Why companies should increase the added value of their offices

In recent years, return to office (RTO) strategies have focused primarily on determining how much time employees should spend in the office. As companies move beyond these difficult discussions and establish new working patterns, they should turn their focus to an equally important and often neglected question: how can offices provide greater value to employees and the business?

Corporate real estate comes with a significant cost. On average, companies in the United States spend thousands of dollars per employee on office space each year, with this expense often second only to the cost of skilled workers. Despite this significant investment, most companies view offices as merely an expense rather than an investment in improved business results. However, the value associated with corporate real estate should not be overlooked, as well-designed offices can positively impact employee experiences and help companies operate more effectively.

The prevailing view that corporate real estate is a cost is evident in how companies measure the effectiveness of their real estate portfolios. For many companies, the only measures of RTO success are data from ID cards, which show usage rather than value. Rather than asking whether these spaces are serving employees effectively, companies typically just ask whether the spaces are being used at all, thus attempting to establish a connection between usage and value. But to get a higher return on these investments, companies need to agree on why offices are important and how to measure it.

Technology company Atlassian has been thinking a lot about the value of its offices and how to measure it. After adopting a distributed “Team Anywhere” work model that doesn’t require regular office attendance, the company had to ask itself again whether it still needed offices. In its recently released report, 1000 Days of Distributed, the company describes its journey and the three reasons why it continues to believe that offices are critical – for engagement, belonging, and getting important work done. While it still measures the use of its offices, it has changed its ROI metrics to consider how offices impact employee engagement and uses that data, along with a hospitality mindset, to inform the planning of new spaces.

“The purpose of the modern office is to connect a company’s community – and ensure that every visitor has everything they need to get their work done. Offices should take inspiration from guest spaces and focus on hospitality metrics that measure satisfaction with a space and the presence of desired behaviors, rather than the number of employees,” says Annie Dean, Vice President of Team Anywhere at Atlassian.

This shift in mindset is also critical for organizations that have implemented RTO policies that require office attendance. By implementing an RTO policy, companies reinforce the importance of time in the office. However, they must also clearly explain why that attendance is important and how effectively their premises meet those requirements. While every organization is different, there is plenty of data that illustrates broader trends in how offices can add value.

From 2021 to 2023, Future Forum conducted quarterly surveys of 10,000 office workers in six countries and found consistent preferences regarding the office experience. Despite a growing desire for location flexibility, most workers expressed a desire for regular office time, citing camaraderie, collaboration, interaction with management, and spaces that encourage focused work as their main motivations.

Since most of these motivations are related to improving the employee experience, including questions about office space effectiveness in existing employee experience surveys is a simple and straightforward starting point for companies. If specific reasons for implementing an RTO policy – such as promoting company culture or improving connections – are key to how offices are rated in employee experience surveys, these drivers should form the basis for how offices are rated in employee experience surveys.

Companies should ask employees questions like, “To what extent do our offices encourage interpersonal connection?” or “To what extent does our office space contribute to your sense of belonging to our culture?” Deeper questions can reveal how offices promote well-being, support focused work, facilitate interaction with leaders, and encourage collaboration across teams. As with other measures of employee experience, longitudinal metrics give leaders a deeper understanding of how the value of offices improves or decreases over time and provide a way to measure the impact of office improvements.

As RTO policies are standardized and eventually phased out, investments in corporate real estate are here to stay. To ensure these investments meet evolving organizational needs, companies must view offices as more than just an expense. Setting value metrics based on RTO not only ensures that companies are investing wisely in their space, but also that the time employees spend there is well spent.