FOCUS INTERVIEW
changed significantly over the past two
years and as the challenges of attracting and
engaging talent have increased. According to
Katsikakis, along with design the allocation
of amenities is hugely important, from the
provision of great co ee via a barista service
to elements like a local pop up restaurant with
ethnic food choices, cultural connections and
activities you can’t do at home, all of which
should be high quality and unique, not just a
limp salad bar in the corner.
ESG AIMS
Achieving Environmental, Social and
Governance (ESG) is another key theme of the
BCO conference discussions. As Knight Frank
predicts, “those who create o ices that are
more customer-centric, reduce environmental
impact and proactively utilise technology and
data will win in the brave new world of o ice”.
“How we begin to create an aligned point
of view around ESG is very important,” says
Katsikakis as it is going to be a critical area of
impact both for occupiers and landlords. How
those landlords that can support ESG targets
54 MAY 2022
that their occupiers are already aiming for
to attract occupiers to their buildings and
vice versa is going to be a really impactful
area for the conference.
“A lot of strategies focus on what can be
done with a building to support carbon
reduction but we need to put the humanity
element into ESG and take a community
engagement perspective, from growing
your own food on campus, sponsoring local
restaurants and organising charity days.
All of these aspects we will see have much
more emphasis in the built environment as
we look to the future.”
She also predicts more investment on
end of route facilities. Occupants are no
longer happy to cycle to work and just get
o ered a parking space. They want to have
showers, laundry and other really good
facilities to enable them to arrive and get
changed for work. They also want more
wellbeing facilities, exercise areas that are
really high quality, meditation and prayer
areas. This is where the introduction of
technology using real time data to manage
the building, manage the experience and
the energy, will come into play.
“What I’m finding really interesting is
the integration of building apps, booking
systems and sensors that can help manage
how o en you clean in the building, how
much food you order and what type of food
you provide to support users’ demands.
Workplace managers and occupants are
excited to use that tech because they
recognise the sustainability component.
If the building knows that I like salads and
it orders more of that there is less food
wastage and it results in a more responsive
environment.
“I think this is a very exciting area for the
future as it means over the few years we’ll
have real time analytics and data to really
forecast capacity, services, and adapt them
accordingly.”
WORKING TOGETHER
One of the aims of the conference is to
bring all those involved with the future
attributes of the o ice together to debate
the opportunities for the sector to reevaluate
and reset. This says Katsikakis
means FM and CRE collaborating more than
ever before to engage the C-suite in making
positive changes for the future.
“CRE and FM have to work together in a
completely seamless and integrated way
because the value is not saving the cost
of real estate or the cost of FM delivery.
The value is in creating memorable and
impactful experiences. FM is at the forefront
of that, so that FM is really where you
operationalise the entire corporate real
estate strategy, and make it work.
“The reason why that becomes critical
for the C-suite is that the objective of every
single organisation at the minute is around
‘how do I attract and retain talent? How do I
inspire people to come to the o ice to make
those connections?’ Our data shows a direct
correlation between the level of experience
within the o ice to the level of engagement
with the company and that goes across the
board in terms of demographics.
“For the first time ever, we’re seeing
the correlation between experience and
engagement and engagement is the number
one metric that HR use to look at how they
can retain talent. With the FM experience
at the sharp end of that interface of the
employee with the workplace, it becomes
the critical driver for business performance.”
www.bco.org.uk/Conference
A lot of strategies focus on what can be done with a building to support
carbon reduction but we need to put the humanity element into ESG and
take a community engagement perspective, from growing your own food on campus,
sponsoring local restaurants and organising charity days. All of these aspects we will
see have much more emphasis in the built environment as we look to the future.”
/Conference
