Despina Katsikakis, a global head of workplace at Cushman & Wakefield, discusses the significance of the office, the design and vision behind 22 Bishop's Gate project, the potential of algorithms and AI in enhancing workplace serendipity, the impact of lockdown on wellbeing and building design, the recent transformation of the BCO, and the direction of the workplace in the next 10 years.
Enhancing the office experience through social connections, learning, mentorship, and a sense of community is crucial for the future workplace.
Designing office spaces that prioritize employee well-being, productivity, and collaboration, considering technology enablement and ESG considerations, is essential.
Deep dives
The Future of the Office and Workplace
The podcast episode discusses the evolving trends and challenges in the workplace, with a focus on the future of the office. Despina Casicakis, the global head of workplace at Kushman and Wakefield, shares her insights and experiences in transforming workplace environments for global companies. She emphasizes the importance of enhancing the experience of being in the office, creating memorable places that facilitate social connections, learning, mentorship, and a sense of community. Despina also highlights the need for an intentional and collaborative approach in designing office spaces that prioritize employees' well-being, productivity, and future work dynamics, considering aspects like technology enablement, flexible working, and the role of landlords. She emphasizes the changing purpose of the office and the need for a shared understanding and metrics to measure the impact of workplace design and ESG considerations.
The Impact of Technology and Changing Work Dynamics
Despina shares her journey in the real estate and workplace industry, starting with her disillusionment in commercial office design, where cost efficiency overshadowed the focus on people and their experience. She discusses the rapid technological advancements and their influence on the work process and building design. Despina highlights the accelerated speed of technology adoption and the need to consider its impact on work and the design of resilient buildings. She also mentions the importance of random encounters, facilitated through technology, in sparking ideas and collaboration. She stresses the need for a shift in management behavior to fully leverage and adapt to technology's capabilities and enable effective asynchronous and physical collaboration.
The Role of the Office in Enhancing Employee Experience
Despina emphasizes the evolving role of the office and the need to redefine its purpose as a reason for being there, rather than just a return-to-office mandate. She highlights the desire of employees to connect with colleagues, engage in social interactions, learn, be inspired, and feel part of a community. Despina points out the importance of creating office spaces that compete with the comfort and convenience of working from home. She mentions the significance of seamless technology integration, a variety of spaces that support different work modes, and amenities that facilitate social engagement, collaboration, well-being, and uninterrupted focus. Despina also stresses the role of buildings in promoting employee trust, autonomy, and work-life balance.
Future Outlook: Collaboration, Sustainability, and Blended Spaces
Despina discusses the importance of collaboration and common language within the industry to drive effective workplace design and ESG considerations. She emphasizes the need to focus on people, measuring and demonstrating the impact of buildings on employee well-being, productivity, and retention. Despina encourages a blended approach to workplace design, integrating work and lifestyle, and breaking away from traditional asset class distinctions. She highlights the opportunity to reimagine existing buildings, create vibrant blended spaces that support social impact, and promote inclusivity. Despina also mentions the importance of embracing technology, using predictive algorithms, and intuitive building interfaces to facilitate serendipitous encounters and enable personalized work experiences.
Over the past 40 years, Despina has consistently pioneered the science of evaluating employee priorities and evolving trends of office users.
This has led to innovation and implementation of transformative workplace environments for global corporates such as: Accenture, Barclays, BBC, BP, Cisco, Deutsche Bank, GSK, Google, HSBC, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley & Unilever and substantial improvements in the design of exemplary real estate developments for investors worldwide.
In her role at Cushman & Wakefield, she inputs across the firm’s global business, on the rapidly-changing context of work and its impact on employee engagement, productivity, wellbeing and the future role & purpose of the office.
With these factors increasingly determining the real estate decisions of leading corporations, Despina’s unrivalled insight on the future of work benefits occupiers, developers and investors – through repositioning commercial real estate to drive top line performance, cultural aspirations, ESG commitments & profitability.
She is the current President of the British Council of Offices (BCO) and the host of the upcoming ‘Purpose of Place’ podcast. She regularly lectures, writes and contributes to media, research and publications on the future of the workplace and serves on various advisory boards including Delos™, the founders of the WELL Building Standard.
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