Workplace of the future: Place-making and agile office strategies 

The first key driver is volatility in business today. Technological advances in communication have sped up the pace of business globally and new disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence, are catalysts for driving change even faster. As a result, businesses find it much more difficult to forecast their performance and headcount expectations for the future, creating challenges in making long term commitments and capital investment in fitting out office space.
The second key driver is the talent itself. Thailand faces shortages of qualified works capable fulfilling the job requirements of 21st century businesses. This is leading to a talent war as businesses compete for the most qualified and skilled new generation of workers. Adding to this change is that the millennial generation along with Gen Y and Z have a different view towards work and want more choice in their work-life balance, with freedom to choose where and how they work. As a result, businesses must compete for talent, and a growing factor of being competitive is by implementing workplace strategies that create a workplace that can attract this new generation of workers.
These are two fundamental drivers behind a growing working concept around the world, which is the concept of place-making in the workplace and agile working strategies. Agile workplace solutions are born out of concepts pioneered in coworking space. The appeal of the coworking model lies in the opportunity for lease-term flexibility coupled with highly appealing workplace environments. Originally intended for freelancers and small startups, broader interest from big corporations have driven the emergence of “enterprise solutions” within coworking to deliver flexibility, aesthetic value and speed to market, but without the element of communal space that enterprise organisations typically do not want. With these new models, savvy occupiers are leveraging agile strategies that integrate flexible, short-term, and long-term lease structures to most effectively anticipate and solve talent and organisational needs.
The agile approach to real estate requires a shift in how many businesses have historically viewed their options. Traditionally businesses usually took long term leases and fitted out their own premises but today are beginning to learn from the fast pace growth and volatility of the market and are responding to workplace needs with a mixture of their own leased space configurated as an agile activity-based environment together with third party shared spaces. 
CBRE has consulted clients in markets all over the globe and has created some initial recommendations for landlords and occupiers. 
Occupiers should commit to long-term space when they know the headcount needs are reasonably certain, and explore flexible space solutions for the rest. They can do this by designing a workplace based on functionality for today and adaptability for the future through utilisation of mobile technology and cloud solutions. To help retain talent, businesses should invest resources into technology-enabled amenities like cloud computing which frees people from a fixed desk and services such as online meeting room booking that makes employees lives easier and more efficient.
Landlords must focus on building office space that will draw tenants by creating workplaces that meet the needs of the modern employee together with leasing strategies, building design, and space strategies that fit with modern business needs.
Occupiers need buildings that can accommodate agile working environments with a greater population density. The key elements are going to be floor plate size and shape, modern building tech such as low-e coated high efficiency windows, circadian lighting, healthy efficient air-conditioning systems, efficient lifts, and connected “smart systems” infrastructures to name a few. Landlords should focus on experience-led amenities and services, supported by technology, that offer practical value to tenants beyond building location. Simply having a coffee shop on the ground floor is not sufficient. 
Rather than leasing space to major coworking space operators, some landlords in major international business centres are beginning to offer diverse lease models that range from long-term traditional leases and short-term turnkey solutions to on-demand, shared workspaces.
Landlords will need a combination of design, amenities, and technology together with new leasing models to cater for the range of demand requirements from the 21st century office occupier.

Noted: Writer by  Aliwassa Pathnadabutr, Managing Director of CBRE Thailand