How Millennials Are Impacting Office Design

Pipeline Doral occupies approximately 14,000 square feet inside the Doral Concourse.

MIAMI—Millennials are rising in the workplace and various reports are pointing to the need for recruiting and retention efforts targeting this demographic. But where does actual office design fit into that mix? We know that Millennials value greater flexibility and team appreciation, according to a PricewaterhouseCooper survey. And a Deloitte report reveals Millennials already have one foot out the door. Could office design make that much difference in the grand scheme? Some industry watchers believe it can and does. One of the keywords is “collaborative office space design.” “The origin of collaborative office space design remains unclear,” Brad Capas , fonder of CapasGroup , tells GlobeSt.com. “However, well-known, Millennial-age tech companies such as Google and Facebook were certainly early adopters of the concept, increasing the acceptance of casual work environments where even the executives wear jeans and sneakers to work.” Last-generation office layouts determined future space needs by examining existing office configuration and deciding what needed to be rearranged to accommodate future growth—and lower real estate costs were a key driver. CBRE reports companies are looking to create a more thoughtful workplace strategy by understanding work environments and implementing open and private workspaces that meet the needs of how employees actually work. A CBRE report finds that Millennials prefer a mix of work environments. Fifty-two percent want a mix of working at home and in an office , while 41% prefer to work mainly from one office . Only 7% of Millennials prefer to work mainly from home. “Collectively, this data suggests that organizations that can provide flexibility and choice will create greater office efficiencies and higher levels of employee satisfaction,” says Lenny Beaudoin , senior managing director of Workplace Strategy for CBRE. “By more intensely using their real estate assets, companies are able to reinvest in technology and a suite of services that can make the new workplace environment a reality for their employees.” Another trend is remote information accessibility. CBRE says employees identify it as the most important workplace attribute but it’s also the poorest-performing measure of employee satisfaction. The study shows companies are responding by increasingly allowing employees to self-select the type of technology that supports the way they work, in addition to self-selecting the type of workspace that is best suited for the task at hand. “Rising office occupancy costs also contributed to the spread of today’s collaborative office designs which tend to be less expensive to create and can accommodate more employees per square foot,” Capas says. “As a result, office tenants now require less square footage to house the same number of employees and the tenant improvement costs are lower than earlier designs which reflected a high concentration of enclosed offices .” Transit is among the top priorities for companies, according to Dean McNaughton , senior director of leasing retail for Cushman & Wakefield . He says companies want to attract the best quality employees, including Millennials, and in order to do this they need to be in an environment where there are transportation options and the ability to commute without driving. He tells GlobeSt.com Downtown Atlanta is doing well in this regard. “Downtown offers sidewalks, bike lanes and a streetcar service,” McNaughton says. “In addition, downtown has five MARTA stations, including the largest in the system.” Ultimately, of course, the office space itself still matters. In Capas opinion, the ultimate question how open space office design impacts productivity remains open. He concludes, “While some companies and industries clearly benefit from ‘collaborative environments,’ issues surrounding the constant distractions, lack of privacy and compromised security of sensitive information on work tables or computer screens, seem to be getting more attention lately.”