Globally, a more flexible working model is emerging in the aftermath of the pandemic. As organizations forge a path forward, flexibility now looks set to permeate every facet of work – from real estate and building services to culture and collaboration. But what does this mean for the Corporate Real Estate (CRE) leaders who have to understand, manage and deliver flexible settings and solutions in a fast-changing world of work? What challenges do they face, and how can digital tools and technologies help to address them?
Condeco Conversations
As companies get down to the serious business of implementing their new workplace strategies, Condeco has teamed up with WORKTECH Academy on a rolling research program, Condeco Conversations, to share ideas and support new developments. Our research has involved engaging with CRE leaders from global organizations and other experts in the field through a series of workshops, webinars, interviews and reviews of academic research and publicly available literature.
The purpose of the research is to understand the new landscape of work, explore its cultural, technological and spatial characteristics, and identify opportunities. Our main question is a simple one: what are the routes to revival in forging a flexible future of work? It is a question everyone is asking.
In our first Condeco Conversations e-book, ‘Supporting Learning and Innovation’, we focused on the need to rebuild formal training, mentoring, brainstorming and ideation activities in the office – this is what we term higher-value interpersonal work and it inevitably suffered during the pandemic. In the second e-book, ‘Enhancing Experience and Collaboration’, we explored more informal face-to-face activities such as unplanned collaboration, serendipitous social encounters and the value of workplace experience – activities we termed higher-value social experience.
In this third and final e-book of the 2021 series, we look at how organizations can renew their employee culture and enhance their well-being to accommodate more flexible work styles.
- We explore how employees can be given greater psychological comfort as they return to the office as part of a flexible work model.
- We describe culture and well-being as providing higher-value psychological comfort – both are intricately connected and both suffered during periods of lockdown in the pandemic.
CRE leaders need to think how space and services can revive organizational culture and individual well-being in the light of flexible working. In this context, technology will play a critical role in any corporate strategy to create sustainable and safe spaces for all employees, irrespective of physical location.
