Are sports simulators, pickleball courts and kombucha on tap enough to lure employees back to their cubicles?
Nope. Not according to Megan Mackinson, anyhow. And she should know. She’s the Chicago-based national lead for workplace strategy for global real estate services firm JLL. It’s her job to help building owners fill their spaces and employers create offices that best meet the needs of workers. In the wake of the pandemic, that’s no easy feat. And there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, she said.
Along the way, she’s has uncovered some interesting — and fluid — workplace trends that are quickly reshaping commercial spaces across the country. During the pandemic, for example, many offices were used primarily for collaboration and culture building. Now? Employee surveys show having space dedicated to “heads down” productivity has become a top priority for employees.
With office vacancy on the rise across the metro to more than 22% and companies issuing stricter return-to-office mandates, there’s a growing sense of urgency to figure out what works and what doesn’t for today’s offices.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Many building owners seem to be stepping up to the plate with big investments in the physical space, but are employers doing enough?
That’s a very tricky question. There are certainly some that have a lot of opportunity to improve what they are doing, but I think a number of organizations have heard the message that we need to put our people first, and as part of that message, have really taken it to heart to do employee surveys and engage their employees in a number of different ways to be part of establishing the future of their workplace and their policies. When they’re doing that, they are often coming up with really creative solutions.
You cite an example of a law firm that came up with one of those creative solutions. What did they do?