<p>With more people splitting their work hours between home, the&nbsp;office&nbsp;and other locations, many&nbsp;workplaces&nbsp;are seeing peaks and troughs in employee numbers throughout the week, with different teams crossing paths less frequently than before.<br />It&rsquo;s now up to companies to find new ways to&nbsp;re-energise the office&nbsp;to make the commute feel worthwhile and support employees who may be battling feelings of isolation and disconnection.</p><p>&ldquo;The pandemic and&nbsp;remote working&nbsp;have impacted employees&rsquo; morale and energy, and how much they feel part of the company vision,&rdquo; says Flore Prad&egrave;re, Research Director, Global Work Dynamics at JLL.</p><p>JLL&rsquo;s Regenerative Workplace research found that 36 percent of employees feel they lack energy while working, while a quarter feel too exhausted by work and family life to take care of their health and wellbeing. A third even say their company is no longer a good place to work.<br />Yet good energy levels are intrinsic to employee engagement and motivation, driving creativity and innovation. &ldquo;Companies that support employee wellbeing see a definite payback, because people have the energy to go the extra mile,&rdquo; Prad&egrave;re adds.&nbsp;</p><h3>Energy to engage</h3><p>Although remote work has helped many employees achieve a better work-life balance, video meeting fatigue and longer workdays have also taken their toll.<br />A McKinsey survey of attitudes to post-pandemic work found that many employees now fear their work-life balance will suffer. Mental health is now a top priority and employee expectations that companies will support their wellbeing are growing.<br />&ldquo;People&rsquo;s priorities and their perceptions of work have changed, and companies now face new challenges in employee engagement,&rdquo; says Guzman de Yarza Blache, Head of EMEA Workplace Strategy at JLL. &ldquo;Companies need to manage the workforce differently, and a strong wellness program is critical. Without energy, productivity falls and it can impact talent retention.&rdquo;<br />Companies are taking note; common measures include making flexible hours that employees enjoyed with remote work a more permanent feature, along with providing more support for mental health issues such as stress, anxiety and depression, which often are hidden.<br />For example, consulting firm EY offers free therapy sessions to staff and their family, while meditation app Calm gives employees a wellness stipend to spend on things including gym memberships, therapy and nutrition.<br />Managerial training to handle mental health issues is also helping to build a culture of trust where employees feel confident in expressing problems and receiving help.&nbsp;<br />&ldquo;The role of managers is key in making sure people feel they can take the time they need for self-care and wellbeing, which is crucial for their energy,&rdquo; says Prad&egrave;re.<br />Elsewhere, other HR-driven initiatives are helping people to build new connections with colleagues. A renewed focus on mentorship programs and teambuilding activities can develop valuable workplace relationships that many employees felt were negatively impacted by remote work, while specialised onboarding for people who were hired during the pandemic is helping them feel part of the team.<br />&ldquo;These kinds of engineered social connections are essential &ndash; it helps recreate those water cooler moments where people spontaneously meet and chat, increasing their engagement with colleagues and the company culture,&rdquo; says Yarza Blache.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Space dedicated to health and wellbeing also benefits energy levels, whether that&rsquo;s quiet rooms, fitness zones or break areas. &ldquo;Having a transition space where employees can switch off between different tasks and avoid back-to-back meetings helps people to recharge,&rdquo; says Prad&egrave;re. &rdquo;It also provides an opportunity for social experiences, which helps develop personal connections.&rdquo;<br />Dedicated space for showcasing the company story and its vision and accomplishments also reinforces company culture and motivates recent and long-time hires alike, notes Yarza Blache.<br />It&rsquo;s this sense of shared purpose and personal connection that today&rsquo;s companies need to fuel a new type of office buzz in the hybrid work era.<br />&ldquo;As work takes place in an increasingly digital environment, the physical office is more relevant than ever as the space which brings people together, whether they&rsquo;re employees or clients,&rdquo; Yarza Blache says. &ldquo;While people may spend less time there, the experience is more sophisticated, carefully designed to support a vibrant community and nurture sustainable, long-term performance.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>

How companies are bringing a buzz back to office working

<p>New research further proves it impacts employee performance</p><p>In many companies, the office now feels different to pre-pandemic days.</p>

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vie-au-bureau

Future of work

office

Office

<p>Some buildings are recycling water, while others are using energy-saving glass or implementing micro-climates based on employee preferences. Such features are not only critical to companies&rsquo; green goals, but are also important for attracting and retaining the eco-conscious.</p><p>&ldquo;Employees today are more motivated to work for a company that promotes a higher standard of living for its employees and the community,&rdquo; says Roddy Allan, Chief Research Officer, JLL Asia Pacific. &ldquo;Workers want action on sustainability, and they want their employers to support their goals.&rdquo;</p><p>This is especially true for younger employees. Up to 81 percent of workers aged 21 to 30 expect their company to follow sustainable business practices, and 70 percent of them would prefer to work for a sustainability leader, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jll.com.sg/en/trends-and-insights/research/sustainability-in-the-built-environment-an-employee-perspective" target="_blank">JLL survey</a>.</p><p>Here are five changes that companies have adopted to make their offices more sustainable.</p><h3>1. Bringing nature into the workplace</h3><p>Incorporating natural elements &mdash; such as natural lighting and ventilation, or green walls &mdash; has been proven to help reduce stress, increase attention spans, improve general wellbeing, and reduce energy costs. For instance, integrating natural light in indoor spaces has been found to reduce the need for artificial lighting and potentially&nbsp;<a href="https://www.futureofworkhub.info/explainers/2021/4/7/biophilic-design-and-the-workplace" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">lower energy costs by up to 80 percent</a>.</p><p>Companies are designing offices with lush greenery as a key feature. In&nbsp;<a href="https://modonline.com/projects/citi-wealth-hub" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Citibank&rsquo;s Wealth Hub in Singapore</a>, for instance, the office is designed as a &ldquo;banking conservatory&rdquo; with garden meeting pods nestled amid shrubs and trees, instead of conventional meeting rooms.</p><p>Seven in 10 workers want employers to incorporate greenery such as indoor plants,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jll.com.au/en/trends-and-insights/cities/why-green-rooftops-are-sprouting-around-the-world" target="_blank">green rooftops</a>&nbsp;and vertical gardens in the workplace, according to JLL. Property developer Guocoland&rsquo;s upcoming&nbsp;<a href="https://www.edgeprop.sg/property-news/guocoland-integrated-developments-place-maker" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Guoco Midtown mixed-use development</a>&nbsp;will see 3.8 hectares of greenery flowing through the property across 30 gardens with over 350 species of plants and trees.</p><h3>2. Recycling wastewater in office buildings</h3><p>The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/facing-severe-droughts-us-developers-seek-to-reuse-the-water-they-have" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Salesforce Tower in San Francisco</a>&nbsp;filters around 30,000 gallons of dirty water generated by the building and returns it as clean, non-potable water for use in toilets and drip irrigation. A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202106/1227259.shtml" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Cambodian resort development project</a>&nbsp;under construction will operate individual treatment plants within its office building, hotel, and carpark to recycle wastewater for farmland irrigation.</p><p>Six in 10 workers want universal adoption of 100 percent water recycling in offices, according to JLL. But it&rsquo;s not just about employee satisfaction. Recycling and conserving water also maximizes energy use and saves costs.</p><p>&ldquo;Recycling wastewater onsite lowers the costs associated with and the energy consumed for pumping and transporting water for treatment elsewhere,&rdquo; says Allan. &ldquo;More importantly, reusing the water within buildings also eases the pressure on water resources in cities.&rdquo;</p><h3>3. Installing smart windows</h3><p>Buildings are getting smarter&nbsp;<a href="https://www.us.jll.com/en/trends-and-insights/cities/5-ways-clean-tech-is-boosting-energy-efficiency-in-commercial-real-estate" target="_blank">with new technologies introduced</a>. U.S. manufacturer View produces glass that automatically monitors and adjusts its transparency to control the amount of light and heat permeating indoors.</p><p>These windows reduce the load on the building&rsquo;s heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system, which lowers the overall energy output and leads to cost savings.</p><p>According to a Cornell University study, smart windows also offer significant health advantages such as reducing eyestrain by 51 percent and headaches by 63 percent.</p><h3>4. Using AI and IoT for energy conservation</h3><p>Using artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) can also help drive overall efficiencies in energy consumption.</p><p>Take energy intelligence and automation firm&nbsp;<a href="https://lot.dhl.com/next-on-the-green-agenda-for-logistics-energy-efficient-warehouses/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">BeeBryte</a>. Its solution leverages AI and IoT to predict thermal needs in buildings based on weather conditions, building occupancy and business activity. Using this information, it automatically adjusts the HVAC setpoints in real time and saves up to 40 percent of energy costs while keeping temperatures within a predetermined range.</p><p>&ldquo;Buildings today have a whole plethora of systems for functions such as measuring air temperature, indoor air quality, traffic patterns, and space occupancy,&rdquo; says Jeremy Sheldon, Head of Leasing, Asia Pacific, JLL, during a virtual panel discussion on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jll.com.sg/en/campaign/the-future-of-real-estate/" target="_blank">Future of Workplaces</a>. &ldquo;We generate an enormous amount of data, but what&rsquo;s important is what we do with it and how we make more efficient decisions.&rdquo;</p><h3>5. Personalizing the workspace</h3><p>Spaces that give employees a level of personalization can further encourage energy savings.</p><p>In an experimental office housed within a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bca.gov.sg/zeb/officeoffuture.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">zero-energy building in Singapore</a>, a personalized cool fresh air supply duct with adjustable air volume is installed at each desk. This allows the surrounding air conditioning to be set at a lower air supply rate without compromising comfort for the desk occupant.</p><p>Similarly,&nbsp;<a href="https://office.mec.co.jp/en/concept/eco.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">an eco-office concept by Mitsubishi</a>&nbsp;in Japan&rsquo;s Otemon Tower with next-generation personalized office air conditioning allows employees to control the aircon temperature for their individual desks.</p><p>&ldquo;Increasingly we will see businesses investing in sustainable real estate, leasing office spaces in green buildings, and embedding green features in their offices as part of their sustainability strategy,&rdquo; says Allan. &ldquo;Together, these changes will ultimately improve employee engagement and retention.&rdquo;</p>

5 ways companies are making offices more sustainable

The office is getting greener. Companies take action on their commitments to sustainability and net-zero carbon emissions.

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sustainability

Sustainability

<h3>In 2020, JLL signed the World Green Building Council&rsquo;s Net-Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment. What does this mean in reality ?</h3><p>We have pledged that our offices will be carbon neutral by 2030. We are talking about a stock of more than&nbsp;460 offices worldwide, or almost 500,000 square metres. In this regard, we are focusing on the energy performance of the buildings we occupy. JLL is increasingly opting for green certifications, energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources.</p><h3>How does JLL integrate Paris Agreement targets into its global strategy ?</h3><p>The SBTi &ndash; Science Based Targets Initiative, a partnership between the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resource Institute (WRI) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), considers the JLL approach to be both realistic and feasible. We have also been recognised as a Net-Zero Standard business: we are one of the world&rsquo;s first seven companies to be certified for our commitment to carbon neutrality. Having our approach validated by the SBTi is a very strong symbol of our commitment to sustainable development.</p><h3>Why has JLL chosen to commit itself so fully to sustainable development ?</h3><p>Our awareness of the role and impact of real estate on the climate was the main driver here. Real estate (construction and operation) accounts for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions.<br />It was therefore clear that JLL should play its part in this regard. Finally, new regulations bolster and even speed up efforts to engage us when it comes to this common cause. In order to assist our clients achieve compliance, we have expanded our range of services .</p><h3>How are you engaging with your clients as part of this ambitious policy ?</h3><p>We encourage them to aim for carbon neutrality because we believe that everyone has a role to play in meeting these massive objectives. Until five years ago, this topic was deemed to be of secondary importance and considered a passing trend. Driven by new regulations and environmental concerns, sustainability is now fully integrated into our supply chain, group strategy and client base.&nbsp;</p>

We shape the future of real estate for a better world

Through its ambitious policies, JLL is fully committed to a sustainable future, including developing initiatives that tend towards greener and more responsible real estate. We caught up with Marine Guiot, Head of CSR France &ndash; Belgium &ndash; Luxembourg to find out the latest.

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<p>Workers adapted to working from home adhering to the health and safety directives and consequently have developed an appetite for greater flexibility and new hybrid working models.&nbsp;<br />Workers are experiencing increasing virtual meeting fatigue or burnout, and there is a growing desire to return to the office for the majority of their time. This suggests that&nbsp;offices&nbsp;will be more important than ever as the centre of the&nbsp;<strong>work ecosystem</strong>&nbsp;and that&nbsp;<strong>exceptional office environments</strong>&nbsp;will remain an essential means of engaging and retaining employees.&nbsp;<br />But how do employees want to work in the future?</p><p>Let&rsquo;s look at the 7 key takeaways:</p><h3>1. Finding the optimum work/life balance is the new priority for employees, far ahead of the salary.</h3><p>Working from home has been such a revolution that employees are focused on its advantages and tend to be less affected by the porosity between their professional and personal worlds. They expect their employer to incorporate greater flexibility in the salary package offered: 88% would like to have flexible working hours in the future. With this in mind, a rethink has been required in terms of the&nbsp;layout of&nbsp;<strong>workspaces</strong>, as well as&nbsp;<strong>arrangements for employees&rsquo; home offices.</strong></p><h3>2. Hybrid working has made great inroads:&nbsp;traditional workspaces have lost ground</h3><p>The pandemic has facilitated adoption through experimentation: the more people&nbsp;work from home, the more they want to do it in future. Employees follow global trends, with the ideal model being 2 days&nbsp;<strong>remote working</strong>&nbsp;per week, split over 1.5 days at home and 0.5 in third-party spaces.</p><h3>3. It&rsquo;s not about time management, it&rsquo;s more about social interaction</h3><p>Employees miss the&nbsp;social aspect of the office. What they miss most about&nbsp;in-person working, in the office, is the&nbsp;<strong>informal interactions</strong>&nbsp;and face-to-face collaboration. 61% of employees are keen for &ldquo;real&rdquo; human interactions with their colleagues.&nbsp;<br />To do this, the&nbsp;layout of workspaces&nbsp;needs to be adapted. An increasing number of office spaces are open plan. Very few workers want an individual office. Open Plan offices are arranged with office furniture designed to facilitate interactions between colleagues without hindering work. Meeting rooms are provided for teams to gather together. We are seeing a renaissance in the&nbsp;layout of offices, and the&nbsp;work environment&nbsp;is being reworked to promote well-being in the workplace.&nbsp;</p><h3>4. Working from home long-term takes a heavy toll on social and mental well-being</h3><p>Employee sense of fulfilment is in decline, they are also overwhelmed in terms of mental load: 51% are disillusioned and 44% report being overworked, with too many personal and professional responsibilities. The parents of young children and people living alone are most exposed. Companies are now, more than ever, being held responsible for the health of their employees: their physical health of course, but also their social and mental health.</p><h3>&nbsp;5. Remote productivity is in decline</h3><p>While the performance of employees working from home remains high, 43% of them report being more productive at home than in the office, this figure has decreased since the first lockdown, when 52% reported being more productive at home.</p><h3>6. Employees have higher expectations of their companies who need to adapt their offices accordingly</h3><p>While employees report their need to return to the office to&nbsp;<strong>reconnect with their community</strong>, they are also much more critical about their&nbsp;regular place of work. Just 48% are satisfied with their regular<strong>&nbsp;place of work</strong>&nbsp;(compared to 60% in April 2020) and only 36% say they miss their office (compared to 46% in April 2020).</p><h3>7. Employers need to improve the work experience in order to elicit the desire to return to the office</h3><p>The happier employees are with their office, the more they miss it. 69% of those who are very happy with their&nbsp;work environment&nbsp;miss it, compared to just 5% of those who aren&rsquo;t very happy now. Employees expect their employers to offer them completely redesigned&nbsp;<strong>workspace layout</strong>, taking into account the human aspect,&nbsp;<strong>well-being</strong>&nbsp;and the environment. They also seek&nbsp;offices&nbsp;connected to nature and equipped with digital tools.</p><div><br /></div>

Workspace layout: how do employees want to work in the future?

<p>Over recent months, the pandemic has brought about a seismic change in our way of life and working.&nbsp;</p>

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Discover the lastest JLL articles on
the future of work

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Discover the lastest JLL articles onthe future of work

Latest articles

Discover the lastest JLL articles on
the future of work