Category

Industry

The Rise Of Productivity As A Service In The Coworking Model

By | Business, Industry

Photo Credit: Getty 

In 2020, it briefly seemed like the stunning rise of coworking spaces would come to a crashing halt. Now, however, new coworking spaces and other shared office models are cropping up in every m Beyond Coworking: Physical Spaces Designed For Productivity

Before the pandemic, the noisy, close quarters and social energy of coworking spaces was an asset for some; for others, a drawback. 

To justify the overhead of a managed flexible office space, companies must ensure that a new space solves the pain points of WFH. Many coworking spaces, even with reduced capacity, still have the disruptions that professionals are seeking peace from.

For this reason, we may start to see coworking evolve from chatty social hubs to productivity destinations. The layout of this new type of coworking space might include:

• Private offices.

• Sound-masking technology and closed doors.

• Designated collaboration rooms to keep noise levels at a minimum.

The Burden Of Office Management

Throughout the pandemic, remote workers have acted as building managers of their own offices, securing office supplies, IT infrastructure and room bookings all on their own. Doing that takes a lot of time out of their day, and context switching hinders productivity

Another key advantage of choosing a coworking space, as opposed to a normal office lease, is that employees no longer have to handle the logistics of office life themselves. Shared office spaces can distinguish their offerings with amenities that teams can’t get at home, including:

• Front-desk service.

• Mail and shipping service.

• Onsite IT support.

• Access to a notary public.

The service component of coworking and other shared office spaces may be especially desirable to small companies that don’t have robust HR departments. This way, coming into the office means having to worry about nothing but the work that matters.

Plus, a dedicated office manager can regulate all of the other components of a work environment that are critical to productivity, like ventilation, lighting and air quality.

Professionals Need More Than A Desk And A Chair

As the commercial real estate industry keeps a close watch on the return-to-office debate, investors should stay tuned to “productivity as a service”: offices that make productivity a primary selling point, not just space or location.

Coworking spaces are likely here to stay, but the ones that will stand the test of time will be those that understand the needs of the modern worker. That is, an office where professionals have all their digital, privacy and logistical needs taken care of, so they can actually focus on their work.

major city. Demand is on the rise again as many professionals itch to get back to the office — just not the office they went to before the start of this pandemic. 

To provide value to professionals who have the flexibility to work from wherever they please, offices must have what most homes lack: quiet, privacy and amenities that support focused work. For many, the shoulder-to-shoulder environment of old coworking spaces won’t cut it anymore.

Here’s a look at what the new “productivity as a service” paradigm means for commercial real estate.

Employees May Be Productive At Home, But Their Work Environments Are Taking A Toll

By many accounts, workers became more productive while working from home. The National Bureau of Economic Research estimates an overall 5% productivity lift in the U.S. economy from remote work, especially among knowledge workers who enjoyed less time in meetings at home and more time on the tasks that matter.

So why return to the office at all? 

One central challenge of working from home is disruption, whether from child care responsibilities or faulty internet connections. Even if professionals are able to get their work done at home, they may not be doing so in an environment that’s consistent and sustainable. Even worse, it may be taking a toll on their long-term health and well-being.

Company decision-makers don’t want to sacrifice the productivity their teams have found at home entirely, but they still want to provide a secure work environment for those employees who don’t have one at home.

3.0: Hybrid office model becomes the new normal

By | Business, Industry

It is no longer about where employees are working, but about how they are working

RAMESH NAIR

The future workplace will not be binary. It will be a mixture of several workplace formats, with co-working riding growth in the new normal.

In the pre-pandemic era, if a certain A company was looking for a co-working space, the options were cookie-cutter workstations, with 50-60 sq. ft. of average space per desk. Now, imagine the same company A is exploring a hybrid space across locations. It can utilize the services of a co-working operator to find the perfect space in preferred locations and customize the workplace as per its needs. It is no longer about where employees are working, but about how they are working.

Co-working space grew strongly during 2017-2019 with its stock growing by 2.3 times in 2019 as compared to 2017. The share of co-working space in total leasing volume also rose from 6% in 2017 to 20% in 2019. However, during 2020, this pace of growth experienced a setback. Across the top operators’ portfolios, the median occupancy level was around 65% during 2020. Occupiers closed unprofitable centers and postponed and even cancelled some new leases.

Now, we are entering co-working 3.0. Mandates with occupiers will be the way to go, and speculative buildings are a thing of the past.

Operators will also look at newer business models ranging from management agreements, hybrid models (fixed plus revenue share) to franchise models.

Choice-based models to emerge

Many Fortune 500 companies are betting on expanding through co-working spaces. During H1 2021, IT-BPM drove the bulk of transactions with a 57% share in total leasing in co-working centers.

Why should larger enterprises look at co-working?

1. Greater flexibility in leasing2. Outsourcing of space delivery and management to a third-party

3. Capital-light deal structures

As a hybrid model of working takes shape, occupiers are looking at decentralized teams, work from (near) home, and the hub and spoke model. Co-working spaces will fill this gap and offer convenience to employees while offering a collaborative workspace. It will provide a tech-enabled, customized experiential workplace to enhance productivity and wellness.

Over the next few years, most landlords will have a co-working share in their portfolio. However, they will look to partner with operators with experience in operations and management.

Occupier experience is key

Occupier experience has become of utmost importance in this competitive environment. User experience will determine brand loyalty in this highly competitive segment. The inclusion of digital infrastructure and smart facilities will increase operational efficiency and overall asset value. Moreover, providing facilities related to health and wellness will retain occupier interest.

Operators are also coming up with innovative solutions such as single-day work passes, global location access and virtual offices. Some of the co-working space operators are also partnering with educational institutions and service companies to organize skill development and knowledge sharing programs for their occupiers.

Co-working mushrooming in Tier 2 – 3 cities

Initially, the growth of co-working spaces was limited to the top 6 cities. However, post-pandemic, operators are expanding into tier-II cities. Now we are seeing large enterprises setting up satellite and sales offices in smaller cities. Moreover, hyper-local delivery players are taking up small office spaces in multiple locations as they are expanding in smaller cities. We expect this trend to continue and demand from e-commerce and fintech to rise in the next two years. Many of these existing centres are currently operating at more than 70% occupancy levels.

Overall, the utilization of co-working is imminent for growth and brand differentiation. The latter half of 2021 is already seeing a change in the way co-working companies operate. As our workplaces undergo a change, co-working too will evolve and offer more value to users.

Blog

Texas Ranked As The Best State To Start A Small Business

By | Industry

Texas is the best U.S. state to start a small business in 2021, accounting for key factors such as business environment, access to resources and business costs, according to a new study from WalletHub.

The Lone Star State ranked second overall for its business environment, only behind Georgia. Several metrics were taken into account, including growth in the number of small businesses, entrepreneurship, job growth and average length of the workweek.

When it came to access to resources, Texas ranked 12th, reflecting metrics such as financing accessibility, human capital availability, higher education assets and the share of college-educated population.

Texas’ business costs were a little less favorable, placing the state in 32nd place. That ranking was based on key metrics like office space affordability, labor costs, corporate taxes, spending on incentives as a share of gross domestic product and the cost of living.

Following Texas in the top spot were Georgia, California and Florida, ranked in second, third and fourth place, respectively. In contrast, New Jersey was ranked as the least ideal place to start a business in in 2021.

Less stringent lockdown policies and lower costs bolstered Texas’ reputation as a business-friendly environment during the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the state has seen an acceleration in the number of corporate relocations, fueled by unhappy business owners leaving more expensive and regulated states like California, New York and New Jersey.

In addition, the state’s reopening at 100% capacity in March, as well as the removal of a face covering mandate, have worked in tandem with the vaccine rollout to boost hotel bookings and retail activity across Houston. Office occupancy is also on the rise, and brokers say that inquiries and deal-making are ramping up, as businesses are making decisions again.

A total of 28 companies completed a corporate relocation to Texas in 2020, according to YTexas, a business network that assists companies who are looking to expand or relocate to Texas. As of July, 37 companies had already chosen to relocate in 2021, surpassing any other year on record.

Contact Christie Moffat at christie.moffat@bisnow.com

Should you consider co-working spaces? And who should pay?

By | Industry

By

SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Déjà Leonard is a copywriter and freelance journalist based in Calgary.

HANDOUT

This is the weekly Careers newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this e-mail newsletter to you, you can sign up for Globe Careers and all Globe newsletters here.

Déjà Leonard is a copywriter and freelance journalist based in Calgary.

As we begin to return to some semblance of normalcy – and the office – many companies and employees are wading through the murky waters of what “return to work” really looks like. Will employees be allowed to work from home full-time? Will they be expected to come back into the office? But there’s other questions gaining traction: Can employees work in a co-working space – and will companies pay for it?

STORY

Some companies such as JPMorgan Chase already have a solid set of rules, where specific teams can schedule work-from-home days from Tuesday through Thursday. Technology company Sabre Corp., which is headquartered in Texas, has significantly reduced its campus space and plans to bring about 25 per cent of employees back on site at least three days a week.

However, others, including Calendly, an Atlanta-based manufacturer of scheduling software, are giving their people the option of whether to come into the office, and are providing staff with memberships to co-working spaces – a trend that seems to be the perfect fit for employees who don’t want to work from home, but also don’t want to endure the dreaded, often time-consuming commute to the office.

It makes a lot of sense. While working from home holds immense appeal for many, it can also be distracting and more difficult to create healthy boundaries between work life and home life.

As chief executive officers try to weigh what they think is best for the business against what employees are demanding, it’s creating a new type of tension. And in some cases, employers will need to bend, or they’ll lose out on top-level talent.

According to a recent survey from insurance company Prudential, 42 per cent of current U.S. remote workers say that they would leave their job if their company did not continue to offer remote work options, signalling a potential war for talent.

At the same time, popular co-working spaces such as WeWork are preparing for a surge in interest as COVID-19 subsides.

Rebecca Pan, co-owner of the San Francisco co-working space Trellis, had this to say about the rise in demand: “Before the pandemic, it was that you were in the office full-time. I don’t think this will be the same in the future. People really appreciate flexibility. From a co-working point of view, fewer people go to a corporate campus, but [instead go] home or [to] Trellis.”

Should employers pay for it? Why not. On top of attracting a wider range of quality talent, co-working spaces save companies money by reducing the need for office space and common employee amenities. Plus, employees with access to co-working spaces are performing better than those without it, a U.S. workplace survey suggests.

At the same time, it seems that even if firms won’t pay, the majority of employees are more than willing to cover the cost of co-working spaces themselves if it means they can have more flexibility. A report by WeWork and independent research firm Workplace Intelligence indicates that 64 per cent of American employees are willing to pay out of their own pocket for access to office space to support hybrid work.

So, as we move closer toward “return to work,” we’ll likely see the conversation broaden to include the possibility of co-working as more employers balance the needs of the business and all of their employees with diverse needs.

Google My Business

How Google My Business Can Unlock Your Business’ Potential

By | Business, Industry

Business is becoming increasingly digital across the board. One of the most powerful tools that you have as a small business owner is Google My Business. Once you secure a space to list your business and get verified through Google, it unlocks a massive amount of potential for your business to grow.

Everyone does their shopping online now. Even if a customer goes to the store to purchase something, chances are that they researched online beforehand and are going in knowing exactly what they want. You must make sure you are showing up in Google searches and that customers can easily find your products and pricing online.

At this point, if you are not listed on Google, then you are behind the curve. If you are not listed online with Google My Business and other similar tools, then your competitors are going to easily be able to drown you out and push you out of the market. Build and retain your market share in your industry with Google My Business.

So, you just got a brand-new website and it looks and feels great; Well, if you want to drive any kind of meaningful traffic to that website then you are going to need to have Google My Business. If you are not showing up in search results, then you are not going to generate anywhere close to the kind of website traffic that you need. Do not let all the time and money that you spent building a website go to waste, make sure you are directing as many views and clicks as possible to your site by using Google My Business.

Whenever a customer has a great experience with your business, you need to capture that and broadcast it online to build your reputation. Google My Business provides an easy way for customers to leave reviews and helps convey the strength of your customer service to others when they search online. This is not a new concept, but it has become increasingly important over the past years. Consumers will base their entire decisions on what they read in the reviews, so being able to collect and control them with Google My Business is an invaluable tool for any small business.

Come by Business E Suites to find out how you can get listed and verified on Google My Business. We provide consultation to all our members on how to best utilize your listings to drive revenue and growth

Laura Fisher CFO

Member Spotlight: Meet Laura Fisher

By | Business, Industry

When you meet Laura for the first time, you instantly feel welcome and notice her confidence. Motivated to provide an excellent workspace for everyone, she approaches her job with Hospitality in mind. She even brings homemade Banana Nut Bread to share… get a slice quick, it goes fast!

Business E Suites officially opened its doors in August 2020, during the pandemic. The building was under construction for about 24 months and during this time she worked diligently to create the atmosphere and community culture we are experiencing today.

New to the CoWorking and Office Space market, she took it upon herself to get well education by several trade associations and tours of other facilities across Houston and some out of state. What Laura said she learned was, “Our customers don’t need all the fancy lobbies, or furniture – all they want a nice place to work, friendly people, and plenty of coffee.” She also picked the Aviation theme for her husband Dave and quickly realized it was a brilliant idea, since it gave the space a luxury theme, without being fancy.

She and Dave have been married 21 years and have 4 grown children, two sons who work here – Colin & Scott. They live in Katy and have 2 dogs, Radar, and Roxie.

She grew up here in Houston, moved to Daytona Beach during High School, completed college at Belmont University in Nashville, TN, and started her career as a Concert Promoter for Texas A&M University.  From there she continued in business and marketing her entire career. (Linked In)

Her strengths are Leadership, Collaboration, and Operations and it’s all done with a high level of Excellence.

When she’s not working, she volunteers at her church. She’s been a member of the Second Baptist West Praise Team as an Alto for over 20 years and teaches adult Bible Study every three weeks.  Additionally, she and her friend Wanda have a comedy act called Second Act Sisters, where they sing to Ladies’ groups, original songs that poke fun at growing old.  It’s quite funny!

If she has any advice for our readers, it would be, “Don’t Settle. Wait for what your want, it will be worth it. I don’t make a final decision until it “lights me up” and excites me. “Good enough” is not acceptable.”

WorkingHome

Accessibility Apps That Will Help You Shine in Your Career

By | Industry, Tips

Image courtesy of Unsplash

Article by: Lance Cody-Valdez

According to the CDC, one in four adults lives with some kind of disability. The CDC also reports that the percentage of disabled adults increases as income decreases. If you were just to go off these stats, it’s easy to assume that a disability means that you can’t find the same professional success as someone without a disability.

But this is just not the case. People with disabilities are no less capable than those without, and for some, it may mean doing things a different way, or getting help from an adaptive device. Thankfully, there are tech tools and gadgets galore to help. Read on for a few highlights from Business E Suites.

The right tool for the job

Whether you’re looking for a new job or trying to advance in your current job, having the right tools for the job is key. In the professional field, this means having a high quality, up-to-date phone, and some are more helpful to those with disabilities than others.

As an example, Apple explains all iPhones are loaded with helpful accessibility features, such as hearing assistance and voice controlled navigation. The iPhone 12 Pro Max even has ultra quick facial recognition to unlock your phone, a big, crystal-clear display, and all the power, memory, and battery life you require to run helpful apps. For Android lovers,Tom’s Guide notes the Google Pixel 4 XL has a large screen, making it easier to see small text, and it has motion detection to help you unlock it.

Contemplate what features will be useful, then load your phone up with the appropriate apps to help you reach your goals.

A reliable charger is as important as the phone itself. Even better, wireless charging offers several benefits over the traditional plug-ins. Some of the reasons wireless chargers have grown in popularity include the ability to “drop and go” – instead of fumbling with cords and adaptors, users simply set their cell on the charger’s surface. There’s also the added safety factor: The risk of electric shock is eliminated, as is the chance of data piracy by not needing to plug into public USB chargers.

Apps that help you see

If you are blind or have poor vision, there are many apps that can help you learn more about your surroundings. Read on to learn more.

Seeing AI

Seeing AI is an app designed by Microsoft. It’s an incredibly advanced app that helps people who are visually impaired. Unlike some apps that can only read texts, Seeing AI can read documents, identify currency, and even recognize faces. But there’s more. Seeing AI can describe color, brightness, and the scene around you.

Be My Eyes

Be My Eyes is similar to Seeing AI, except this app relies on seeing volunteers. What this means is you can take a video and ask the Be My Eyes community to tell you what they see or how to complete a task. For example, if you need to change the settings on your printer or reset your router, all you have to do is take a video and have the volunteers you guide you through your task.

Apps that help you communicate

Communication is an essential component of being successful in the workplace. But for someone who is hearing impaired or has difficulty speaking, communication can be a challenge. These apps can help.

Dragon Anywhere

Dragon Anywhere is a great app for people who have difficulty hearing, as it’s an efficient, easy-to-use dictation app. The way it works is, your phone listens to what it hears, and translates the audio into written text. The app is great for one-on-one communication. Because it is not specifically designed as a communication tool, it can be used for other tasks as well. If you have difficulty typing or seeing, Dragon Anywhere can help you create emails, presentations, or letters.

Ava

Ava is another app that can help people who are hard of hearing. The difference between Ava and Dragon Anywhere is that Ava is specifically designed for accessibility. The great thing about Ava is it works in a group environment. Simply have members of the groups scan the apps QR code and their speech will be dictated into your phone and separated by speaker, allowing you to easily follow the conversation.

Having a disability doesn’t have to limit what you can achieve in the workplace. There are many great apps that are designed to help people see, hear and communicate, and newer phones have features to assist you as well. Thanks to technology, your career can blossom.

Are you working remotely in the Sugar Land area? Business E Suites offers a variety of spaces to accommodate your needs, whether your ideal environment is a co-working area, private office, or meeting workspace. Contact us to learn about our offerings or to schedule a tour!

Office

Survey finds many workers would rather quit than return to office full time

By | Business, Industry
A recent survey by Menlo Park, California-based recruiting firm Robert Half found that more than 30% of people working from home as a result of the pandemic would look for a new job if required to be in the office full time.  This is where a hybrid workspace comes into play, and alternating between home and a coworking or move-in ready environment is optimal for employees to keep a work/life balance.

What Workers Want
Nearly half of all employees surveyed (48.5%) said they prefer a hybrid work arrangement, where they can divide time between the office and another location. Even if given the opportunity to be fully remote, professionals expressed the following concerns in doing so:

  1. Relationships with coworkers could suffer: 28%
  2. Decreased productivity while at home: 26%
  3. Fewer career advancement opportunities due to a lack of visibility: 20%

At the same time, workers may not be ready to return to the office, and employers may want to consider what could help ease their transition back on-site. Professionals said the top ways their company can support them include:

  1. Freedom to set preferred office hours
  2. A personal, distraction-free workspace
  3. Employer-paid commuting costs
  4. Relaxed dress code
  5. Employer-provided childcare

Source: Link  / and / Link

The future of coworking spaces and landlords

By | Industry

By: Robert LaCoure  –  Principal, Lee & Associates – Houston

The coworking phenomenon has certainly disrupted the commercial real estate (CRE) market over the last few years, as well as changed the way we perceive office space. With a possible economic downturn looming around the corner, the question of how the coworking trend will be affected has become a common discussion among CRE professionals and office building landlords.

Over 70% of economists are predicting another recession by 2021

The coworking trend has been a quick solution for filling empty office spaces. Landlords have been satisfied with positive returns from long-term leases, especially after experiencing gaps in time without tenants. This sounds like a win-win situation until the coworking company can’t afford to maintain their business model. While they’ve grown at a rapid pace, various coworking companies are now facing financial problems that have been headlining in the media.

WeWork reported losses of over $1.6 billion last year

If economists are correct with their prediction of another recession, the CRE industry needs to be prepared to adapt to a new wave of coworking trends. This poses a big opportunity for landlords looking to take back their spaces from large, unstable, coworking companies and run a coworking facility of their own.

The future of coworking could consist of working directly with landlords instead of through subleases at premium rates

In order to successfully compete, landlords will need to offer more flexible terms for this type of space. They will need to hire the right leasing and management team to offer this service and present higher commissions to get their leasing team interested in handling smaller deals. Similarly, Regus has offered a 10% commission to brokers for years and at one point, WeWork offered the entire first year’s rent as a commission. It doesn’t need to be that drastic but 6 to 10% shouldn’t be out of the question.

Read the full article: https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2019/11/05/the-future-of-coworking-spaces-and-landlords.html

Banks

One of the World’s Biggest Banks Explains Why It’s Moving to a Hybrid Work Model.

By | Industry

By Bisnow.com

Everyone in the world of business and real estate is talking about the future of the office, hybrid work models and flexible office networks. How will companies and their staff use office space in future? Well, one of the world’s largest banks is pioneering a new hybrid work strategy and has given Bisnow an insight into its thinking and strategy. 

Standard Chartered Group Head of HR Tanuj Kapilashrami explained at Bisnow London’s recent Future of Office digital summit why the company has become one of the first major global firms to strike a deal with a flexible office provider that will allow a big chunk of its staff to work remotely for a big portion of their time. 

The answers lie in data, in thinking about productivity in a new way and about carefully measuring where people are working, rather than just guessing. 

 

The main message for the real estate industry is that in the post-COVID world, companies will be more willing to give people what helps them succeed, rather than imposing a way of working on them from above. 

“We’ve taken a data-led approach, so we’ve dialed up the listening with our colleagues significantly,” Kapilashrami said. “We ran three surveys last year, and the data was very clear. More than 75% of our colleagues globally wanted to work flexibly at least 50% of the time. That was very important, as it showed us we needed to design the future based around what our colleagues wanted, not our preferences.”

Standard Chartered has struck a deal with CO-WORKING SPACE OPERATORS GLOBALLY in which its more than 90,000 staff around the globe will be able to work from any of CO-WORKING SPACE OPERATORS GLOBALLY’s 3,500 global locations. It is a 12-month trial that began at the beginning of this year.

The bank is headquartered in London and has a major presence in Asian markets. In November, it told staff that it would roll out a phased move to hybrid working, with some people having the option to work from home or remotely more regularly starting this year, especially in its 10 largest markets, and more and more staff would be given the option through 2023. 

In a conversation with CO-WORKING SPACE OPERATORS GLOBALLY Chief Executive  Kapilashrami said a key driver for the initiative had been looking at the type of jobs Standard Chartered employees actually do and analyzing the best way of doing them.

“Our aim is not just about increasing home working or flexible working, it’s about redesigning jobs, so analyzing the different types of job-families our colleagues do and taking a view on how these jobs are going to be done in future,” she said. “And what we found was 80% of those jobs can be done more flexibly. This idea is about co-creating the future with our colleagues, not just 10-15 White men and women sitting in a boardroom.”

The analysis led to the conclusion that Standard Chartered needed to change the makeup of its existing offices, but also offer its employees flexibility to work elsewhere.  

“Our colleagues said 70-80% of our workspace is not based around task-based work, collaborative work,” she said. “Going forward, colleagues wanted the majority of the workplace to be designed around places where people could come together and collaborate. So we are redesigning our workplaces, but we also made it clear that flexible work is not just about home working. We absolutely recognize the value that our colleagues have in coming together, collaborating and working creatively, so we wanted to give them the optionality to come together and have somewhere to work near home.”

Kapilashrami’s team has done a lot of work mapping CO-WORKING SPACE OPERATORS GLOBALLY locations against the locations of colleagues to help them work out where colleagues can meet up within walking distance of home. 

There are practical concerns for an organization of the scale and type of Standard Chartered. A lot of that is around privacy and security so that client confidentiality and sensitive information are as well-protected at CO-WORKING SPACE OPERATORS GLOBALLY locations as they would be at one of the company’s offices. 

Dixon pointed out that companies have to work out the best way to manage who is in what building at what time, or working from home, to get the best of it. He compared it to getting used to other types of technology.

“It’s like when you’re young and you take your first flight, you don’t quite know the system, but when you’ve done it once you get the hang of it. And in two or three years’ time, not adopting hybrid working will be like not adopting email 20 years ago. If you understand and manage the technology well, it can be a huge boost to people’s productivity.”

This point about productivity is key. Kapilashrami said Standard Chartered will be measuring how and when people use the offices in the CO-WORKING SPACE OPERATORS GLOBALLY remote network and gauging the impact on their productivity. The first step is getting over an old fallacy. 

“A lot of critics of flexible working have said that productivity is going to come down, and my challenge to them is, productivity has been used interchangeably with presenteeism,” Kapilashrami said. “We believe that by leveraging technology well we can enhance productivity.”

She drilled down into how the company will be measuring the impact of the new way of working.

“What we’re doing, as people start using the booking system, we’re going to monitor the usage to give more guidance to our colleagues about how does it work most optimally? I think that’s important, because we are all learning this together,” she said. “We are spending a huge amount of time thinking about measurement, not just on this collaboration. So we are building an exhaustive measurement framework that has three aspects.” 

The first is employee sentiment, which is very important, Kapilashrami said. How do colleagues feel? Do they think they are able to bring their best selves to work? 

The second aspect is business results. She said Standard Chartered already measures lots of business outcomes — client contact, financial performance and client satisfaction — and will continue to measure this in the new working structure. 

The third leg, traditionally not measured, is behavioral insights. How do people behave or collaborate differently? What networks are created within the company? Who do people reach out to when they need to do a piece of work? 

“So the measurement approach we are putting together will look at the employee sentiment but also the behavioral changes that we see in how work gets done and how that impacts outcomes. There are some really cool tools out there around network analysis, how work gets done, who collaborates. So we will be bringing these things together and seeing how it impacts productivity.”

Kapilashrami was coy about whether these changes would lead to Standard Chartered reducing its footprint of fixed real estate. But as alluded to in the need for more collaboration space, that fixed real estate will definitely change. 

“The idea of offices being rows and rows of desks with a photocopier at the end, I struggle to see how we go back to that,” she said. “When we did our survey, a very low single digit number of people said they want to work from home 100% of the time. They want greater flexibility, but they do want to come together to collaborate, innovate, meet clients. And let’s face it, we have a large proportion of our workforce who are millennials, and workspaces are also places of inclusion, social engagement and interaction. So our workspaces will continue to have a role. We need to do some real thinking about how much space do we need and also what it looks like.”