A recap of the SHRI x Knight Frank workshop (9 April 2026)
SHRI partnered with Knight Frank to host the first Reframing the Workplace as a Strategic HR Imperative. An intimate, hands-on workshop held at Knight Frank’s office at Ocean Financial Centre, Singapore. With attendees drawn from across industries, the half-day session brought together professionals for a focused afternoon of expert presentations, candid discussion, a live office tour, and a practical space planning exercise.
Henry Satyadi and Calvin Yeo from Knight Frank opened the workshop, presenting their provocation that organisations are solving the wrong problem.
Rather than asking how to get staff back into the office, the more productive question is what the office should make possible that no other environment can. In a hybrid world, the office has not become less relevant, it has become more purposeful. It now serves as the primary site for organisational identity, culture transmission, peer learning, and the kind of complex, interdependent collaboration that remote work struggles to replicate.
Mapping the Workplace to HR Priorities
Arlene Lim, our Corporate Consultant, also shared on mapping the workplace to HR priorities drew on a clear framework, making the case that HR sits at the intersection of three critical layers: policy (what people should do), design (what people can do), and social norms (what people actually do). No other function occupies all three simultaneously.
The session challenged attendees to audit their own spaces through a behavioural lens. Not asking what the office looks like, but what behaviours it makes easy, and which priorities it unintentionally undermines.
From Office to Workplace
Knight Frank’s session on human-centric design reinforced that the shift from “office” to “workplace” begins before interior design. It starts with defining purpose, identifying the behaviours an organisation wants to prioritise, and ensuring the physical environment makes those behaviours the path of least resistance.
A live tour of Knight Frank’s own activity-based workplace, organised around the principles of Collaborate, Considerate, and Concentrate, gave attendees a tangible example of these ideas in action.
Closing Reflections
Daniel Chia, SHRI Honorary Treasurer and Country Director for Human Resources at DKSH, brought the day to a close with thoughtful remarks that underscored the session’s central theme: effective workplace change happens when policy, design, and social norms align and HR must lead that alignment.
Attendees left with three questions to carry forward into their own organisations: who owns workplace strategy, which HR priorities the current space actively supports, and what they would bring to their next lease renewal or office redesign.
SHRI regularly hosts workshops and events for HR professionals across Singapore. Stay updated on upcoming programmes here.
