Creating exceptional workplaces

It’s 2024: the year we’ve moved into a new stage of the amenity war. Employees aren’t simply interested in a well-equipped conference room or on-site dry cleaner. At this frontier, the full picture is what matters.

“They want their workplace experience to be as well-rounded as possible,” said Tyler Kethcart, JLL director of business development. “More of everything is the only way to describe it.”

That means coming to work knowing that there will be somewhere healthy for lunch as well as a place to socialize at day’s-end, that they’ll have equal access to professional collaboration and excellent coffee. It’s less about specific needs and more about a holistic look at a positive office experience.

Brad Despot, JLL senior managing director, brokerage, sees conference centers as a major demand amongst commercial tenants.

“I have a million-square-foot building in Chicago and it doesn’t have a conference center at all – that’s a big problem for us,” he said. “To me, a conference center is where it starts. (It offers) the ability to go outside one’s own office or hold a bigger meeting. Other amenities such as a tenant lounge, fitness center, they rank behind this.”

That may well make sense given that, according to data from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the amount of office meetings has increased by nearly 13% in the wake of the pandemic. At the same time, the amenities arms race doesn’t simply encapsulate working spaces. JLL’s Global Flex Report finds that landlords will get the most return on their investment through health and wellness initiatives, outdoor spaces, and hospitality services.

“The spaces we’re seeing now are much more about the experience – giving a person elsewhere to go in the building, elsewhere to work,” Despot said. “Obviously there’s a cost to it and a newness to it, but when a landlord is committed, they’ve got to be operated as well.”