Predictions suggest by 2020 the global workforce will be dominated by Millennials (35%) and Generation X (35%), with Baby Boomers only making up 6%.
With this changing demographic what can business leaders do to attract, recruit and retain talent thereby supporting the future of UK businesses? Frasers Property has been focused on determining what people want, and building spaces and environments fit for the future.
Frasers Property purchased Chineham Park 18 months ago as part of a £1 billion portfolio of UK business parks, mainly in the South East. Now, the business is investing in the estate’s infrastructure and placemaking to ensure its resilience as a business destination in a rapidly changing world.
It’s adding an innovative 89,000 square feet office space designed specifically for the workforce of the future. The Maplewood development, due to open in August this year, will accommodate any size of business from 50 to 850 people.
Rupert Batho, Commercial Director at Frasers Property observes that “Businesses have woken up to the need to innovate in order to attract and retain the best new recruits.
“The workforce and working practices are changing and employees born since the mid-1980s are beginning to dominate. Millennials to Generation Z are ‘the new normal’. In order to flourish, the business of the future needs to attract talented people who were born into the digital age.”
A wealth of recent research indicates that this new generation of workers responds best to friendly, informal, energising surroundings, and finds working with the cloud as natural as breathing in the fresh air around them.
In fact, in the latest Millennial Survey from Deloitte, Generation Z respondents cited their desire to be part of ‘a positive workplace culture’ as the most important factor to them when considering working for an organisation, more important to them than financial rewards and benefits.
In the same study, Millennials suggested that employers offering more flexibility than they did three years ago are achieving greater profitability and providing work environments that are more stimulating, healthy and satisfying.
Rupert highlights that Frasers Property designs workspaces to attract and satisfy a diverse, digitally savvy talent pool. People who respond to flexible, sociable and creative working conditions.
“Our goal is to provide what modern employers need for their businesses and what employees expect from a workplace. Maplewood at Chineham Park is designed with all of this in mind. With a series of collaboration zones to encourage interaction amongst the 800 or so people that will work here, it is a fitting home for the workspace of the future and is perfectly equipped to deliver the freedom to flourish.
“In addition, we believe that the wider environments of the 90-acre park itself are equally important as a place where people can adopt a flexible, connected, inspiring workstyle. There’s a weekly running club, facilities to encourage cycling to work and a packed programme of events throughout the year ranging from a Summer festival and language classes to Pilates sessions to gardening workshops. Street food trucks regularly visit, and social media channels keep everybody connected, inspired and informed.
“We also aim to help manage the pressures of life at Chineham Park, offering an on-site nursery where parents can drop their children off before work, 20 acres of parkland where staff can take a woodland walk at lunchtime and an on-site gym offers over 60 fitness classes a week.”
Over three floors, Maplewood offers 89,000 square feet of flexible workspace and each floor is divisible from suites from 7,000 square feet within a floor plate of 29,000 square feet, capable of accommodating any size of workforces from 50 to 850 people.
Rupert concludes: “The way people work is rapidly changing, and Maplewood is a fitting home for the workspace of the future. This is a place where businesses can find the freedom to create a flexible, connected and inspiring environment.”
