Global workplace trends: A North American and European comparison

The following article reports the results of a global benchmarking/trend survey conducted among 127 senior level real estate and facilities executives from North America and Europe. The results reveal a collective five‐year vision for the workplace, exploring trends occurring in several key areas that impact space utilization and workplace design. Findings compare selected trends in North America with trends taking place in Europe. Areas examined include expected changes in the use of information technology, anticipated growth in new work styles such as telecommuting, collaboration and work‐at‐home, and the inevitable impact these will have on real estate and workplace design. The findings show that organizations expect work to become more collaborative (both ace‐to‐face and virtually), information technology ill enable growth in distributed working, and the workplace will be re‐designed to support collaboration rather than individual work activity. The research is followed by an interview with Marilyn Simeone, Vice President of Corporate Services for Merrill Lynch, who describes how the company is leveraging these directions of change to create more efficient, innovative workplaces in North America that meet the changing needs of employees as well as the company.