An Asia-based global bank was at a crossroads. The organisation was a post-pandemic early adopter of mass hybrid working and was reducing their real estate footprint to meet the new reduced office demand but did not want to compromise on employee experience. Yet the bank’s headcount was growing in some regions, so a broad-brush approach would undoubtedly compromise the success of this initiative.

With major capital projects on the horizon, they wanted to take a more strategic, data-driven approach to their real estate decisions, so they brought us in to help. How could they optimise office design to align with evolving employee needs while ensuring their investments delivered the best possible workplace experience?

To provide clarity, we conducted a focused analysis on two key projects – one in the US and one in the UK. Our approach combined workplace experience insights with operational data to ensure every decision was evidence-based.

• Persona analysis using Leesman data to understand how different employee groups used the office and what they needed from their workplace
• Floor plan reviews to assess whether existing layouts aligned with employee behaviours and work styles
• Identification of design gaps, including potential overcrowding risks and areas where the office setup could better support collaboration, focus, and wellbeing

Through this deep dive we uncovered critical insights: while downsizing might have seemed like an effective cost-saving measure in one location, when we compared the persona data and proposed floorplan with the projected headcount growth in that region, we realised the current path would severely compromise employee experience in ways that would negatively impact productivity and overall satisfaction, so we immediately raised this concern with the senior stakeholder at the client. In the other location, however, our analysis found that the client could indeed reduce their footprint given hybrid patterns and business projections for that region.

Armed with these insights, the bank course-corrected their plans for these two capital projects to better support their employees’ work needs:

• An additional floor was secured in one of the two locations to enhance workspace quality and prevent overcrowding
• A potential office reduction was avoided, preventing a scenario where employees would have been left with inadequate space to work effectively
• Office designs were refined in both cases to ensure the layouts matched how the employees in either space actually work rather than relying on outdated assumptions

By using data to drive decision-making, the bank ensured that their capital investments weren’t just financially sound but also created workplaces that truly supported their employees to do their best work, both now and in the future.