Following on from our recent article on this issue, further research has reinforced the findings of the previous research that employees would increasingly like to continue working from home post COVID-19, either for part or all of their contracted hours. This therefore begs the question as to whether the office is still necessary for employers.
Increased Demand For Home Working
As we pointed out in our aforementioned previous article, research carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that there is likely to be a permanent and long term increase in home working post COVID-19, with employers anticipating that the number of employees working from home will more than double to 37%, compared with just 18% prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, employers believe that the number of employees working from home full time will also more than double from 9% to 22%. Moreover, another survey from HubbleHQ found that the number of employees who want to engage in home working post covid at least 1 day per week stands at 86%, although just 15% said that they would want to work from home full time. That is, the majority of employees want a balance between working from the office and working from home.
Now, a new survey from Mind Gym,has found that 61.6% of workers would like to continue working from home in some capacity post COVID-19, with the number rising to 74.9% for those employees who work in London. The survey also found that 63.2% of workers are worried about returning to office working given the continued presence of the coronavirus, whilst 32.8% are specifically concerned about the potential risks to their own personal health. Ironically, those within the Gen Z demographic, that generation that succeeded the Millennials, is the generation that is most concerned (74.08%) about returning to work at the office, despite being the generation that is least likely to suffer serious complications from catching the coronavirus.
Furthermore, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) found in another survey that 93% of businesses will be looking to reduce the amount of office space that they use over the next 2 years, as more of their employees work from home in some capacity on a long term permanent basis.
The Future Of The Office
Despite an increased desire from workers to continue working from home, rumours of the demise of the office are exaggerated, as Mark Twain might have put it. As the CIPD and HubbleHQ research found, whilst many employees want to continue working from home in some capacity, the majority would also like to continue working from the office for at least part of their working time. That is, they would like a balance between the two, where they can benefit from the best of both types of working. Moreover, most employers recognise that team work and the sharing of ideas amongst staff are important within a business, and that the best way of facilitating that remains within an office based environment. Accordingly, the direction that the increasing move towards home working is likely to take is via a hybrid model, where employees who are permitted to work from home will do so for only part of their contracted hours, where they spend the rest of their working time working from the office. In line with this, a survey conducted by JLL has found that 30% of all office space by 2030 will be flexible in nature. Ben Munn of JLL stated: "As organisations look to adapt to the 'next normal' where de-densification of main office space will need to occur, we anticipate a move towards a 'hubs and clubs' model that provides office locations closer to where people live. These distributed locations, or 'clubs', are likely to lean heavily on flexible space arrangements." Alex Colpaert from JLL added: "We expect to see a fundamental shift in the way office space is consumed. Pre-built spaces, agile design, technology integration, flexible lease terms and hospitality services will become the norm and continue to transform commercial real estate from a commodity to a consumer product."
