Office Refurbishment: How to Align Real Estate Strategy and HR Vision

In a context of generalized remote work, evolving employee expectations, ecological transition, and growing economic pressures, office refurbishment can no longer be a purely technical or aesthetic project. It must become a strategic project, at the intersection of two often siloed visions: that of corporate real estate, and that of human resources.

But how to ensure that these two logics — sometimes distant in their temporality, priorities, or indicators — converge toward a common objective? How to transform the workspace into a lever for performance, attractiveness, and sustainable engagement?

Two visions, one common challenge: collective performance

The real estate department seeks to optimize surfaces, rationalize costs, reduce carbon footprint, improve square meter efficiency, and adapt the real estate portfolio to real usage and long-term ambitions.

HR, for its part, aims to attract and retain talent, strengthen engagement, develop quality of life at work, and support new modes of collaboration, autonomy, or leadership.

These two visions, although different, share a fundamental objective: design work environments that support company performance, in a sustainable, human, and evolutive framework.

A well-designed refurbishment project thus becomes a strategic convergence point: a catalyst for evolving work modes, supporting cultural transformations, and strengthening the link between employees and their company.

Step 1: Start with a clear intention, shared by all stakeholders

A good refurbishment doesn't start with an architect's plan or budget estimate, but with a strong and shared strategic intention. This initial framing allows establishing solid and aligned foundations between different stakeholders.

It's about collectively answering simple but structuring questions:

What is our vision of work for the coming years (on-site, hybrid, extended remote work)?

What role do we want to give to the office in this organization?

What cultural, managerial, or organizational transformations do we want to favor through space?

What current irritants do we want to resolve? What aspirations do we want to satisfy?

This framing work cannot be done unilaterally. It must be co-constructed between the real estate team, HR, general management, and business unit representatives. It's this shared vision that will then guide spatial and technical choices in a coherent and legitimate manner.

Step 2: Translate HR vision into space

Once the intention is shared, the challenge is to make space speak. Because offices aren't neutral: they translate intentions, induce behaviors, symbolize values.

The fitout must embody HR priorities concretely:

Flexibility and autonomy: setting up modular spaces, zones without fixed assignment (flex office), freely accessible rooms, corners for working solo or in groups.

Well-being and attractiveness: acoustic comfort, natural light, sustainable materials, rest zones, vegetated ambiance, inspiring design.

Inclusion and diversity: spaces accessible to people with disabilities, varied in their atmospheres and uses, to adapt to different profiles and work rhythms.

Collaboration and cross-functionality: creating internal third places, informal spaces, or shared project zones, to favor meetings, team synergies, and innovation.

The office thus becomes a full-fledged managerial tool, serving desired behaviors and postures. It supports hybrid work, facilitates spontaneous exchanges, allows easily switching from concentration time to sharing time.

Step 3: Involve employees for better adoption

A fitout project — even well-intentioned — can fail if it's perceived as top-down or disconnected from field realities. For the space change to be accepted, even desired, it's essential to associate future users from the first steps.

Involvement levers to activate:

Co-design workshops bringing together employees from different teams and hierarchical levels, to collect their needs, usage, ideas, and irritants.

Questionnaires or internal barometers, allowing broader and anonymous expression.

Pilot groups, who experiment with certain spaces before global deployment, and serve as change relays.

Transparent and continuous communication, on objectives, schedule, choices.

Training on new uses, to support skill development (space booking, work time hybridization, autonomy, etc.).

Integrate a tool like Stackfit for co-design

An interactive stacking tool like Stackfit can play a key role in this phase. By allowing HR, real estate, and business teams to visualize in real-time team distributions, flows, possible implantation scenarios, Stackfit makes the project concrete and understandable for all.

During workshops, it becomes a powerful collaborative support, allowing experimenting with different fitouts, testing the impact of certain choices, and collectively making informed decisions. Far from a simple planning tool, Stackfit promotes alignment between company strategy and spatial fitout, while strengthening team adoption.

Step 4: Measure impact on both real estate and human levels

Project success isn't judged solely by furniture quality or surface reduction. It's also measured in real usage, perceptions, and behavior evolutions.

Indicators to follow must cross two dimensions:

Real estate side:

Real space occupancy rate

Average density per zone

Evolution of used surfaces

Rent or maintenance savings

HR side:

Employee satisfaction with new spaces

Voluntary presence rate at the office (outside obligations)

Perceived space quality: concentration, collaboration, relaxation

Engagement level, sense of belonging

Impact on team dynamics, cross-functional relationships

Setting up an integrated dashboard HR + real estate allows tracking project effects over time, adjusting if needed, and demonstrating tangible benefits — including for top management.

And after? Refurbishment as a continuous approach

A good refurbishment isn't a one-time project: it's the beginning of an evolutive dynamic. Usage changes, teams move, expectations evolve. The work environment must be able to adapt continuously.

This requires:

A culture of regular usage evaluation

Agile real estate governance, open to feedback

Ability to iterate and adjust over time (light reconfiguration, new furniture, new services...)

Conclusion: think of offices as an HR policy

In a rapidly changing work world, the office is no longer a simple container. It becomes a strategic vector, a cultural revealer, a lever for organizational transformation.

To make it an effective tool, it's essential to get out of the real estate silo and conceive each fitout project as a full-fledged HR action — on the same level as a training plan, leadership program, or onboarding strategy.

When real estate strategy and HR vision advance hand in hand, spaces gain meaning, employees gain engagement, and the company gains sustainable performance.