Tomorrow's offices: when I want, where I want?

The location is a key issue:

In this context, they give priority to locations that may be smaller, but which, above all, are centrally located, i.e. offer their users real accessibility and quality of service. The objective for these companies is to provide a workspace at the heart of an environment that is as dynamic, lively and service-oriented as possible. Location is still one of the key issues when it comes to setting up a business, but today accessibility and quality of life in the workplace are becoming even more important. Employees need to be more comfortable to ensure their loyalty and performance and to attract new talent, while being as close as possible to suppliers, customers and other partners.

‘The analyses of performance plans and master plans that we have carried out for our clients enable us to confirm that property choices will continue to be made in a hypercentral location. This strategic location will be offset by slightly fewer square metres, or at least square metres that are better sized in relation to the uses and needs of employees, with a view to achieving a balance between performance and well-being. It will also be accompanied by a different distribution of workspaces: the head office, other company sites, the home, or even external third places. These approaches are also being applied with the increasingly common consideration of ESG-RSE dimensions, which have of course grown in importance in recent years, and which relate not only to sustainable development but also to inclusion and diversity. As a result, companies are now taking into account the sustainable development and wider CSR standards that have been imposed on them, and whose deadlines are approaching, when choosing their location(s)’, comments Faustine Zgheib - Le Bourg.

Towards a spread of the property footprint:

This trend towards greater centralisation goes hand in hand with the search for greater flexibility in working patterns. Some large corporations are taking advantage of their portfolio of offices to network their locations, allowing employees to choose where to work according to their individual preferences and professional needs. This flexibility complements working from home with additional telecommuting options, from third party premises or from offices that are closer to home or more accessible to employees. A multifaceted working day:

And the desire for flexibility goes far beyond the proliferation of telecommuting sites. Just as workplaces tend to be dispersed across the country, the new hybrid workers are shattering the traditional working day schedule: more and more they are modulating the start and end times of their working day. When working remotely, many start earlier and take breaks to exercise, attend medical appointments or pick up their children from school, alternating between breaks and work.

This flexibility is now part of the criteria for choosing a future employer. The question of how willing the employer is to support this new flexibility is crucial. Flore Pradère cites the example of BlaBlaCar, which offers coworking spaces to its employees who have moved to the provinces and opens a BlaBlaCar hub for 10 or more employees in the same city. Others, such as Orange - which has a large number of sites in the Paris region - are considering whether it would be a good idea to abolish the notion of a home site. In this way, employees will be able to choose one site or another according to their professional or personal needs. As we can see, the question of where to locate offices has become essential, and the solutions currently being devised by companies are many and varied.

New development indicators:

The health crisis has exposed the limits of 100% teleworking and its inability to stimulate innovation or create real cohesion, which are essential levers of performance. The tech giants that once considered going completely teleworking are now backtracking. In this new reality, there is no point in going to the office to work alone. The office is seen as the ideal place for socialising, management, customer relations, serendipity and innovation.

The ‘Club’ office is becoming the company's showcase, embodying the employer brand while offering an innovative and hypercentral setting. As Marie Martins, Director of the Tenant Representation team, explains, the face of the Club is changing radically. ‘Although all projects are different and respond to the specific objectives of each company, the trend we are seeing in the market today is a search for 60% semi-open or collaborative spaces and 40% individual spaces, with the optimisation of spaces both to reduce property costs and to adapt to new working models’.

More services in less space:

Since the aim is to (re)make people want to go to the office, it needs to present itself as an attractive place to work. Wellness areas, gyms, concierge services, local catering, etc. The aim is also to adapt to new uses in terms of mobility. The accessibility and connectivity of buildings are becoming essential criteria for attractiveness. The survey by the Collectif Mobilité Ile-de-France shows that 20% of respondents would like their employer to provide company bicycles, 22% would like facilities for changing clothes after a cycle and 20% would like bicycle parking.

With the fragmentation of the workplace, the question now is how to ensure an equitable experience for all employees, wherever they may be. The subject of catering is a good example of this. How do you ensure the same quality of service on site as at a distance? Some companies already offer to deliver healthy, balanced meals to their employees' homes.

New urban plans:

As we can see, beyond the reconfiguration of workplaces, a more global transformation of our territories and the way our cities function is taking place. A new balance must be struck between offices, homes, co-working, regional offices, third places, etc. The attraction of soft mobility, workplaces close to residential areas, the desire to reduce the daily commute to work... are all paving the way for new urban formats such as mixed-use buildings. These hybrid spaces at the heart of the city could represent a new model, offering shared services accessible to the public in addition to employees. The porous nature of office buildings means that in the future they will become one with the city.