While tech is key, data only provides half the picture. There are qualitative drivers like employee experience, satisfaction and individual work habits.

“We ask clients what they hope to achieve by getting employees into the office and then figure out what it will take to make that happen,” Toncheva says.

Take one JLL client, which felt their product innovation, creativity and speed to market was lacking due to remote work.

“We built a robust understanding of employee needs and preferences, mapped that against business requirements and team adjacencies, then created a series of personas,” says Toncheva. “It helped us redesign the space to support product workflows while also offering the comfort and experience that people craved.