The Real Estate & Building Futureproof Global real estate fair brings together thousands of professionals from all over the globe to virtually meet and gain insight into the newest trends, share knowledge and network.
Yardi’s regional director, Justin Harley, attended a panel together with Katharina von Schacky at WeWork, Wybo Wijnbergen at infinitSpace, Annelou de Groot MRICS at IWG plc and Wouter Truffino as moderator, CEO and founder of Global PropTech, to discuss the future of flex offices.
The discussion explored how the pandemic has affected flexspaces over the past year and what this may mean for the future of the workplace. The need for office spaces has been a hot topic throughout 2020, but as the world begins to reopen, is there still a need for the office?
We can work and do everything from home, but office spaces are needed for a variety of reasons. It could be something as simple as a good internet connection, or social interactions with colleagues. Maybe you need to have an informal meeting to bounce ideas around, or you just need a quiet working environment without the distractions from home.
The need for an office space is still there, but the future of the office could be a hybrid solution because you no longer need to work in a designated headquarters. However, the need for flexibility is required in creating new concepts for working. Your employees have different preferences of working, as do your clients, which is why at the moment there isn’t a right answer and there’s no one solution, that’s the challenge.
We may wish to work from home and sporadically be in the office, or we may need to travel and need a quiet space to catch up on emails, or even have last minute meetings. Flex offices fill that requirement because they allow you to work in an office environment from any location.
Your tenants expect flexibility going forward, which is why you need to be able to offer flexible memberships. Organisations don’t want to be tied up in a long-term lease anymore, they want the freedom of choosing between a month’s membership or even last-minute bookings on the day.
Many flexspaces, such as IWG plc, offered 24/7 access to their buildings because they saw their tenants were using the office space outside of the usual 9-5 workday. As more companies are working across time zones, flexible hours as well as flexible offices will be needed going forward.
The past year has shown us how every employee prefers a different way of working, and flexibility needs to be at the core of the office space going forward. We may not know what the future of the office space truly looks like, but we do know that we are creating a dynamic work culture that has less risk and is focused more on the employees.
The need to provide an environment that inspires employees, helps them work better and prevents burnout is why a hybrid workspace will be the future of the flex office.
Watch the full webinar to find out more about the future of the flex office.