate spa as a central element of the future office experience. Intended as a provocation, it is a growing reality today. Take 101 Collins Street in Melbourne, for example. This 57-storey iconic tower, built in the early 1990s, has a dedicated amenity floor offering high-quality end-of-trip facilities, as well as a premium retreat, Rise by Studio PP. The studio provides two multi-purpose activity studios, four consulting suites and a relaxation area that makes full use of biophilia and natural light.

FinTech firm Wise (formerly TransferWise) is also putting this into practice. Its Singapore office features artwork, massage pods and collaboration pods to allow employees to regain that sense of human connection in a post-lockdown world.

Mental wellbeing will feature heavily in the best-in-class workplaces of the future. They will offer direct access to green spaces; to fresh air through the provision of winter gardens and terrace spaces; to sanctuary spaces, such as contemplation rooms that offer solace from Wi-Fi connectivity and allow workers to focus or reconnect with themselves; and to educational events programmes that seek to promote better life and workstyles.

But the agenda can go further. As Hertz outlines, there is an opportunity to rebuild a better environment. Imaginative urban planning, which sets out to prioritise the community, will be key.

To explore what the future of work means for your business and understand how you can optimise your real estate strategy, step into (Y)OUR SPACE, or get in touch with a member of our team.

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