The workspace has been the subject of much debate in recent years. The events that have taken place have driven radical work models in their visualisations, which after a period of normalisation have led organisations to wander through different hybrid models that have a direct impact on the conception and use of office spaces. Corporate campuses become an opportunity to generate a differential experience that accompanies the business and company strategy.
Campus Corporate Network with the knowledge of bicg has identified these 6 trends that will mark the future of workspaces and business headquarters and campuses.
1. Hybrid campuses as our lives
Hybrid working is here to stay.
The combination of an activity-based office with hybrid working models implies a reflection on space. Why go to the office? Space must respond to collaboration and a differential experience based on activities and services.
This requires:
- Campus uses must be planned and monitored in real-time, and then agile adaptations made to respond to actual uses.
- It requires vigilant, proactive and multidisciplinary work, aided by state-of-the-art tools and a continuous improvement mindset.
- Organisations will need to strive to create meaningful experiences that respond and adapt over time.
2. Tools no longer seek to reserve space, but to connect people
Tools that favour the hybrid experience are essential in the new environment.
- Virtual environments, advanced videoconferencing systems, virtual reality, phygital ecosystems… help physically distant people to feel they are in the same place.
- Have tools that help professionals to physically coincide in space and plan their attendance based on collaboration with their team.
- Allow accessibility to the campus at any time and in an easy way to generate Exchange. Especially for managers, crating physical and hybrid environments for mentoring, coaching or other dynamics that are essential to maximise knowledge transfer.
3. Available space is an opportunity to respond to our strategic challenges
The impact of the hybrid model on space opens up the opportunity for high potential for optimisation and cost reduction.
By decreasing the need for traditional workstations, organisations should focus on:
- Collaborative spaces equipped for hybrid interactions.
- Value-added services focused on wellness and leisure.
- Opportunity to invite partners and collaborators to occupy this surplus space, creating a mutually beneficial knowledge ecosystem.
- Unification of dispersed groups in a single location, reducing costs, improving carbon footprints and connecting once distant groups in the organisation.
4. ESG on campus: more than just the carbon footprint
A new campus model allows you to work on the three pillars of sustainability: E (environmental), S (social) and G (governance).
In addition to the obvious savings in environmental footprints, the campus allows you to address social and governance issues:
- As a meeting point it offers you the opportunity to create a dialogue with employees and detect the issues that matter most to them.
- By, co-designing common goals and shared experiences, the campus can act as a space that embodies change and employee contribution, reinforcing their sense of belonging, purpose and trust.
5. A new figure in campus management: the Chief Experience Officer
Generating an experience is no longer only a matter for customer-facing profiles, now it is the employees’ turn.
Only when the internal experience reflects what is projected to customers and the rest of society can a company be perceived as authentic.
With the Great Attrition and the growing skills gap disrupting the status quo, employees have become the new customers. To attract and retain the best talent, organisations will need to:
- Make a full time effort from top management to integrate, RE, HR, Real Estate, IT and communication into a new figure: CXO (Chief Experience Officer).
- And maintain a dialogue with the organisation to create an experience that represents them.
6. Creating an employee experience on campus as if we were creating the best film. Learning from Hollywood
Creating a differentiated employee experience has some similarities to creating a film:
- The setting is key. The space and therefore the campus must be adapted to the needs of the organisation.
- Script as strategy. You have to make things happen and that requires planning and a strategy about what the campus experience should be like.
- The performance happens in person. For a unique and differential experience, the campus must be lived , and for that the teams must synchronise and meet in the space.
- The director as leader. And for everything to work, it is necessary to have a figure that aligns and harmonises: the CXO.
