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This paper aims to establish if office occupiers, who adopt different work patterns, can be segmented based on differences of perceived productivity with regards to the physical environment and the behavioural environment.

Components of office productivity were used in an office productivity model with categorical data enabling a unique opportunity to undertake an analysis of office occupiers by work process type.

The four distinct evaluative components used were comfort, office layout, interaction and distraction. The components were subsequently used for more detailed statistical analysis. This study establishes that statistical differences exist between the work styles under investigation.

This research establishes that to truly appreciate office productivity there is a need to further understand the way that people work in offices and their specific requirements. The matching of office occupier need with space provision can only be achieved if the office occupier is involved in the creation of the office solution.

This study demonstrates that there is a need to consider how the office environment matches the work patterns of the office occupiers. This understanding of how the office works could be considered as establishing the office landscape or “officescape”.

The growth in flexible working by employees in many office‐based organisations means that workstation sharing at the employer's premises is increasingly attractive. However, because of peaks and troughs in demand it is difficult to decide how many workstations should be provided. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cost‐effectiveness of alternative workstation sharing strategies.

The study used an agent‐based simulation model with two input variables: the employees' reaction if they are blocked (i.e. they find that all workstations are already occupied), and the number of workstations at the employer's premises. The simulation was run for 56 scenarios. The results were evaluated by assigning cost penalties for workstations, blocking and displacement; there were eight cost regimes reflecting different organisational characteristics.

The simulations showed trade‐offs between the activity and space variables, in terms of utilisation, blocking and displacement. When costs were applied the output of the simulation runs, the most cost‐effective scenarios varied markedly with the different cost regimes.

The variation in optimum strategies with different model input values suggests that cost‐effective workstation sharing strategies must be developed on a case‐by‐case basis. The simplifying assumptions in the model must be considered when applying the findings to real organisations.

Quantified analysis of the cost‐effectiveness of workstation sharing strategies has not been found previously in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to propose talent management, in today's competitive marketplace, is critical in organizational success. Real estate organizations are now recognizing the value in attracting and retaining the best, brightest employees in order to achieve higher than average market share and elevated profiles. In the era of the knowledge worker, “talent” – narrowly defined as a core group of leaders, technical experts and other key contributors – are quickly becoming an organization's most important asset. As real estate companies continue to compete for the top tier talent, their strategies must become more integrated.

Based on review of existing literature and expert panel interviews, a framework for integrating talent management strategies focused on multiple generations.

There is clear evidence that innovative recruiting techniques must be geared to attracting the new generation of workers. Additional attention should be given to increasing employee engagement for Generation Y, while at the same time developing strategies focused on knowledge transfer and reverse mentoring.

In an effort to address the growing talent shortages in real estate, coupled with the exiting of retirement of workers, aggressive strategies must be adopted and the framework provides a holistic approach to achieving competitive market share while addressing critical talent issues.

This paper provides real estate practitioners with strategic systems and processes to attract and retain talent in an increasingly competitive market. Practical strategies are presented with a holistic framework.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the risk perceptions of persons responsible for business relocation.

The empirical material consists of interviews in companies that have considered relocation seriously or have recently relocated. The empirical material is augmented by a literature review.

The risk perceptions can be divided into five categories. These are: financial risks, functional risks, corporate culture risk, interest group risk and future risk.

When a company relocates, the stress and anxiety of the persons responsible for the process should be considered. Also, when doing relocation‐related business, reducing relocation risks should be considered when planning the business model and marketing.

This paper combines relocation literature in a multi‐disciplinary manner and adds empirical understanding of the phenomena in question.

The changes now being experienced in the workplace, driven by market pressures, changing demographics and new technologies, are real and accelerating. Since change remains the one constant when it comes to workplace planning, further transformations within the workplace over the next 20 or 30 years can be expected. Hence, this paper aims to demonstrate how to use a scenario planning futures approach in a changing, complex and uncertain workplace environment. As well as provoke thought and discussion about its long‐term future.

At the Futures Academy in Dublin Institute of Technology, a systematic methodology for exploring and shaping the future has been developed, called the “Prospective through scenario” process. Each stage of the process is discussed in detail throughout this paper, as well as how the process is applied in the Johnson Controls workplace of the future study.

The creative “futures studies” approach can deal effectively with change, uncertainty and complexity in the workplace environment, by allowing those concerned to think, plan and act proactively rather than reactively as well as provide effective facilities management and real estate strategies.

Real estate organisations need to take the long view, for the greatest risk of our time is being overtaken by inevitable surprises that could have been foreseen and for which we could have been prepared.

Discussion and debate about the future of the workplace is inevitable and futures tools and techniques can facilitate this process.

The purpose of the study to explain employees' “perception of change” from the socio‐psychological and behavioural point of view, and the consequences of this for the employee's ability to adopt new environments.

This study is implemented using a three phase‐longitudinal approach which was conducted over a one‐and‐a‐half‐year period in order to monitor the process of place attachment (and detachment), starting two months before the relocation and ending four months after relocation. Interpretative phenomenological analysis is used for analysis and interpretation of the qualitative data.

The relationship between physical environment and social and environmental psychology has been the central issue. In workplace change, while the attachments that no longer work for people are broken, there is a need to build new connections, which can support people through this transition.

There are pragmatic and strategic resource management implications arising from the study. Further study of affective relationships that all employees have with their workplace will aid in appropriately designing and managing facilities (services and programme).

The previous studies indicate that the existing literature lacks a unifying framework for understanding the relationship between people and places and the emotional significance of the physical environment for regulating the employees' work behaviours. Having exposed the inadequacy of workplace change management approaches in explaining and understanding the employees' resistance to change in their experience of the move process, considering place attachments in workplaces proposes a reappraisal of both employees' experience and evaluation of the move process. It provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the significance of employees' attachments to their workplace and offers guidance on managing workplace change from procurement, design to provision of workplaces.

The aim of this paper is to assess the needs of older knowledge workers with implications to the planning and design of office environments for this growing workplace demographic.

Exploratory, user‐centred research focused on the design of the work environment was undertaken with older knowledge workers in the UK headquarters of a global organisation. A multi‐disciplinary group of designers, architects and applied social researchers utilised an integrated method approach, including interviews, group discussions and design interventions in the workplace.

Matching the needs of older knowledge workers with the open plan office space, it is found that the workplace provides well for collaboration and teamwork activities, but fails to provide an adequate environment for tasks requiring concentration, ways of working that are alternative to the computer, and rest and recuperation.

The sample of the study is small and based on a “case study” of older workers in one large organisation, and does more to highlight questions and limits the certainty of generalisation. The study has intentionally chosen to limit its inquiry to the experience of older knowledge workers, and therefore can only assume that younger workers may have many of the same needs.

In the context of two major shifts within work, namely, the progressive aging workforce and the move towards a knowledge economy, the study tackles an urgent need to re‐evaluate current office workspace and suggests ways of accommodating it to the requirements of older knowledge workers.

The paper aims to identify and demonstrate the benefits of plants in offices in contributing to employee health and well‐being by applying the study to a working office.

Via comprehensive literature reviews, the paper identifies the importance of indoor plants in office environments, firstly through physically improving the air quality and removing pollutants and secondly in improving employee well‐being through psychological benefits.

It is argued that plants are important in removing indoor air pollutants and in increasing employee perceptions of well‐being. The paper identifies, through literature review, plants with the ability to remove common office pollutants. It shows that there is a general preference for plants in offices through a perception survey and that occupants of planted offices feel more comfortable, more productive, healthier and more creative and feel less pressure than occupants of non‐planted offices.

The empirical research presented was limited to one office building. Research is now continuing, with the survey currently being completed by occupants of various offices throughout the UK.

The paper argues that indoor plants should become an integral part of corporate real estate strategies and that they have potential to alleviate sick building syndrome symptoms.

This paper provides an insight into how plants can be incorporated within corporate real estate strategies to improve employee health and well‐being and improve perceived productivity. It brings together two separate strands of research into the benefits in physically improving air quality and the psychological benefits of plants to humans.

This paper aims to determine the extent to which employees’ experiences of acoustic comfort, well-being and productivity in open-plan offices are determined by specific characteristics (including demographic information, task characteristics, and personality traits).

A questionnaire was distributed to the occupants of three open-plan office sites and was completed by 166 employees in total.

The results indicated that acoustic comfort in open-plan offices is largely determined by noise sensitivity. Higher noise sensitivity was associated with more negative ratings of acoustical quality, more perceived disturbance by speech and more difficulties in concentration. More negative experiences were also reported by employees with lower interactivity with colleagues.

There is significant inter-individual variability in experiences of acoustic comfort, well-being and productivity in open-plan offices. As such, workplace practitioners should consider acoustic and behavioural solutions for introducing a greater diversity of functional workspaces within the office, so that employees can choose the most suitable working area for their requirements.

Whereas the majority of past acoustics research has been laboratory-based, this study is conducted in real office environments with a representative sample of knowledge workers.