Personalization

By: Jason Hall

As post-pandemic hybrid workplaces continue to trend, personalized, individually-owned spaces are going away almost entirely. But enabling personalized experiences while at work is more than important, it’s essential.

Before I started CGS, I worked for a big firm for nearly 10 years. One of the things I dreaded most during that time was annual (or bi-annual, or even more often) studio restructuring because it meant moving desks. There’s a comfort and familiarity around going to the same desk every day, seeing the same faces, overhearing the same phone calls, surrounded by the same stuff. In the realm of the workplace, my desk was owned by me. It signified my place and position within the organization. Moving to a new desk meant, at least temporarily, relinquishing that place and position, getting used to seeing new faces and overhearing different phone calls. For most people, myself included, change means stress. Fast forward 10 years and hybrid work environments have forced users to completely relinquish individually-owned spaces. In these environments, how do people define themselves?

According to “How Your Physical Surroundings Shape Your Worklife” (Harvard Business Review, April 11, 2023), our workplaces are more than a backdrop to our daily professional duties: “Workplaces are important because they both reflect and unwittingly shape our professional identities – who we were, who we are, and who we aspire to be as workers.” It is fundamentally human to find a place where we feel belonging, a place that’s personal. Even at work. So, giving up that personalized space, the space we’d created at work as a reflection of us as individuals, can be a stressor. At the very least, it can feel like working in a public library: great for heads-down, focused work but completely lacking the ability to personalize.

In a McKinsey & Company interview from April 2023, David Arena, JPMorgan Chase’s head of global real estate, describes “the moments that matter” in their new New York global headquarters. He describes big architectural moves and the small thoughtful gestures that make up a set of curated experiences for employees. One of the points he makes really resonates with me: “I think one of the things we’ve missed [in the past] … is that people want to be known. They want to be recognized… they want to have a personal experience when they come to work, and I think there’s a great opportunity to do that.”

So how do we do this? As workplace designers, how do we help people feel ownership when they don’t own their individual space? How can we encourage personalization when there aren’t any family photos or tchotchkes that identify the space to a specific person? Designers must respond by helping users own the way they use the space. And we do that by creating curated experiences and giving people choice in how they interact with the space and with each other. Policies and amenities must support these curated experiences. But, as David Arena reminds us, it’s personalized experiences that matter.