The workplace is dominated by technology. Text messaging, email, apps like Slack and other forms of digital communication make it easy for workers to stay in touch. But despite this digital tsunami, Gensler is seeing the need for businesses to encourage more human encounters and face-to-face communication.
Gensler's recent research shows connecting face-to-face builds good relationships, speeds the flow of ideas, raises awareness between departments and bolsters information sharing. Additionally, the Gensler Research Institute uncovered people are more creative and productive when they have better physical connections with coworkers and more opportunities for chance encounters.
Creating spaces to promote that kind of communication does not happen by chance. It must be designed into workplaces using spaces that encourage more face-to-face connections and capitalize on bigger floor plates to keep more employees on the same floor.
Face-to-face communication is critically important in the workplace, said Kristen Conry, managing director at Gensler Chicago.
“Our research is showing that companies that provide a variety of opportunities for people to come together face-to-face have more engaged and effective workforces,” she said. “As things change, and as things have been changing, the role of the physical workplace is also evolving as people have more options to work remotely with all of our technological connections, digital connections. But people still need and want that human connection, and the experience that a physical workplace can provide is important to foster that. So, both in terms of the types of spaces that a company provides and what it does to create a culture and identity within that company, that resonates with its workforce.”
Companies have a number of options for bringing these types of spaces to their people, Conry said, but Gensler's research shows about five really have a big impact on the engagement and experience for employees in the workplace. The common thread of those successful spaces is they allow people to connect through work.
People are really passionate about what they do, Conry said, and the idea of providing a break room or something that doesn't support work quite as much, doesn't have the impact. People aren't necessarily looking for a break, they're looking for engagement.
“We're finding spaces like innovation hubs where people can come together, have access to technology, great ways of digging into the work, those have a really strong impact on employee experience and great returns for companies in terms of business outcomes based on the efforts that people put in,” she said. “Similarly, things like makerspaces, where you bring creativity and physical making into spaces. Those types of spaces have a huge impact on creating an effective and engaged workforce.”
More tech-free or low-tech zones and places that are quiet are needed. Some of those can be for solitary work, Conry said, but there's also a need for people to come together face-to-face and have meaningful communications in a more personal and technologically light setting. She said those spaces can have a significant impact on worker experience.
People also really want a connection to the outdoors. When companies and their physical spaces can take advantage of terraces or plazas, it is a strong amenity for employees to make those connections, and also to feel more connected to the cities in which they work. When you can get people more engaged, she said, not just in the insular space, but in the community and the neighborhood, it further strengthens the identity of the company and the location in which they work. Companies are making a lot of effort to be embedded in their community and give back to it.
All of these spaces provide workers with one important element: choice.
“Knowing that we have different generations, different demographics and psychographics in the office, what's key for companies to keeping them all engaged is providing a balance of spaces and the opportunity for choice so you can find, in a very deliberate way, the right types of spaces that resonate with you,” Conry said. “And simultaneously, those who work differently than you can find their own way for what they need. Those change over the course of the day and over the course of what you're doing. I think it's not just generational, but there are also different needs for more introverted or extroverted colleagues, or people who spend more or less time in meetings or on the road. It really comes down to a matter of balance and choice so that you can keep your colleagues, your employees across all of those differences, engaged in the experience.”
Nearly 80 percent of people who report having options in their office also say they have a great experience in their office. And for those who don't, only about 30-35% of them say their space provides a great experience if it doesn't have that suite of options to choose from. So it makes sense from a business perspective. Those spaces more than double the positive employee experience.
“For some of the specific things like an innovation hub, our research shows that you get an increase by 16 points in terms of the experience in the office when you have a space like that,” Conry said. “A makerspace increases that experience index by 14. Same with providing the quiet and tech-free zones, a 14 point increase in that. There's real tangible, data-driven backing to the value of these spaces. And it's not just experience, it's also effectiveness. This is where companies are seeing that it's actually having an impact on their productivity, and ultimately their bottom line, to have these types of spaces.”
Conry noted just because spaces are designed to help people communicate does not mean tech should be abandoned. It, too, is an important part of the workplace.
“As spaces become more fluid and dynamic, and people have more choice, there's more need for technology to keep them connected and that becomes part of the choice,” she said.
Connecting with a colleague over text or chatting has more and more become a normal or acceptable form of communication in the business world, and Conry uses it all the time. “... even the younger generation, they are still looking for their work to bring them a sense of identity and purpose. They want their companies to have spaces and opportunities for them to really connect in a meaningful way that makes them feel like what they're doing is aligned with what they believe and what they see as their aspirations. So the physical space is critical, and those human connections are still really important.”
Conry said a concrete example of how creating spaces that foster face-to-face communication is helping companies is the headquarters for Hyatt in Chicago. It made a shift from a much more traditional work setting that had a lot of enclosed space, privacy, workstations with high walls and separation between groups — but not a lot of shared space. Yet they made a shift and changed. Today, there's a lot more openness, but they opted for defining zones or “neighborhoods.” These spots are for about 12 to 20 people who work in that space, and they have a suite of options, depending on the role of the workers. Access to huddle rooms, focus rooms, meeting rooms, open workstations and either private or shared offices are some of their choices, but they are far fewer than they had in their previous space.
“For them it was finding that balance between scale and ownership, openness and privacy,” Conry said. “We created a unique way for them to do that. And it's been incredibly successful and transformative for their company, and really embraced even by some of the ... skeptics, perhaps, going into it.”
Part of that success depends on investing in educating people on the benefits of the space and having people model the behaviors at the highest levels you want colleagues to embrace, Conry said.
Gensler is working on another project with a customer coming from a very traditional space with limited connectivity, inspiration or creativity and looking to change that. It's come to Gensler to start these conversations because it's seen some of the work the design firm has done with companies like Hyatt. “One of the things that they are looking to do in addition to bring balance and choice, is to look at space as a way to consolidate people into larger floor plates, into fewer floors to really break down the barriers between people,” she said.
Conry noted an MIT study found for workers co-located on a floor, there's a 95% chance they will run into and have either a serendipitous or regular type of interaction with them in their space. That drops to 5% if you're separated by even one floor. You might as well be on another planet.