Workplaces are continuing to evolve rapidly. As hybrid working sets in and real estate footprints shrink, employers are reassessing workplace strategies. The best Landlords want to support their tenants in this. In increasingly competitive real estate markets, providing the right support has never been more important. Yet as long-held strategies are revisited and adapted, often at pace and at times radically, it can be hard for landlords to keep abreast of developments.
This is where Leesman, powered by HqO, can help. Organisations use Leesman to create high-performing workplaces based on employees’ needs. In the nearly 15 years since it was founded, it has also amassed the world’s largest workplace experience database: 1.4m office-based employees and 500,000 home-based workers in 9,300 workplaces and 122 countries.
Leesman surveys capture employee sentiments on how effective their work environments are at supporting them, which tenants then use to inform and support workplace strategies.
These then are four of the biggest trends we are currently seeing from our research. In other words, these are the top workplace dilemmas that tenants are facing.
Assigned versus unassigned
Traditional desk allocation strategies are being examined post-pandemic through the lens of hybrid working.
With average office attendance now under five days a week, corporate real estate leaders are rightly asking if it makes sense to assign desks permanently to employees. Under financial pressure not just to reduce space but use what they have more wisely, traditional desk allocation is becoming harder to justify.
Activity Based Working (ABW) allows workers to choose the best work setting based on the activity they are undertaking at any given point. Leesman research has long-flagged numerous fallings and challenges associated with ABW, however, including high levels of noise and poor variety of space.
The drive now is to reimagine ABW, allowing it to deliver workplaces that boost productivity, collaboration, and employee experience, whatever the role, task, or attendance.
The importance of variety
So what does a successful unassigned strategy look like? The key, according to a recent Leesman report, is variety.
Tracking the experiences of more than 400,000 employees in nearly 1,600 offices, The Value of Variety compared three types of workplaces: assigned, unassigned with a good variety of workspace, and unassigned with a poor variety.
Unassigned workplaces with a good variety of workspaces were the clear winners. These types of workplaces outperformed the other two in 71 of the 88 questions Leesman asked employees about their workplace experience. In contrast, unassigned with poor variety had the poorest performance overall.
The data also showed slightly higher office attendance in workplaces that are assigned. For example, 15% of employees in assigned workplaces work full-time in the office, compared to only 5% in unassigned workplaces. It is worth noting that assigned offices tend to be associated with more formal or regulated industries, which are more likely to have return-to-office mandates in place. Regardless, it remains a question many employers are still wrestling with: what to prioritise, increasing occupancy or maximising employee experience?
Hybrid working is here to stay
Hybrid working was gaining ground long before 2020, especially among knowledge workers; the pandemic simply served to rapidly accelerate the trend.
Hybrid is now baked into employee experience: 86% of the employees Leesman has surveyed over the past two years work from more than one location. For some, this means going into the office once a week or less. For others, it means working in the office with few things occasionally done remotely. For the rest, it’s somewhere in between.
However, no matter where hybrid workers choose to work, the office remains an integral part of the equation.In
Leesman’s 2024 Corporate Real Estate (CRE) Leaders poll, 81% of respondents said their employees work in both the office and home, the highest number ever reported in the annual survey. The proportion of organisations whose employees are always office-based was just 4%, down from 9% in 2021.
Why the office should provide a great experience
Some employers are no longer preoccupied with getting staff back into the office full-time. Instead, they are making hybrid work by providing a great workplace for all employees, regardless of when they are there.
When Leesman surveys employees about their office experience, it collates the findings to give the workplace a unique Leesman Index (Lmi) score. At its most simple, the higher the score, the better the workplace.
So, we can see that workplaces are definitely getting better: the average Lmi has increased from 64.3 pre-pandemic to 67.9 post-pandemic.
But our research also shows that employees are still having a better experience when working from home: the average Lmi for home offices is higher, at 77.8. As organisations have improved their offices, so employees have improved their remote setup. In 2023, 58% had a dedicated work room at home, up 16 percentage points in 2020.
Also, of the offices Leesman has measured post-pandemic, only 42% can be categorised as outstanding, which we define as having a Lmi above 70.0. Outstanding workplaces offer a better in-office experience, boost productivity, and can improve business outcomes. But the majority of offices are at best just average. For many employers, therefore, this is a key challenge: how to make an average workplace outstanding.
Supporting the office experience matters
Post-pandemic, and corporate real estate leaders are increasingly re-evaluating workplaces. Some are questioning previously long-held strategies, such as allocated desks; others are looking to improve the office experience for all workers, no matter how often they are there. All, however, want the same thing: to get the best out of their office real estate.
As businesses reassess their workplace strategies to adapt to hybrid work, activity-based working, and the demand for varied and flexible spaces, landlords who stay informed on these trends can offer environments that support productivity, collaboration, and overall tenant satisfaction. By aligning properties with the priorities of today’s workforce, landlords not only enhance the appeal and occupancy of their spaces but also position themselves as invaluable partners in their tenants’ success. In a competitive market, such foresight can be the key differentiator that drives long-term retention and optimises property value.
