Trends in Corporate: Today’s workplaces offer a place to belong - January 2025
By Jessica Chevalier
The corporate workplace, the largest sector in the commercial market, is continuing its transformation. Today, different workplaces employ a variety of different work styles-some satellite, others hybrid and other in-office full-time-but all share the goal of offering spaces that support their employees’ sense of belonging and facilitate worker collaboration across their varied locations.
Key to both those strategies is an office space that offers appeal. Now that corporate workers have experienced work-from-home, the workplace can no longer be a humdrum box within a box-in appearance or in energy-with a static, single-use space for each individual worker. Like the workers within them, the workspace must flex, and the flooring specified for these spaces must seamlessly reinforce this flexing while also supporting acoustics, ease of cleanability, wayfinding and the design strategy of the space.
EVERYTHING GOES
There are many good reasons for having employees come together in a physical space, with collaboration and mentorship two factors at the top of the list. But the fact is that the corporate world has now seen that a good amount of work can be done remotely without diminishment of quality, and many workers prefer the flexibility of remote or hybrid work.
While word on the street is that all executives are itching to get their teams back under one roof, data doesn’t support that assertion. “[A]n estimated 68% of U.S. employers offer some form of work location flexibility,” reported Forbes in December 2024. “Only one third of companies require full-time in-office presence. The positive news is that despite headliners within the past few months about companies mandating return to the office, overall, the number has flattened out over the past couple quarters.”
Indeed, the evolving nature of corporate work is a topic many Americans have a personal stake in and, therefore, a discussion they are tuning into. “It is a fascinating time,” says Debra Breslow, principal with Meyer. “I have been in the industry for many years and never before has the workplace been such a topic of conversation in the general population. There is now a true recognition that design really is a powerful tool for shaping workplace culture and creating spaces that encourage interaction and community among staff.”
Currently, Breslow sees many corporations settling at three days a week in the office and two remote, and this is not only because workers prefers the flexibility, but also because it offers a great deal of financial benefit to corporations.
“Companies have realized significant savings by consolidating,” she explains. “They will reevaluate it if business isn’t going well. But why would they when it is? Virtual work has saved organizations millions. In addition, they can be more agile and selective in where they want to open offices. They can open smaller offices in strategic places. There is a big trend toward micro-offices for those who are just popping in for the day and doing a Zoom call, for instance. This helps reduce the needed footprint.” She adds that, in addition, prior to the onset of more flexible work, many parents were struggling mightily with childcare, and offering more malleability facilitates retention of these workers.
Breslow has come to believe that employees have a certain level of expectation from the office today. “You have to have terrific coffee, not just a Nespresso machine anymore but on-tap nitro, kombucha,” she notes.
In addition, she says that she is seeing the return of fitness centers with good rubber flooring and has one current client requesting a pickleball court on campus. In addition, wellness, prayer and lactation rooms are all standard spaces in the corporate workplace today.
Also, space for employees to come together and socialize remains important. “One consistent is that there is more investment in communal spaces,” adds Cochrane.
All of this, of course, is a shiny lure so that workers don’t “have” to go to the office but “get” to go to the office because the alternative-a half-empty office where no one wants to be-is highly depressing and demotivational. “No one wants to go to a ghost campus,” says Breslow.
FIT FOR USE
“Covid made us reconsider what the office is, what’s meaningful about it,” says Jonas Gabbai, design director and senior associate at Gensler New York. “We have to make a compelling case to bring people back to the office. We know now that people can work from home, and we know the benefits of bringing them back-culture building, acceleration of careers due to increased visibility. Today, we are trying to create more experience around design. It isn’t necessarily a different approach than we took pre-Covid, but it accelerated what we were doing before.”
He continues, “The foundation of good workplace design is giving people the right amount of choice in how they work. People don’t want to be in front of a computer all day. They want to have the choice to change spaces, to work alone-together in a café setting, to escape a desk altogether, to go into phone room for alone time, so it’s important to have these amenities embedded in the design, to create a less monotonous work atmosphere and build variety into a design.”
Choice around space provides workers a degree of control in their workspace, something they became accustomed to having during the work-from-home period when they could move from one room to another on a whim or adjust the lighting and temperature according to their needs. Key to knowing what kind of choice will work for the employees of an organization is gaining a keen understanding of the organization and its people.
“Every organization is different, and good workplace design fits the needs and function of the business and its people,” says Steven South, design director for Spector Group. “Our job is to find out what the team needs to do their best work and be successful.”
South points out that this is an ongoing process, as each corporation’s employees and culture are ever-changing, not to mention the different approaches of new generations entering the workplace.
In addition, certain types of work demand different settings than others. Legal departments, for instance, won’t move into open office settings because that work is confidential, private and secure, while marketing work is more collaborative and, therefore, generates demand for more communal workspaces.
“Workplaces need a mix of spaces. It’s about creating a multitude of space types for different types of work,” says South. “At home, workers had more choice, and they want that in the office.”
“The foundation of any good design [workplace or otherwise] considers the experience it will offer,” says Kate Cochrane, associate interior designer at Gensler San Francisco. “It’s important to consider how people will be interacting with the space and prioritize the fact that everyone works differently, so providing choice is key. Some may need quiet, soft-lit spaces, while others may work best in a bustling coffee-shop-type atmosphere. Inclusive design is good design. “
EQUITABLE SPACE
“We have obviously moved toward the open-plan environment, bringing people out of offices or moving offices off the perimeter,” says Gabbai. “With glass walls, everyone gets daylight. There is transparency-the ability to see people, making sure leadership and non-leadership have visual connection and opportunity to meet, an environment that feels more democratic. When we take a client out of a cellular space and into the open plan, how they dress and interact changes. This helps transform a workplace.”
According to interviewees, equitability between those in-office and remote has become an important element of space design. No matter where an employee is, they should have the same quality of experience in a meeting.
“Gone are the days of assigned desks, and in its place, there are now a range of workpoints for people to choose how they work best,” adds Cochrane. “Also, there is a greater emphasis on conference room designs that create an equitable experience for those not in person. A lot of this is accomplished with technology. Meeting areas are equipped with multiple dynamic camera set-ups that turn meetings into a cinematic experience.”
This also rings true across a corporation’s physical campus-no matter what workpoint an employee chooses, they must have access to the same technology to make transitions seamless.
As standard floor-to-ceiling walls have ebbed out, there remains a need to create division, and Cochrane explains that means a greater reliance on “furnitecture” to create more nooks and private spaces. “This allows people to benefit from the buzzy effects of the office without feeling exposed,” she notes.
Underpinning all of this is a growing understanding of neurodiversity and the differing needs of various styles of learning, thinking and understanding. “The buzz right now is really about belonging,” says Breslow. “We worked on our brand tagline for Meyer-‘Creating spaces for people to be and belong’-and belonging is tied into neurodiversity. We want spaces that support various needs and abilities-everything from focus spaces for heads-down work to collaboration spaces, supporting both the introvert and the extrovert. Designers need to consider using calming colors and textures for support of people with sensory issues, to reduce glare and minimize patterns. In addition, spaces should be both functional and inspirational. We hear a lot about loneliness these days and anxiety and depression, so collaboration is important.”
Mentorship is an important element of corporate work culture that tends to struggle in remote work scenarios, as much of the best mentorship takes place organically in a workplace setting. And for some corporations, that is a driver in bringing workers back. “In the workplace today, we have a generation of workers who are more senior and have paid their dues and those coming in who need to learn from that more senior generation,” says South. “Work-from-home doesn’t address that. Workplaces can facilitate mentorship through design and policy. Senior workers need to be in the office so younger workers can connect with them. And we need to provide spaces to support that connection.”
CORPORATE FLOORCOVERING MUST WORK
As walls came down in the workplace, the expanse of the floor became more visible and floorcovering’s role in wayfinding, aesthetics and acoustic mitigation expanded.
Today, one of floorcovering’s most important roles is helping to “create moments that matter,” according to Breslow. “In that, the correct specification is paramount.”
On the hunt for the correct specification, Breslow believes the flooring industry plays an important role. “It’s critical and important for manufacturers to let designers know how and how not to use a product,” she says. Just like other corporate employees, designers today are working from all kinds of places-not necessarily from their office with its material library. And many are using Material Bank for sampling rather than going directly to the manufacturer’s website. When questions arise-Is a ceramic tile better suited for indoor or outdoor use? What acoustic backing would be appropriate for a particular space?-finding those answers can make or break a specification.
Key to this is the relationship between the designer and the manufacturer reps, who Breslow believes are crucial to educating designers on what products are suitable for what locations. If the rep-designer relationship is a strong and longstanding one, the designer will be more confident in their specifications, and the manufacturer will, in turn, win specs.
Breslow also notes that crucial to the contemporary design process is that flooring specs are compatible with Revit, which most designers use, or other familiar visualization tools. Making the designers’ job easier is an effort that all manufacturers should be working toward, as it leads to better outcomes for all parties.
Ultimately, she says, “Nothing beats a physical sample. I know it’s challenging and not environmentally conscious, but physical samples are key.”
How a designer chooses the exact right specification for a specific job is no simple task and is certainly not linear, says Gabbai, adding, “It’s always part of a bigger objective spatially. We move from space-making to 3D and then translate that to the surfaces. Flooring is one of the first big items that we think about because it is a big surface. We have to determine if it’s a whisper or a focal point/feature.”
Regardless of whether it whispers or yells, “floors set the tone or mood of the space-everyone traverses over it,” says Cochrane.
Due to the fact that some corporations today are downsizing their square footage to accommodate smaller in-office teams, a space can no longer, in many circumstances, serve a single use, so the specified flooring must support the transitions taking place atop it. A space that serves as a café regularly may transform into a town hall area as needed. In these cases, the furniture and flooring must be a pairing that facilitates movement without creating damage.
In addition, the increase in virtual meetings has increased the need for sound mitigation. When everyone was in the office full-time, a ten-person meeting likely took place in a meeting room, but today, many workers are participating in group meetings digitally, which creates more commotion for those in their immediate vicinity.
This can be highly disruptive to particular types of thinkers, so flooring, furniture and ceiling treatments must work together to a supportive acoustic environment. “It could be a chair with higher sides or a booth that comes over you,” says Breslow. “These help absorb sound and help those with privacy needs. Designing for neurodivergences is just good design.”
CULTURE
“Clients during the pandemic realized the loss of culture and are responding to that,” says Gabbai. “Many want to bring people back, and there is a drive to create culture to support employee retention; that’s a good design of a good culture.”
Corporations like tech firms may have a more in-your-face approach to culture, and that represents who they are trying to attract and what they are building on. For a financial or law firm, the aesthetic and approach will be different, but it is still responding to the aspiration for what they want their culture to be.
Breslow adds that this approach includes extra attention to cafés, gaming areas and lunching areas. The gaming areas might include shuffleboard or Ping-Pong. There might be a space for video games or quiet areas with puzzles. “It gives workers the opportunity to connect in their own way,” she says.
“Office design is really about making the brand more present, not just for clients but for employees, too,” says South. “It’s about creating a good employee experience. In the early 2000s, Yahoo told its employees they could work from home, and then a decade ago, the new CEO decided to bring everyone back to the office. To elevate the importance of the office, tech companies began adding amenities. In the end, they want workers to ask, ‘Why leave the office?’”
HOSPITALITY-INSPIRED
Another of the big trends driving office design is hospitality. Now that workers have had a true work-from-home experience, they aren’t as keen on a workplace taking cues from residential. It’s something of a been-there-done-that situation. If workers are going to come into the office, they want to be rewarded with an elevated experience. “Workers want the office to be more of a destination,” says South. “People don’t want corporate feeling, and they don’t want resimercial. Younger generations with discretionary income spend more on travel than goods, and they want to bring those experiences back to the office with them.”
He continues, “I was recently in a design meeting with a CEO. He brought in pictures of a great restaurant with a ceiling that he loves. We used that as inspiration.”
Adds Cochrane, “Nearly every workplace project has a hospitality designer on its team weighing in the experience of its communal spaces.”
FLOORING’S FORTE
As some organizations are planning a return to workplace, some are looking at it in terms of neighborhoods. In these cases, flooring is often used to assist with wayfinding and placemaking. For example, the marketing department might have an assigned area designated with a particular carpet tile, while the finance area has another signature carpet tile design.
Due to the influence of biophilia, wood looks-real or imitative-are popular choices. A wood-look LVT used in the main reception may make its way back into the workplace along the main corridors-the choice between the two products is often one of budget. Conference areas often use carpet tile to help with sound mitigation. Breslow is fond of carpet tile from Interface and Bentley Mills and often opts for Shaw Contract LVT.
“Often, corporations are getting rid of reception and opting for pantry or public areas with wood flooring or concrete,” says Breslow. “Warmth is coming back.”
Noting that she often uses carpet tile to bring fun and branding into support rooms, she adds, “In the corporate world, brand colors change, so we will put more color on walls because you can easily re-paint if needed. We might pop in color in smaller areas like phone rooms but not so much in big areas. In flooring, we stick to more neutral warm tones.”
The cleanability of the floor is also a big concern, especially in food areas. Even if they don’t say anything, workers pay attention to cleanliness and want to see finish materials that can be and are cleaned regularly.
BIOPHILIA: GOING GREEN
“There was a moment when I started out in design when we would shun the idea of having a surface that workers could put plants on,” recalls Gabbia. “We now realize that’s a good thing. People are happier around greenery. There are psychological benefits. And we try to incorporate that in a way that feels integrated-not just green-something on a wall, not just decorative, but incorporated thoughtfully, a connection to the design.”
Indeed, Cochrane points out that plants are no longer a nice-to-have, noting, “Universally, companies are now making a greater investment in plants. This is a change in behavior. Pre-pandemic, plants were a line item that was often cut; now, having plants is non-negotiable.”
Designer reports that even if clients aren’t seeking certification from LEED or Well, they still want to know that their space is being designed according to biophilic principles to benefit all the stakeholders utilizing the space.
Indeed, Cochrane’s “want” from the flooring industry is “carbon negative everything,” more transparency around carbon credits and more reclaimed options.
RENOVATION VERSUS NEW CONSTRUCTION
Perhaps the most interesting trend with regard to activity within the corporate sector is that many companies are in a wait-and-see mode, staying in place until they determine what amount of space they will need going forward. For some, this might mean a lease extension and a facelift. “It’s an interesting challenge,” says Gabbai. “I like to think about lease term before we put pen to paper. If a company will be in space for five years or 20 years, that is a very different approach. There is a different value in how you spend dollars. Often, we are doing a facelift for a time.”
“The spaces that have done really well are the new buildings, because they are up to modern standards,” says South.
Cochran’s current projects are all new construction. “I’m not sure if that is representative of the market, but people are rethinking ‘what amenities are’ for their employees,” the designer notes. “It used to be snacks; now it about the experience.”
It seems like only a few years ago that polished concrete, the bane of the floorcovering manufacturer, was not just an appealing facelift to an existing product but the floor of choice for corporate workplaces. Flooring manufacturers loudly declared the floor’s deficits-poor acoustics, cold and hard underfoot, industrial, expensive, breaking anything and everything that fell upon it-but the cool factor trumped those facts.
Today, the concrete approach has changed to some degree, explains Cochrane. “If it’s there, use it…it’s durable and functions well, but no one is adding it anymore,” she says. “It’s less about the look and more about the sustainability factor. Concrete is a big carbon contributor. Also, it’s not quite as popular from a materiality standpoint. Many companies are seeking softer materials that provide a warmer experience.”
Copyright 2025 Floor Focus
Related Topics:Shaw Industries Group, Inc., Interface