# Assessing Employee Engagement in a Post-COVID-19 Workplace Ecosystem
## 2 Theoretical Background
### Defining the Post-COVID-19 'Workplace'  
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a shift towards more mobile-oriented forms of work supported by the newest technology advances. The acceleration of 'work (from) anywhere' was reported in 2020 by global real estate agencies worldwide, and remote work is expected to continue in the future. These new considerations contribute to a different understanding of the 'workplace' and, therefore, growing demand for new definitions. The certification schemes for setting standards that have been traditionally used by the real estate sector (e.g., WELL; BREEAM; and LEED) are focused on the traditional office workplace environment. The acceleration of new workplace cultures within the wider urban environment, post-COVID-19, can help to redefine the 'workplace' and shift the metrics used to measure employee engagement alongside different workplace considerations. Consequently, there is a need for a new typology of space that is relevant to industry visions of future workplace scenarios, against the long tendency to link workplace design with employee performance within the traditional office [75; 76]. For example, a new approach for the workplace ecosystem already has been proposed by IPUT/ARUP. The global research report 'Making Place: The Recalcibration of Work, Life, and Place' [19] introduces 'workplacemaking', understood as a concept between traditional workplace design and public realm placemaking. According to this approach, digitalisation has blurred physical boundaries that have resulted in greater consideration of the quality of public and semi-public urban realm 'between the office and the home'. In this context, the meaning of 'working from the office and the home' is understood more broadly than the traditional considerations of office and home design. That is, there has been a shift of industry focus from the building to the neighbourhood/city-scale where it concerns 'workplacemaking', including third places open to the public (e.g., the coffee shop and the library). A second report, 'The Future of Workplace: How will COVID-19 and data shape the new workplace ecosystem?' by Cushman & Wakefield [20], presents the concept of 'total workplace ecosystem'. Again, the 'workplace' is not defined as a single building or destination, but rather as a network of virtual and physical places, spread between digitally connected homes, offices, and third places (e.g., the cafe or library). The projected ecosystem aims to provide flexible and on-demand places to support convenience, functionality, and well-being. According to this approach, the workplace can be chosen by an individual employee based on current needs, preferences, workload, job character, etc. The concept is  
Figure 1: The academic approach for employee engagement. illustrated as a city-wide network of spaces, including (1) the home, (2) local community hubs, (3) on-demand event spaces, (4) third places, and (5) core office urban hubs. A third example is the report 'Real Estate Strategy Asset: 8 Core Truths Guiding the Future of Work' released by CBRE [21]. The authors propose the 'hybrid workforce network' model. The concept emphasises the fluidity in work styles (accelerated by the pandemic), which may potentially impact the future of work and associated corporate real estate strategies. According to this model, the future workplace will reflect the distributed workforce needs, and therefore will be spread among a network of headquarters in urban-core locations and a network of other locations (satellite office networks, homes, project offices, meeting on-demand, flexible spaces, and gyms/cafes). The high-density urban-core locations will be used part-time to facilitate social interactions, and a network of other locations (e.g., satellite offices) will be used to conduct the work closer to home. The 'hybrid workforce network' model aims to decrease both commute times and feelings of isolation associated with remote work, allowing a fluid virtual workplace.