The pandemic has changed attitudes among both employees and employers, and both are going to have new expectations and aspirations for their workplace once the pandemic is over. BNP Paribas Real Estate staged a series of round-table discussions to gauge what occupiers and investors expect to happen.
Employees are understandably nervous about travelling on crowded public transport to busy workplaces, and experience has shown that many can work successfully from home. Businesses are therefore having to look at what is needed to make the office more attractive to encourage staff back.
And the discussion groups agreed that there are sound business reasons why workers should return, at least part-time, to the office:
Larger companies, which tend to have a stronger health and safety culture, are adopting a cautious approach. They reported that their staff surveys confirm that people are missing colleagues and the ease of collaboration in the office. Others have observed a difference in attitudes between the young and old. But even those businesses that previously had rigid policies on attendance now expect to be introducing flexible working for all. One respondent has employed a change management company to help managers and staff transition to the new post-COVID-19 world, a process they are describing as a ‘bounce forward.’
Most are looking to adopt a hybrid working model where it’s not just a matter of working from home or from the office: work is likely to take place in a spectrum of spaces including collaborative spaces, drop-in locations and flex space as well as the home and the office. However, this hybrid approach is not without its challenges and the discussion groups identified several issues that businesses will need to address:
While COVID-19 has been the immediate catalyst for this rapid and radical change in working practices, many believe we had been heading towards a more flexible approach to the workplace for many years. But we have seen several decades of change compressed into a matter of months and this is going to require a period of adjustment from everybody involved.