The New Math of Office Engagement and Why Landlords Are Becoming Culture Partners

For most of its history, office engagement was a numbers game. If employees showed up, sat at their desks, and worked, engagement was considered strong. The office was built around this assumption. Buildings were designed to support productivity, and productivity was measured by presence. It was a simple calculus for an era when work and workplace were inseparable.

That model broke apart during the pandemic. Remote work proved that plenty of tasks could be done just as well from home. What companies struggled to replicate was the feeling of being together. They saw that the office still had a place, but the reasons people needed it had changed. “Commercial office has been challenging but for the first time in years there is excitement in the office,” said Adam Segal, Co-Founder and CEO of Cove, a commercial property management software company. The excitement comes from rediscovering what the office is uniquely good at.

Productivity, once the main metric of engagement, is no longer enough. People can be productive anywhere, which means the office must prove its value in other ways. The moments that matter most now are the ones that depend on being in the same room...   ...more

RSK: This is worth the read for those of you who deal in the office market or own office bldgs. Productivity has been shown to be viable for work at home so in order to attract employees back to the office, it needs to be an experience of sorts.