Kim Rader
[GREETING] I hope you are well. As we all know, January was a rocky month with unprecedented spikes in COVID-19 case rates that reversed back-to-the-office plans for many across the country. While many of us are now habituated to remote work and various forms of virtual collaboration, questions about new ways of working continue to be top of mind for many employers. According to a CBRE survey of 126 senior-level global real estate executives, 58% of respondents indicated that their real estate portfolio included mostly assigned seating arrangements prior to the pandemic. In comparison, when asked about the future, this number dropped to 18%, with 59% of respondents suggesting instead that their portfolios would be made up of “partial” to “mostly” free-address seating solutions post-pandemic. While there are benefits to free-address models, we must also understand what makes workers feel safe, comfortable and empowered when seats at the office are shared or 1
unassigned. Having a sense of ownership and control over one's work environment provides psychological and even physiological benefits — a “home advantage” that makes employees feel more confident and capable. In fact, studies show that employees are happier and more productive in work environments where they are "empowered" to arrange the furnishings and decor according to their preferences. Using “strategies of empowerment” can increase feelings of autonomy, which leads to improved comfort and job satisfaction — and will be important to implement as companies move from “me” to “we” work environments. Asking how we can enhance employees' sense of ownership and control over their personal workspace will be an increasingly important question for employers in the coming weeks and months. As a firm, we are working with clients on these types of ideas and would be happy to discuss our approach further. For additional information on this topic, please find some related studies and collected data below. We look forward to hearing from you. Best,
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