By
Franco Faraudo- Editor Propmodo
Nov. 30, 2025
For most of its history, office engagement was a numbers game. If employees showed up, sat at their desks, and worked, engagement was considered strong. The office was built around this assumption. Buildings were designed to support productivity, and productivity was measured by presence. It was a simple calculus for an era when work and workplace were inseparable.
That model broke apart during the pandemic. Remote work proved that plenty of tasks could be done just as well from home. What companies struggled to replicate was the feeling of being together. They saw that the office still had a place, but the reasons people needed it had changed. “Commercial office has been challenging but for the first time in years there is excitement in the office,” said Adam Segal, Co-Founder and CEO of Cove, a commercial property management software company. The excitement comes from rediscovering what the office is uniquely good at.
Productivity, once the main metric of engagement, is no longer enough. People can be productive anywhere, which means the office must prove its value in other ways. The moments that matter most now are the ones that depend on being in the same room. Collaboration, training, creative work, and culture-building thrive when people share space. “I think we are moving away from productivity being the measure of engagement. It means that owners need to have a much more unique offering,” said Segal. Offices can’t just be places to work. They have to feel meaningful.
This shift is pushing companies to monitor new indicators of success. Employee satisfaction, talent attraction, and retention have become central because they show whether the office is supporting long-term stability and growth. These metrics track how people feel about coming in and whether the space helps them do the parts of their jobs that are hard to replicate remotely. “We see tenants taking a bigger view of engagement. How do you leverage the space?” Segal said. Companies are thinking about the office as an operational tool rather than a default requirement.
The implications for landlords are significant. For decades, leasing was transactional. A tenant needed square footage, signed a lease, and managed the space themselves. Now tenants are asking different questions before they sign. They want to know what the building offers beyond walls and windows. They want to understand how the space will help them attract employees who have options about where they work. The landlord’s job has expanded from providing real estate to providing an experience.
Some firms now treat their offices as front-facing environments. Instead of packing in desks, they design spaces that impress visiting clients or host important meetings. In these cases, visitor traffic becomes a key metric. The value of the office is tied to its ability to support relationships, not just daily work. For these companies, engagement is about how the space helps close deals or strengthen connections. A law firm that hosts depositions, a consulting company that runs client workshops, a financial services team that needs to project stability and expertise—all of these tenants measure the office by what happens when outsiders walk through the door.
Programming has become one of the strongest ways to spark this kind of engagement. Events, classes, pop-ups, and seasonal activations draw people into the building without the costs of building new amenities or overhauling existing ones. Programming creates energy quickly and can change the feel of a workplace almost overnight. A rooftop happy hour, a lunch-and-learn with an industry speaker, a fitness class in an underused conference room—these moments give employees reasons to come in that have nothing to do with their to-do lists.
The challenge is deciding who should manage it. “There is a gray area about what types of programming companies want and whether they want to do it themselves or have their building operators take the lead,” said Segal. That gray area is becoming a major point of differentiation for landlords. Some tenants want full control over their programming because it reflects their brand and values. Others lack the bandwidth to plan events and are grateful when the building provides a calendar of activities. The landlords who figure out how to serve both types of tenants will have an edge in a market where every lease is harder to win.
This dynamic also changes how buildings compete with each other. Two properties in the same submarket with similar specs can offer very different experiences depending on how they approach programming. A building that hosts monthly networking events, seasonal markets, and wellness programming may attract tenants who see the office as a culture-building tool. A building that offers nothing beyond clean lobbies and reliable elevators may struggle to keep up, even if its rent is lower.
As expectations evolve, tenants are turning to landlords not just for space but for guidance. They want help understanding how to use their office effectively and how to measure whether their approach is working. This pulls operators directly into company culture in a way the industry hasn’t seen before. “The role of the operator is blending into the culture of the companies like never before. Companies are asking their landlords what a successful engagement looks like and for help tracking it,” said Segal. Engagement is becoming a shared responsibility between owners and tenants.
This represents a fundamental change in the landlord-tenant relationship. Historically, that relationship was defined by the lease. The landlord maintained the building, the tenant paid rent, and the two parties interacted mainly when something broke or when it was time to renew. Now landlords are being asked to act more like partners. They’re expected to understand their tenants’ goals, provide data on how the space is being used, and offer programming that supports the tenant’s culture. For some operators, this is a natural extension of hospitality-driven property management. For others, it requires building entirely new capabilities.
The new definition of engagement reshapes how office buildings compete. It’s no longer enough to offer a well-located space with standard amenities. Landlords need to help tenants create purpose. They need to understand why employees come in and how the building can support moments that matter. The office is shifting from a neutral backdrop to an active participant in culture.
This shift brings the industry back to the same theme that resurfaced as companies began returning after the pandemic: value in the office comes from connection, not routine. The excitement that Segal described is rooted in this realization. Employees who have the freedom to work from anywhere will only commute when the destination offers something they can’t get at home. That something is other people—the chance to collaborate, to mentor, to be mentored, to feel part of something larger than a Slack channel.
For landlords, this means engagement is no longer a soft metric that sits outside the core business. It’s becoming central to how buildings retain tenants and justify rents. The properties that understand this shift and invest accordingly will be positioned to thrive. The ones that continue to treat engagement as someone else’s problem may find themselves with plenty of square footage and not enough demand to fill it.
Engagement used to mean showing up. Now it means creating experiences that remind people why being together still matters. The office isn’t disappearing, but its purpose is being rewritten. And the landlords who help write that new story will be the ones who succeed in the next era of commercial real estate.
By
Franco Faraudo
Editor, Propmodo
