How can coworking providers best address corporates new needs?

The 2021 document examined how companies expected their workplaces and office portfolios to change as office-based work resumed following lockdowns. It reported that nearly 60% of surveyed companies leaned toward mixed or hybrid working patterns, with adoption anticipated by 77% of large companies. The material compared workplace-policy preferences by company size and sector, including support for full-time office returns, corporate-defined hybrid arrangements and employee-defined models. It also assessed expectations for office portfolios over the following three years, finding a broadly balanced outlook between contraction, stability and expansion. Flexible office space was expected to represent a larger share of portfolios within two years, driven by testing alternative occupancy models, increasing employee choice, reducing capital expenditure and supporting dispersed or mobile workforces. The document identified team collaboration, employee engagement and corporate culture as leading requirements for workplace solutions. It also outlined physical and organisational responses, including larger collaborative areas, workplace pilots and revised design standards. Technology plans centred on enhanced videoconferencing, smart-building systems, environmental sensors, employee-experience applications, occupancy sensors and touchless technology.

Key findings

• Nearly 60% of companies leaned toward mixed or hybrid working patterns, rising to 77% among large companies.
• Over the following three years, 40% of companies expected portfolio contraction and one-third anticipated expansion.
• The share of companies with flexible space comprising 0–10% of their portfolios was expected to fall from 66% to 41% within two years.

Presented at Coworking Europe 2021