Corgan’s Hybrid Report Recognized with Certificate of Research Excellence by Environmental Design Research Association
June 24 2024 - 10:30AM
Business Wire
Research conducted by global architecture and design firm Corgan
has received the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA)
Certificate of Research Excellence (CORE). Developed by
Corgan—Hugo, the firm’s research and innovation group, in
partnership with Corgan’s Workplace Strategies team, “The Hybrid
Report” has received CORE recognition, which EDRA awards to
rigorous and innovative practice-based environmental design
research studies. The Hybrid Report outlines decision-making
drivers, key pain points and preferences, and design elements that
shape the employee experience.
The Environmental Design Research Association is an
international organization with members who are design
professionals, social scientists, students, educators, and facility
managers. Applications to EDRA CORE undergo a rigorous,
double-blind review by an interdisciplinary panel of experts.
Hybrid Report authors are Melissa Hoelting Assistant Director of
Hugo; Mahdi Afkhami, Design Researcher, Environmental Design;
Samantha Flores, Director- Hugo; and Emily Strain, Director of
Workplace Strategy. The CORE award was presented at the EDRA55
Portland conference June 19-22.
“We are honored that our work has received this esteemed
recognition by EDRA,” said Melissa Hoelting, Assistant Director of
Hugo. “The Hybrid Report aimed to identify actionable insights for
policy and design, and it is currently being used to advise
Corgan’s clients across industries and company size. We look
forward to seeing its immediate and long-term impact on company
culture and performance.”
The Hybrid Report
Methodology
Corgan—Hugo conducted 45 in-depth interviews with U.S. leaders
working in industries with hybrid work environments. Executive
leaders, managers, and HR professionals were identified and
interviewed through a third-party platform, producing more than 40
hours of recorded anecdotal data and key leadership insights.
To identify workforce insights, Corgan—Hugo conducted a
third-party survey of 1,000 full-time, corporate hybrid workers.
The survey targeted workers born between 1965-1980 (Gen X),
1981-1996 (Millennials), or after 1996 (Gen Z).
Key findings of The Hybrid Report’s survey of hybrid workers
include:
- Flexibility is a term that means different things to different
people in a variety of circumstances. For hybrid workers, flexible
time is just as important as flexible location. Personal
preferences are driving decision-making overall — for policy but
also spatial design and environmental affordances. Flexibility
accommodates the diverse needs and preferences of hybrid workers
for focus work and respite.
- The office is not currently productive - and the hybrid
workforce wants and needs it to be. 76% feel more motivated working
in a group or seeing others around them being productive. However,
73% feel most individually productive when they work from home or
another location outside of the office.
- Hybrid workers who joined their company prior to the COVID-19
pandemic tend to have a longer tenure, highlighting the importance
of in-person interaction during the initial stages of joining a
company. However, establishing oneself within a company is not
solely dependent on the length of time spent there. It revolves
around building relationships with colleagues, becoming part of the
company culture, and building familiarity with resources, all of
which hybrid workers consider important to occur in the built
environment.
Key findings of The Hybrid Report’s interviews with leaders
include:
- Many company leaders feel key drivers for coming into the
office are collaboration, motivation, passive mentorship,
relationship, culture building, and productivity.
- Metrics for success are changing and measuring overall
productivity is becoming more indicative of that success than
simply in-office occupancy. Performance is being measured by the
ability to complete work and the office can better support this.
Employees prefer the ability to be collaborative and
connected.
- Teams need privacy and space to work openly together without
bothering others, while also having access to the necessary
environmental qualities for individual focus.
“At the core of what I believe about the workplace is that it is
a tool—one that organizations can deploy to achieve business
goals,” said Lindsay Wilson, President and Interiors Sector Leader
at Corgan. “We didn’t set out to debate the future of flexible work
or hybrid work policies but to understand what makes the workplace
work for people.”
In this episode of the firm’s podcast, The Square, Emily Strain
and Melissa Hoelting discuss how design impacts how we work.
Explore more Corgan research insights at News & Insights |
Corgan.
Additionally, Corgan presented studies that align with this
year’s EDRA55 conference theme of Human-Centric Environments:
- Enhancing Traveler Experiences: Using Data-Driven Customer
Journey Maps to Inform Airport Design - by Melissa Hoelting,
Assistant Director of Corgan—Hugo
- Targeting Urban Heat Island Mitigation Based on Neighborhood
and Socio-Economic Data – by Mahdi Afkhami and Kevin Sloan, Design
Researchers, Environmental Design at Corgan—Hugo
- Supporting Attention through Design: Examining How Library
Design Can Influence Attention Restoration – by Eva Neri, Interior
Design Project Coordinator
ABOUT CORGAN
Corgan is an employee-owned architecture and design firm with 18
locations and nearly 1,000 team members globally. The firm, ranked
as the #4 architecture firm by Building Design + Construction,
works with clients in a variety of sectors including aviation &
mobility, data centers, education, health, mixed-use, multifamily,
office, and workplace. Founded in 1938, Corgan has developed a
strong reputation for agility in design by anticipating marketplace
changes and leading clients to thoughtful, data-driven design
solutions. Its research insights and design expertise empower the
organization to foresee emerging changes and develop solutions that
minimize risk, create flexibility, and maximize longevity. To learn
more about Corgan, visit www.corgan.com.
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