"To think about the office of the future, you have to think about the future of the city".
Marc Lhermitte, a partner at EY, has been observing the attractiveness of Europe's major cities for over twenty years. In his view, Paris and London are way ahead of the game... but Southern Europe and Berlin are managing to differentiate themselves in order to attract people.
You're a specialist in attractiveness: what sets Paris, London, Berlin and Madrid apart?
In fact, these four cities are not quite in the same league. London and Paris are considered to be 'world cities', which is reflected in the establishment of head offices, a segment that has been dominated by the British for the past twenty-five years. With the Brexit and France's improved attractiveness and competitiveness, Paris has made great strides, much more so than Berlin and Madrid. At a time when many companies are questioning their use of office space, we are seeing other 'challengers' emerge, such as Amsterdam, Brussels and Dublin, which have succeeded in attracting head office functions, particularly in technology, healthcare and services.
What are these cities banking on?
While London, aided by the British tax system, is 'engineered' to attract head offices and high-income executives, Berlin, in addition to being the capital of the European Union's largest economy, is a metropolis with a multicultural dimension. This is a major asset that attracts many companies... including EY. Its characteristics in terms of urban innovation and its environmental sensitivity are perfectly aligned with the ESG ambitions of companies. We also note that the major cities in the southern arc of Europe are currently attracting investment, seduced by the rebound in post-Covid growth rates and large employment pools. Athens and Lisbon, for example, are currently attracting a lot of users.
What impact does the use of teleworking have on the attractiveness of companies?
Let's take EY as an example. In Paris, we are absolutely committed to the hybridisation of work because our businesses lend themselves to it and we are gradually adapting to it. Among our clients, hybridisation is taking place to very different degrees and in very different forms, depending on the sector, the business and the generation. But the office is still a social place, and it needs to renew this social contract and back it up with a territorial contract. At EY, for example, the average age is 29. We do our utmost to make office work attractive, through innovation, exchange and training. But we also encourage decompression breaks and extra-professional activities. We also pay close attention to the city and region in which we operate. We get involved with local authorities, and alongside other companies, to put forward perspectives and suggestions on what the city should be for our teams, in terms of mobility, diversity and attractiveness.
