The hybrid workspace is here to stay

Covid has exposed offices to competition from coffee shops, gyms and living rooms. And it will continue becoming worse for office landlords and better for businesses. A change in the workplace is one of covid-19's legacies, irrespective of what happens in the future.

Before the pandemic, 5% of work in America was done remotely, and 27% of employers offered flexible hours; now, the numbers are 40% and 88%, respectively. South African companies follow this trend. The hybrid workplace is already a changing phenomenon.

Offices?used to be places that people went to because they had to. Administrative functions happened there; business interaction happened in meeting rooms and in-person. Desks took up the bulk of the space. Now other ideas of its future role jostle for attention. Some think of the office as the new offsite space.

Today's workspace is to get people together in person to do the things that remote working makes harder: growing relationships or collaborating in person. Others talk of the office as a habitual destination, which makes people get out of their pyjamas to mingle with other people.

An office layout devoted to people working at rows of desks alongside the same colleagues each day - feels very 2019. With fewer people coming into the office and far more online collaboration, fewer desks are assigned to individuals. The idea of every employee having their own dedicated workspace and desk is out of fashion.

The design for post-covid offices now allows for hybrid work. There are more shared spaces or what the Americans call "neighbourhoods", where people can flexibly work together. Shared desks and meeting spaces have increased the need for more storage space for personal possessions.

Meetings have to work for both virtual participants and in-person attendees: video cameras, big screens, and green backgrounds proliferate. Inospace's new parks feature mini-meeting rooms with a monitor and a table jutting out from the wall, with seating for people arranged to face the screen and each other.

Workspaces will have areas to showcase the company's work (or each department's work) so that people who never encounter each other on Zoom can see examples of what the company and department does.

Another change is to create larger communal spaces for socialising and socially-distanced events. Bars in workspaces, which went out of fashion in the 1990s, are also new and in demand. Requests are for shared public places, like large auditoriums, where clients can have "experiences".

Flexibility is the leading post-covid theme. Plug-n-play laptop docking stations are simple additions to the post-covid workspace, but heavy office furniture is tough to make flexible. Desks themselves are fixed to the floor through bundles of wires, cables and plugs. The workspace will feature movable desks with wheels that can move around. Meeting and conference rooms need to be more flexible, too, with walls that lift and move.

If more socialising and greater flexibility are the themes of the post-pandemic workspace, a third is data. Property managers want more data to understand how facilities are being used and on which days and times people are in the workspace. Workers want data on potential health risks: when people are in and out.

Client data and information is growing. And property data will flow in response: from sensors in desks and lighting as well as desk and meeting room booking tools and visitor-management apps will abound.

Put this all together, and what do you get? If you are an optimist, the workspace will be a spacious, collaborative environment that makes the commute worthwhile. If you are a pessimist, it will be a tiny space to uphold the company's brand image. In reality, pragmatic considerations—how much time is left on the company's lease —will determine the pace of change. Whatever happens, the workspace won't ever again be what it was. The hybrid workspace is here to stay.