Mace has published a new report into workplace trends which found that hybrid working, with a collaborative central space, is the preferred post-pandemic working style.
In the 2023 Mace Operate Workplace Survey, the first that it has conducted post-pandemic, reached out across the globe to over 3,000 corporate real estate (CRE) professionals, as well as to its broader network of contacts in the built environment. It gathered insights to help inform leading edge thinking to define corporate real estate strategy and portfolio management best practice.
The firm explored the findings from the survey responses from respondents at organisations of different scale and from different sectors across the globe. It reflected on current trends in workplace and facilities management requirement and compare results to show what has changed since its last survey. And it relayed what has been most effective for corporate real estate leaders in transforming the workplace experience to meet employee expectations.
The Mace Operate Workplace Survey looked at the enduring role of a central office for businesses and considered what an office space needs to offer in an era of hybrid working.
The majority of respondents (87%) said that interaction with people and workplace culture are the main benefits of going to the office with employees and employers seeing eye-to-eye on the need for collaboration for motivation, resilience and effective hybrid working.
Some 60% of respondents ranked office re-design, to support activity-based and collaborative working, as the most or second-most effective way to encourage a return to the office showing that corporate real estate leaders have listened to what building users want.
Most businesses had already made, or plan to make, changes to their workplace to offer greater flexibility to encourage employees back to the office. 39% of respondents said office design had been updated already, with 27% planning to make changes. The survey found that hybrid working is here to stay, with 78% of respondents wanting one or more office days each week, the most popular choice being more than two days a week in the office (44%).
The adoption of technology was highlighted as an area of opportunity to further improve the workplace experience, with 43% of those surveyed wanting to see a workplace experience app implemented, with 17% saying one has been implemented in their workplace in the past 6 months.
Hybrid models are preferred with 8 out of 10 wanting weekly office days
Redefining the balance between workplace and remote working has been a significant workplace challenge over the last few years.
From the first lockdown three years’ ago to the present day, addressing this balance has been central to workplace strategies and how they balance push and pull methods to attract employees back to the office, whilst maximising the benefits of great flexibility and versatility where this can help optimise performance.
69% of those who responded to the survey said that hybrid working is their preferred working arrangement and 91% said that their future expectation is that their colleagues/employees would work on a hybrid basis while just 8% said that they expected colleagues and employees to work on a fully office-based basis and 9% said that this is still their preferred arrangement.
When comparing these results to its 2021 survey, there is continuity in terms of the hybrid working models most used and most preferred; in its last workplace survey 47% of respondents reported their current arrangements as being two or more days on the office during the working week, this year 44% overall said that this was their preferred working arrangement.
Strategy and design focused on the benefits of going to the office is working
The design response to the widespread adoption of hybrid working models and the recognition that company culture and workplace experience are paramount has been clear; foster collaboration and make form follow a flexible function.
In our survey, 66% of respondents reported that their workplace design had already been updated and 27% plan to update their workplace to accommodate more flexible ways of working. In addition to this, 52% reported that their workplace was characterised as being mostly flexible, comprising activity-based workspaces with little or no assigned desks – up from 35% in 2021.
Moreover, 36% of respondents reported that they already had workplaces redesigned to encourage more employees back to the office and 20% are planning to do so. Of those who had revised their workplace strategies, 72% had done so to address employee feedback, wellbeing, flexible working policies and new ways of working.
What this says about the present and the future of the workplace is that CRE leaders have listened, and have realised that design that brings colleagues together, that supports team building and connection in a place (as well as virtually) isn’t just good for business, it’s what people want.
When asked what the main benefits of going into the office are, our respondents preferred selections all focused on contact with colleagues as a main benefit and knowledge sharing with colleagues, team building and networking, workplace culture and meetings with clients and colleagues formed the top four benefits, comprising 87% of the top-ranked selections.
Four key main areas of change were fed back by respondents on the ways in which their company had to revise its workplace strategy due to the pandemic, these are:
- People-focused changes (centred on employee engagement survey results, wellbeing initiatives, flexible working, and other new ways of working) were selected in 72% of responses.
- Process driven changes (made to incorporate new technology or software) were selected in 44% of responses.
- Place-based changes (made to improve corporate real estate portfolio performance) were selected in 39% of responses.
- Portfolio rationalisation, with a reduction in portfolio reported as a revision to company workplace strategy was selected in 31% of responses.
Ross Abbate, CEO of Mace Operate said: “In recent years our ways of working have changed dramatically and at pace. This speed of transformation is also seen in our workspaces as they adapt to cater for the post-pandemic expectations of businesses and their employees.
“The results of our 2023 workplace survey show that, with hybrid working now expected by staff and accepted by employers, the workplace needs to offer something that home working doesn’t: versatile, function driven spaces for collaboration of all kinds, a place where the everyday experience enables excellence and makes colleagues want to be a part of it.’’