While building owners and tenants are often on opposite sides of issues, both parties share a common yet often overlooked goal- retention. For the building owner it’s essential to retain a tenant, and for their tenant, it’s critical to keep their workers.
Today more than ever this dynamic is playing out as the requirements for digitized workspaces and connectivity from tenants continue to increase in modern workplaces.
A global study of 7,000 employees across 15 countries by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, found that digitized workspaces generate a more productive and motivated workforce.
More than 70% of workers in digitized workspaces reported that digital technologies had a positive impact on their productivity and cited improved collaboration from digital technologies, compared with 55% of employees who worked in non-digital workplaces.
Digitized Workspaces Offer Benefits Beyond Productivity
Beyond offering gains in worker productivity, employees in digital workplaces also reported higher job satisfaction and positive work-life balance- factors leading to improved job longevity which saves companies money and human capital.
Further employees in digitized workspaces were also more likely to adopt new skills. The study found that the 65% of workers operating in digitized workplaces reported they had seen professional development and growth through the use of digital technology, compared with 31% of the non-digitized group. 72% of the digitized workplace employees reported a higher ability to adopt new work skills as compared to 58% from the non-digitized group.
The study revealed that companies who are not able to attract the best employees risk falling behind to competition.
It’s no wonder that tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon spend billions updating and offering the best technological infrastructure to their employees in their headquarters and company office buildings.
Consumerism driving shift in workplace trends
The shift in expectations of employees towards digitized workspaces has been driven by the consumption of smart home devices which are making consumerization the workplace a genuine movement says Alan Ni, director of Solutions Marketing for Aruba, in an interview with In-Building Tech.
As advancements in digital technology and automation continue to improve human capital and pave the way for better workplace experiences, it’s becoming critical for commercial real estate owners to ensure that the digital infrastructure inside of their building is capable of managing these changes.
“I think the value proposition for commercial real estate owners has shifted in the way they are benchmarking themselves. Up until now, the industry judged itself based on portfolio efficiency. Whereas now workforce expectations are shifting dynamic from portfolio efficiency to occupancy experience,” said Ni.
The shift towards occupancy experience is driven by the fact that virtually every industry or potential tenant is focusing on providing improved customer experience to their clients and digital tech tools are a critical component to their success and the facilities that their employees occupy must also offer the same experience, Ni said.
A second factor driving the change to occupier services has been the decrease in price per square foot per person as more employees are working from outside the office.
“The task for building owners has been how to repackage existing spaces for the changing workforce. As the space required for an individual employee decreases to 5 from 10 square feet per employee many class B spaces are being repackaged to co-working spaces by inserting technology, adding modular furniture and the provision of large common areas spaces which are compensating for the loss in square footage per employee,” Ni added.