Space plays a critical role in shaping the culture, brand, and productivity of any company. The past 2–3 years have seen businesses compress into months digitization plans that they had envisioned would take far longer.
Our planning to redevelop PENN1 started before the pandemic, but our objectives didn’t change. How do you create a space that’s worth the commute? How do you get more out of less space? It’s a challenge because every stakeholder wants something different:
HR wants to attract and retain the best talent.
IT wants to simplify their operations while ensuring that the employee experience is protected.
RE wants to compress real estate holdings and make optimal use of space to save money.
Facilities wants to reduce utility costs and minimize labor needed to maintain space.
The sustainability office/department wants to drive corporate sustainability goals.
HR was most vocal about their needs. Employees who had been tied to one location can now work from anywhere, and that trend will persist. Results from Cisco’s Hybrid Work Index showed that almost 2/3 of employees say that technology has allowed them to work virtually with no loss of productivity. This drove our approach to PENN1—we had to make it purpose-built for hybrid work if we were going to attract and retain the best at Cisco.
We started our journey by surveying our stakeholders to determine their requirements. In the remaining sections, we share our journey and the steps we took.
