Nestlé, Nokia and more weigh in on the future of the office

Companies are “walking a tightrope” as they rethink their property needs, according to one of Adobe’s top real estate leads, who said understanding space needs is the “biggest challenge” facing modern occupiers. “Our biggest challenge is forecasting and making decisions now, based on future demand,” said Scott Ekman, Adobe’s vice president of workplace strategy and site operations, in comments published as part of Colliers’ Global Occupiers’ Outlook Survey 2023. The software company once used headcount to calculate the amount of square footage it would have per staff member, depending on the market and the location, to determine the space requirements for the following year, Ekman said. But this is no longer the case, as “changes in how and where we work” mean that “we honestly don’t know what demand is going to look like”, he said, adding: “There are another set of variables that are complete unknowns.” Finding the balance Finding the balance between facilitating staff working more autonomously in a hybrid format and creating clear company mandates on time spent in the office is proving tricky for businesses. Colliers found that 43% of employers have not set a formal return-to-office date for staff, as many try to balance employer and employee needs. “The concern is that if you push too hard, you get the backlash of people saying, well, I just don’t want to go back in, or I’m happier and more productive at home,” said Ekman. “But if we don’t encourage people to come back, they’ll never get this connective tissue built, this affiliation to the company and to their colleagues, so it’s much easier to break the connection with the company.” One way of dealing with this is to incentivise staff to venture back into the office by transforming it into a hub of collaboration which “builds a community” for individual or group work and offers connection. Half “airline lounge” and half “really nice coffee shop” is how Ekman described the ideal, adding that Adobe is attempting to “create really amazing employee experiences that drive connection to others, which builds loyalty to the company, and results in much higher engagement”. No one size fits all When it comes to the right kind of hybrid model, there is no one size to fit all. Occupiers have different priorities depending on sector, country and region. “The right hybrid scenario varies dramatically depending on the market,” said Dennis Julio, head of global real estate at food and beverage giant Nestlé, another respondent to Colliers’ survey. “We see a lot of variability culturally and across markets, and that makes it challenging to forecast how much office space we need going forward.” Some markets have bounced back to pre-pandemic practices but others have struggled to regain their footing after the upset of two years of pandemic uncertainty. “My colleagues in China, for instance, are essentially back to normal as far as everyone being back in the office. Contrasting that with our situation in the US, it’s quite the opposite, and you see many of us still working a considerable amount from home, unless you’re in the financial industry,” said Julio. However, in the markets where workers are being encouraged to venture back into the office, companies have attempted to adopt a considered approach to transformation and investment. One such company is Vodafone, which has chosen to “reset most of our offices to increase collaboration space using existing fixtures,” said David Fry, head of UK property. “This is providing us time to understand more about how people want to work whilst giving us the flexibility to make inexpensive changes in the future if needed.” Office in a box For those who sit firmly in the work-from-home camp, the company has created an “office in a box” programme. “We set employees up at home properly,” said Fry. “You complete an assessment that is then signed off by your line manager. Delivered to your door will be your monitor, your keyboard, your desk, your chair, your foot-rest and so on, and we provide very clear guidance about things like taking breaks, stretching and noise interference.” Driving this fundamental shift from remote working back to the workplace was a lack of cohesive work culture between the generations, said Colliers, and this was echoed by major businesses from conversations with next-gen talent. “I’ve heard from early career talent coming in that they don’t want to sit next to their grandparents’ generation in a work setting – it doesn’t make any sense to them, they don’t have a social connection,” said Jamie Leary-Erickson, who at the time the survey was conducted was vice-president of real estate at Nokia. The way to address this issue is with the C-suite and firms’ real estate bosses, as ultimately the buck stops with the building. “Real estate plays a role in addressing the connection across generations,” added Leary-Erickson. “What’s happening in most companies is that we say ‘it’s your problem, HR,’ or another business group. But we have to put our hands up and say ‘let us help.” To send feedback, e-mail chante.bohitige@eg.co.uk or tweet @bohitige Image © Mikko Stig/Shutterstock