(Written by Fiona Buckley)
Today marks my first entre into the world of Corporate Real Estate conferences. Here I am at the London CRE!nspired event with a list of expert speakers talking about areas such as sociological change, the future of work, measuring productivity and getting order from chaos in a large estate and facilities portfolio.
I’m here to learn, to network to see what the state of the nation is and form some opinions. So here are a few of my new girl observations;
Measurement is something that we are all familiar with no matter what industry we come from. There are some serious experts out there who do an amazing job at consolidating data and making sense of how employees work and how the space supports that work (the market leader Leesman is one of Magenta’s clients).
What we are less familiar with, is how companies actually effect change based on those results. That what’s critical if that spend and effort is going to make a difference to the bottom line and employee wellbeing. It’s simply not enough in todays business world to just benchmark, you need to do something with the data and communicate that, then measure again. Strive for improvement. Then, you have something very powerful that you can use to grow your business and make it a great place to be.
We need to change the language of workplace measurement. I hear lots about ‘workplace productivity’ but what does that actually mean? Does that terminology work today? Does it work with employees and the modern organisational leaders? Are we talking employee happiness? Wellbeing? Cost per head/per desk? Clarity could help here – for the providers, the organisations that need the service, and employees!
The main positive for me today is that no matter how much the world changes in terms of the digital revolution, the workplace will always remain a very important place. It’s undergoing its own evolution, but it is really early days, and it’s not an immediate change. We need that support, community and physical network to flourish. The demand of flexibility, new services and facilities at work will grow as rapid urbanisation continues, we expect more and want it yesterday, but it’s the ‘mashup’ of all these things that will have the biggest impact for employers and employees alike.
So, to conclude, I am inspired @ CRE!nspired! It’s encouraging to see that there is an appetite for progressive workspaces, well looked after employees and constant monitoring of what that means to improve. But, my last and final thought… I’d like to see some female leaders at these conferences please! I know you are out there…
