Harmonize Your Real Estate Portfolio with the Current Demand

The data clearly show a high and ever-increasing demand for hybrid work. In what way can real estate owners organize the space more efficiently so as to harmonize their portfolios with the needs of this kind of work?

Throughout the world, employees insist on the implementation of hybrid work. A new law in Great Britain gives the right to the employees to ask for flexible work from their first day at the job, and company leaders adapt their spaces in line with that. A study by PwC shows that 87% managers expect changes in strategy, including the opening of more suburban locations and the consolidation of office space in central locations.

For owners of facilities and franchises, this is an opportunity to use the growing demand. Of course, said opportunities are available to their competition as well. Real estate owners who can more efficiently reorganize their space so that it is more suitable for hybrid work will gain an advantage compared to the competition. We are witnesses to the adaptation of the office space relative to the real demand.

Model designed for cooperation

The past few years have resulted in various and numerous changes in work patterns. The fixed schedule, which entails nine-to-five work, has given way to employees’ freedom to find their optimal work patterns.

The abovesaid is a unique opportunity for owners of facilities and franchises to reorganize their real estate in line with the needs of their business clients.

After the Standard Chartered bank signed an exclusive agreement with IWG, Tanuj Kapilashrami, Standard Chartered’s Group Head of Human Resources, explained this employee-inspired approach:

– It’s an idea about jointly creating the future of work with our colleagues. At the moment, 70-80% of our work spaces are not designed for team work, and that is something that we would like to focus on in the upcoming period.

Owners of office spaces and franchises have an inevitable opportunity to ask their clients what their employees need in order to more efficiently do their jobs and build the infrastructure around those needs. From a solid telecommunications infrastructure to accessibility 24 hours a day, seven days a week, lessors can organize their spaces in line with the tenants’ wishes.

Invest in quality

With fewer people in an office at any moment, companies will need less floor area, but the quality of the space will be higher. Now, because the office is no longer a mandate, the workplace must become a magnet, says Elizabeth Lowrey, a principal and director of interior architecture at Elkus Manfredi Architects.

There are no more offices filled with desks, and she says that a work space should be “a genuinely welcoming place where employees want to be, a place of social connection and great tech where they feel a sense of belonging and can do their best work.”

Adopt new video conference technology

The video conference system has its flaws, but the technology behind it is developing exponentially in order to make virtual meetings more interesting, impressive and useful for the participants.

One of the challenges that facility and franchise owners will have to face is creating spaces for the holding of online meetings. “Zoom rooms” – with integrated screens, installations with a top-quality sound and the voice-tracking technology are sustainable solutions. Sound-proof rooms can be another option, says Lowrey.

Also, it’s worth considering the growing importance of the metaverse technology. A recent Regus whitepaper revealed that nearly two-thirds (65%) of business leaders believed that metaverse would transform their work more than any other video conference technology. Along with providing the flexibility and connectivity that clients need, real estate owners can help clients upgrade their video conference systems.

Combine functionality with flexibility

Special-purpose spaces are important, but real estate owners should place less emphasis on rigid defining and separating. Multifunctional spaces can be changed on a daily level in line with the current needs – for example, it can be expected for a room with individual work places to be turned into a meeting room when necessary. Nothing should be fixed, Lowrey says: – Designers must create workspaces that incorporate 100% flexibility to pivot and adapt to new ways of working, so that when the next crisis happens, it doesn’t feel like a catastrophe, but more like a speed bump.

Experience as top priority

While some employees still take care of the hygiene and social distancing in a work space, others simply want a high-tech experience during their work day. One of the responses to these expectations could be to enable access to “touchless” rooms, where employees use their smart phones for moving through the building. Movement, voice or face recognition technology could also be used for the opening of doors and achieving access.

According to the research company Forrester, these are just some in a range of measures that building owners have started implementing since the outbreak of Covid-19: following the contacts, measuring the temperature, safe zones in elevators, using the UV light for space disinfection, and even plexiglass barriers between the work stations.

Flexible work space is the fastest growing sector of the global market of office spaces. Find out how IWG can help you transform your real estate into a hybrid work space.

International Workplace Group

PricewaterhouseCoopers d.o.o. Beograd

IWG

PwC

Standard Chartered

Elkus Manfredi Architects

Regus

Forrester

Tanuj Kapilashrami

Elizabeth Lowrey

hybrid work

flexible work

flexible work space

office space

video conferences

virtual meetings

Zoom rooms

metaverse