Rethinking the office after Covid

Covid has led to a huge shift in how we work and what we want from our offices. The move towards hybrid working means more thought needs to go into what being in the office can add. We’ve seen, for instance, a big move towards reconfiguring spaces. Instead of banks of desks or ‘hot’ desks,  many offices offer different types of spaces, from collaborative hubs and booths to do online calls to green areas or places for quiet reflection alongside desk spaces.

The transformation has put a lot of pressure on those trying to keep up with trends, particularly SMEs which don’t have as deep pockets as the larger employers, but it has opened up opportunities too. A big challenge is predictability of office usage.

A recent report from Accessia, a workplace access, experience and analytics platform, says one in five property asset managers are now struggling to predict their revenue streams and 18% are finding it hard to maintain occupancy rates in their buildings, while 15% don’t understand what their tenants want. 

The report, Adapt to Survive: The Flex Space Revolution, found 29% of asset managers say that organisations are finding it difficult to gauge when and how often their employees want to be in the office. 31% are juggling office-based, hybrid and remote working employees. And a third are investing in smaller satellite offices instead of one headquarters. 

This has led to a demand for shorter leases which are out of sync with building owners’ business models. To address these issues and appeal to the SME market, many have included flex workspaces in their offering. 

Operating in the dark

However, the report says the vast majority are not analysing how their communal spaces are being used and are effectively “operating in the dark”. The report says time-consuming solutions still proliferate. One in five still rely on floor walkers, tenant surveys are favoured by 20% and 18% still use manual sign-in books to monitor people in their buildings. 92% of respondents admit there are people who no longer have official access to their buildings but who still possess key cards or other means of entry. Accessia says this is a problem which can be exacerbated with the flex model, where a greater number of smaller tenants or paying individuals have access to a building. 

Even with data, there are challenges with moving to a flex model, such as high upfront costs of design and fit-out as well as worries about ongoing costs, particularly with people demanding more from their offices than simply desks and computers. There is also the environmental agenda to consider as employers look to promote their net zero credentials, which also increases costs. Smart building adaptations are one way around this as they enable employers to save money, for instance, on energy costs, but with technology constantly moving the goalposts there is much more that can be done if each company drills down into how they operate. 

The report says these kinds of challenges need to be overcome and that, in addition to rethinking their business models, offering and target markets, employers also need to transform their approach to data collection and analysis to navigate the flex space revolution effectively.

As with the flexible working side of things, the people side, what is needed is more information and more engagement in order to find the best solutions, and solutions that are adaptable to future change. It’s clear that the flexible revolution affects all parts of how workplaces operate.

• Vote  
• 0
• 0
• You already voted!