CHICAGO—Few topics attract more attention in the world of commercial real estate than the continuing impact of millennial workers on office design. And with the jobs market on the mend, young job-seekers will have more options in the coming years, making it even more important for companies to create office spaces that will attract top talent.

Jeff Lessard, senior managing director at Cushman & Wakefield, tackled how to do so last week in Chicago at the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors' Fall Meeting. He began by pointing out that the millennial generation, those born in 1982 and later, are already the largest group in the workforce.

Still, why so many feel they have to concern themselves with millennials and what they want or need came up several times at the conference. After all, the workforce is always in a state of flux due to retirements and young people taking their first jobs. But Lessard believes that this new crop of workers is fundamentally different from previous generations. (For the purposes of this discussion, Lessard was specifically examining only one segment of millennials, that of highly-educated workers in core, secondary and perhaps tertiary markets.)