In Colliers’ latest research report Developing the post-COVID Workplace - a continuation of our research after the report we produced a year ago leveraging data from over 5,000 respondents globally – our experts evaluated the dramatic impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the way we work.
In Colliers’ latest research report Developing the post-COVID Workplace - a continuation of our research after the report we produced a year ago leveraging data from over 5,000 respondents globally – our experts evaluated the dramatic impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the way we work.
This time, more than 4,000 professionals globally have used Colliers’ free online tool Workplace Expert during the pandemic to identify what workplace suits best their business in the future.
We asked them about their business characteristics, goals, brand and future work locations and we would like to share a snapshot of this data.
"Through our new Workplace Expert tool, we map current trends, preferences and needs of office space users," said Jana Vlková, Head of Workplace Advisory. "Most companies are currently still creating or testing a new working environment after Covid-19, and the final solutions will be set up in the second half of 2021 according to the current situation. However, it is already clear today that the goal of the new workspaces will be the health of the employees, innovation and the continuation of work flexibility into the future."
This report focused on the way organisations strategised, resized and rebalanced their offices to suit the needs of the post-COVID world.
Sectors and countries in comparison
· We identified differences per industry: Public and Transport & Logistics sectors strategized their future workplace requirements based on the highest presence in the office (>68%), while companies in Retail, Professional Services, Energy & Utilities and Automotive sectors had the lowest numbers in required presence in the office (>50%)
· The Czech Republic showed the highest intention of post-Covid working from home in Europe (49%)
· The UK and Germany stand out due to the relatively high intention of working from client and partner locations (23% and 20% respectively)
We see 3 different types of strategic workplace approaches:
1) Plan and adapt before people start returning to the office
2) Pilot, experiment and adapt
3) Wait, evaluate and learn
In our report, we have examined the pros and cons of each of them.
One-size -fits-all approach does not suit all businesses in their transformation
We worked with organisations to develop and implement post-COVID workplace strategies - The Colliers Workplace 4B Model – related to four Bs:
1) Bricks (physical changes)
2) Bytes (digital changes)
3) Behaviour (changes in office experience)
4) Brand (changes in identity)
A typical pre-COVID vs post-COVID office workplace settings
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Pre-COVID |
Post-COVID |
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Most companies had team areas/workstations serving as home base for a team often fixed area on a floor Most activity-based workplaces were designed to facilitate activities eg phone boots, meeting rooms, focused rooms
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Individual work, where possible, will be performed from home or specifically allocated areas (e.g. focus rooms, library space). Collaboration and team-work will be performed from collaborative settings in the (semi) open space. |
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Companies were often challenged with continuous refurbishments to ensure the workplace remined aligned with the changing business needs
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Furniture and equipment is moveable All settings are multifunctional and the function of areas could change over time, e.g. enclosed room could be at one moment in time a silent space for focused work, another moment facilitating hybrid meetings, and at another moment opening up for a town hall. Technology like dynamic lighting and video walls / projections can be used to change the look |
We see 3 different types of approaches in managing office occupancy:
1) Individual decision – when organisations leave the decision as to when to work remotely entirely up to the individual
2) Team decision – decision left up to teams to coordinate across themselves
3) Organisation decision – more prescriptive model creating clear schedules
In our report, we have evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.
We see emerging themes in workplace transformation
- Increased use of booking apps with occupancy analytics platforms to map occupancy levels and get insights into live availabilities of spaces
- In the future, predictive and dynamic analytics will be likely added by suggesting workstations or spaces based on previous work patterns
- Increased inclusion of remote meeting participants in mixed presence meetings to eliminate potential imbalance in collaboration; organisations are exploring more options here eg multiple cameras or digital whiteboards
- Less space per headcount, more space per work point – most companies in transformation are reducing the number of workstations on average by 20-40% but increasing the amount of space per workstation to allow for a less dense environment
- Increase in enclosed and semi-enclosed spaces to facilitate virtual and hybrid meetings
- Spaces are becoming more collaborative; even though offices are still spaces for a blend of individual and team activities; post-COVID workplace shows an allocation of 20-40% for individual settings and 60-80% for a collaborative setting
- Flexible allocation of team home bases for teams and clusters of teams that can move around
Colliers has developed a ‘Hybrid Working Analytics’ methodology to measure the experiences and collect best practices when people start returning to the office. Based on the organisation’s context and needs different research packages are offered and include activities such as surveys, occupancy tracking, activity measurements, retrospectives and more.
Please see the Developing post-COVID Workplace report attached for more details and analytics and reach out to Jana Vlkova, Head of Workplace Advisory or Petr Zalsky, Head of Office Agency, to find out more about the new workplace dynamics, size and functionality of the Czech offices and the future real estate impact.
You can also try the free Workplace Expert tool to explore the needs of your organisation’s workplace.
