The Hybrid Office: A New Trend in Commercial Real Estate

Although remote work will likely become more common, it is premature to count out the office space. Individuals and companies alike recognize remote work is complementary to, rather than a replacement for, in-person collaboration. Gensler’s U.S. 2020 Work from Home Survey found that only 12% of U.S. workers want to work from home full-time, and most want to spend the majority of the workweek at the office while having the ability to work from home when they want.

As organizations learn to survive in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, their agile team can be a real source of competitive advantage. Such teams are typically well suited to periods of disruption, given their ability to adapt to fast-changing business priorities, disruptive technology, and digitization.

But the abrupt shift to remote working in response to the coronavirus has challenged the typical approach to managing agile teams. Traditionally, such teams thrive when team members are co-located, with close-knit groups all working in the same place. Co-location allows frequent in-person contact, quickly builds trust, simplifies problem-solving, encourages instant communication, and enables fast-paced decision making. And while we know from experience that agile teams that have worked remotely from the start can be as effective, the sudden transition of co-located teams to a fully remote approach can reduce cohesion and increase inefficiency.

The office will continue to be important for many companies and workers, and the benefits of an office environment — such as training, mentorship, and collaboration — remain as essential as ever. We have already begun to see limitations of remote work for some, with reports of more hours worked, burnout, and potential long-run losses in productivity. Drawing lines between “life” and “work” was challenging before “work from home.” With a viable vaccine still likely months away, the question is: How can we realize the upsides of an office environment while keeping employees safe and healthy? One of the most important lessons learned is that both companies and workers desire flexibility, and the office space will need to adapt.

The good news is that while it takes real work, much of what leads agile teams to lose productivity when they go remote can be addressed. If the necessary technology is in place, a talented remote team can deliver just as much value as co-located teams.
This is a fight for both starting and established companies as some tech giant are beginning to considering the option of ‘hybrid’ work-from-home models as statists revealed that most of their employees don’t want to come to work every day.

Some key points of the survey carried by some established companies:
* Most employees want to return to the office at some point, but not every day.
* The companies are planning “hybrid” models for future work, including rearranging its offices.
* Silicon Valley companies are competing on flexible work options for existing and prospective talent.

Some big companies are currently rethinking their long-term work options for employees, as most of them say they don’t want to work from home full-time.
A recent survey of employee preferences showed that over sixty-two percent employees would like to return to their offices at some point.
So these companies are working on “hybrid” models, including rearranging their offices and figuring out more long-term remote work options.

“I see the future as being more flexible,” Pichai said in the interview. “We firmly believe that in-person, being together, having a sense of community is super important when you have to solve hard problems and create something new so we don’t see that changing. But we do think we need to create more flexibility and more hybrid models.”
The long-term planning comes as Google, which has been looked at as a model for Silicon Valley workplaces, slowly reveals more details of its plans to return its employees to the office while also competing with other tech companies for top talent. Earlier in the summer, the company gave staffers the option to work from home through July 2021 amid the global pandemic. That came as Facebook announced a similar timeline, while other companies, such as Twitter, said employees can work remotely “forever.”
Most companies and workers will continue to find the importance and benefits of an office environment for reasons such as training of new employees, mentorship, and collaboration. There have already been limitations of remote work for some, with reports of more hours worked, burnout, and potential long-run losses in productivity. The line between life and work was challenging at the start of the lockdown. One important lesson learned is that both companies and workers desire flexibility, and the traditional office space will have to adapt to it in the near future.