Tech, Collaboration Biggest Office Changes Since Pandemic

An emphasis on collaboration and the availability of higher quality Internet connections, acoustics, and technology are the primary differences in how work offices are being designed today, according to Tim Betjemann, Geographic Discipline Leader, Colliers Project Leaders.

Companies are having their employees assigned with “heads-down” work to do so from home. In the office, for the past four years, the focus is on collaboration either locally or via video conferencing, Betjemann said.

Conference rooms, huddle rooms, and breakout areas comprise a greater percentage of the overall office environment, according to Colliers, which also creates a better sense of community and gives people a reason to come back to the office.

Every space for workers, including workstations, is designed to support video calls.

It used to be that only a handful of rooms were designed for video conferencing. Today, every space, including workstations, is designed to support video calls.

“These enhancements come at a higher cost per square foot than the workspaces of yesterday,” Betjemann said. “So, although companies are reducing their footprints, today’s office buildouts are more expensive, and overall budgets aren’t going down the way one might expect.”

Companies are finding funding mechanisms such as tenant improvement allowances and free rent created as a byproduct of the softening real estate market.

Betjemann said that most supply-chain bottlenecks from the pandemic era are a thing of the past, with IT, AV, and security equipment delivery improving significantly. However, electrical systems can still have long lead times.

Brian Haines, Chief Strategy Officer, FM:Systems, said employee input is a key to companies providing the ideal office setting.

Its recent report found that many prefer office needs to be centrally located to most employees and be in an area with nearby amenities, like restaurants, coffee shops, or fitness studios.

This makes for a more pleasing arrival for those who are commuting in.

Other shared workplace priorities highlighted in the report included improved indoor air quality (IAQ), more conference rooms for collaborative work and meetings, and having a dedicated quiet room for employees to take breaks to pray, mediate, or simply to reflect.