Better questions, better answers for a changing workplace.

Business have traditionally talked about desks per square foot to assess how well an asset meets their workforce needs. They measure energy usage and running costs to see how efficient a building is. They might now look at occupancy rates too. These kinds of metrics are useful, but the problem is they don’t really get to the heart of what makes the workplace valuable in 2024. The office is no longer just somewhere to do work, a place for people to sit in front of a computer. Thanks to technology and changes in attitudes to hybrid working, we can feasibly do that from anywhere.

Instead, the office is now a hub for collaboration and socialising between teams – a place for ideas sharing and creativity. It is the embodiment of a brand, the physical representation of a business and a tool to make teams feel connected to their employer as well as to each other.

Just counting desks (or how many people are sat at them) can’t tell organisations how well they are meeting these objectives. Instead they need to calculate productivity and assess things like staff engagement and motivation. These metrics are far harder to articulate, but as the world becomes more complex, the questions we ask and the answers we give need to become more complicated too.

My sense is that few organisations have really managed to nail this new way of evaluating the office yet. Getting everyone involved in the design, delivery and management of workplaces, as well as the businesses who use them, to agree on a shared way of thinking will be important. As will defining our terms of reference. Productivity and engagement can mean very different things in different organisations. Communications will surely play a key role here.

Ultimately, this model is far more messy and the new conversations we need to have are not as easy as putting a number on the amount of desks. However, evolving the language we use and our thinking is vital to help us keep pace with and embrace the benefits of change.