Never have more people worked remotely than in 2020. And for many, it’s given a taste of freedom, flexibility and opportunity that they will be reluctant to give up.  Which begs the question;

What does the future look like, for the office?

But the answer is – it depends who you ask!  We’ve been getting very mixed signals for office real estate as work from home mandates show no sign of lifting, and when you dig a little deeper to see why, it’s pretty obvious – the people controlling the answers about the future of the office have vested interests. Let’s take a quick look:

Cisco Systems report suggests 90% of respondents will not return to the office full time

Bloomberg viay Yahoo reports that Cisco Systems conducted a study of over 1500 executives, which indicated that more than half of businesses intend to shrink their office space as working from home becomes the new norm.  The report suggested that over 90% of respondents will not return to the office full time, with a quarter of them working remotely for the majority of their work time.   But as owners of video conferencing software and webex, Cisco have benefitted from the pivot toward remote work, with a higher reliance on video conferencing for meetings across the globe, so naturally their focus is toward celebrating rather than playing down this trend.

JLL’s “Future of Office Demand” report says people are desperate to return to the office

Meanwhile, JLL, the global real estate firm published a report  on the “Future of Office Demand” which suggests that people are desperate to return to the office – with the under 35 age group particularly keen to return.  The report suggests that office density requirements will need to adapt to ensure employee safety, and that there will be changes and developments in terms of how office space is used but that it will remain a core tenet of many businesses operations.  Good news for a real estate firm, but again – a fairly subjective view.

Global Office Impact Study shows recovery in 2024!

Meanwhile, Cushman & Wakefield – another global real estate services firm – released their 2020 Global Office Impact Study which suggested there will be a significant impact on office leasing, as employees continue to work from home for the mid-term, but they anticipate an uptick in office requirements from 2022, with a full recovery 2-3 years later!  They set out to answer the fundamental question “what will become of the office” and looked at the collective impact of job losses, office vacancies and rental rates, geographic characteristics and work from home expansion to identify future scenarios.

CEBM envisages a fundamental shift in the way offices are used

The Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) in Oxford, UK concluded that whilst the overall demand for office space may not change significantly (due to an increase in the amount of space required but a decrease in the number of businesses using office-space full time), the impact on workplace design and location will be considerable.  They envisage a fundamental shift in which companies move to having smaller, more local offices, reducing commutes but still enabling people to come together.

Harvard Businss Review studied how organizations and office space might change as a result of the pandemic

Harvard Business Review wrote an article in the summer, questioning whether the office would disappear.  They believe that offices help employees to thrive and that employees will still need places to come together, connect, engage, learn and build relationships.   They conducted a design study exercise reimaginging what a corporate organization might look like if distributed to a hub and spokes model.  They also looked at the potential for coworking spaces to grow.  They argued that the pandemic has demonstrated that working from home is viable for many roles and industries and cited a study in which over 80% of employees in a 700 strong corporate headquarters would like to retain an element of work from home when the pandemic is over.

WSP sees fundamental shifts in how offices are used

Meanwhile, WSP wrote a much more balanced and interesting article on this subject – suggesting that businesses had already started to shrink their footprints and that the recession may well accelerate that trend.  But they also argued the kind of space will fundamentally change – that, “to justify its existence the office will have to become a destination with a purpose” and will need to do more than it used to.  They point toward the hotelization of office space, and the creation of more comfortable, meaningful spaces to work – a far cry from the cubicles of old.  They speculate on whether suburban or out of town operations where workers can drive rather than commute on public transport, will return more quickly than central city locations.

What’s the future of the office – what do we think?

At RemoteWork360 we don’t think the office is going to disappear anytime soon, although if asked to make a prediction we would err toward the notion that office space will reduce over the next two years, and that mixed-use space will increase – where homes and co-working spaces blend into the same buildings.

We do however firmly believe that we’ll never return to how offices were used precovid.  The taste for working from home and the flexibility it has given has sparked something, has lit a fire which will gradually but significantly change the way we all work.  It will be incredibly interesting to see how it all unfolds!  We’d love to hear your thoughts – email us on heidi@remotework360.com