How flex is leading the way in diversifying the workplace

As the suc­cess­ful offices of tomor­row must accom­mo­date today’s increas­ing­ly dig­i­tal-native, eco-con­scious and well­be­ing-focused work­force, it’s clear that flex­i­bil­i­ty will be the lifeblood flow­ing through the future work­place.

The beat­ing heart of any healthy organ­i­sa­tion is its peo­ple. There­fore, attract­ing and retain­ing top tal­ent is para­mount for busi­ness lead­ers in 2020 and beyond. To tri­umph in the rag­ing war for tal­ent, it is essen­tial to tool up with flex­i­ble and diver­si­fied work­spaces that enable greater col­lab­o­ra­tion and, in turn, inno­va­tion as well as a vari­ety of appeal­ing ser­vices, ameni­ties and expe­ri­ences.

Con­sid­er that tech-savvy mil­len­ni­als and the slight­ly younger Gen­er­a­tion Z make up 60 per cent of the glob­al work­force, accord­ing to Man­Pow­er Group. Device-wield­ing mil­len­ni­als, aged between 24 and 39, have already rev­o­lu­tionised the way we all work, with the con­ven­tion­al nine-to-five day now extinct in most indus­tries and remote work­ing increas­ing­ly the norm.

Cre­at­ing opti­mal work­ing expe­ri­ences is now a must, not an option­al extra

Sim­i­lar­ly, they have catal­ysed an evo­lu­tion towards more flex­i­ble work­spaces that serve pur­pose-led brands. Vari­ety in space styles and designs with­in build­ings, to suit dif­fer­ent types of work and work­ing, is becom­ing vital for busi­ness­es of all sizes.

“Peo­ple want to enjoy their lives while they work, and seek flex­i­bil­i­ty, mobil­i­ty and vari­ety in their jobs,” says Olly Olsen, co-founder and co-chief exec­u­tive of The Office Group (TOG). “Cre­at­ing opti­mal work­ing expe­ri­ences is now a must, not an option­al extra. Employ­ers will be amazed by how much hap­pi­er, more loy­al and engaged staff will be if they are grant­ed greater free­dom and flex­i­bil­i­ty, and the strict rules of engage­ment around where and when peo­ple work are removed.”

Cor­po­rate Propo­si­tion, a research paper launched in Jan­u­ary by TOG, UnWork and WORKTECH Acad­e­my, high­lights that as Gen­er­a­tion Z and the tail-end of the mil­len­ni­als enter the work­place, employ­ee expec­ta­tions will start to revolve around the agency to con­trol the imme­di­ate envi­ron­ment.

Con­sumeri­sa­tion is now deeply ingrained in our per­son­al lives. Social net­works mar­ket prod­ucts based on pre­dict­ed need through our search his­to­ry, for instance, and Ama­zon offers same-day deliv­ery on a vast range of dif­fer­ent prod­ucts. Deliv­er­ing imme­di­a­cy and adapt­abil­i­ty to suit cus­tomer needs is bleed­ing into work­place design, too.

TOG embraces peo­ple-led design, know­ing that in the dig­i­tal age all busi­ness­es and their needs dif­fer and evolve. “It’s crit­i­cal to gain an under­stand­ing of who the audi­ence is that will work from the build­ing and to respond accord­ing­ly with our design,” says Char­lie Green, TOG co-founder and co-chief exec­u­tive.

“We design all our build­ings indi­vid­u­al­ly, dri­ven by the dif­fer­ing archi­tec­ture of each build­ing and its unique loca­tion. We feel strong­ly that if we approach the design in that way, we’re respect­ing the con­text of each build­ing.”

Power to the tenants

Ten­ants will have greater pow­er in the future work­place, which will focus on holis­tic expe­ri­ence, build­ing con­nect­ed ecosys­tems and encour­ag­ing cross-pol­li­na­tion. Notably, Europe’s work­ers only spend around 66 per cent of their work­ing time at their desk, accord­ing to Sav­ills’ What Work­ers Want sur­vey. Con­se­quent­ly, office providers must ensure their work­place offers break­out spaces, high-qual­i­ty cater­ing areas and oth­er ser­vices gen­er­al­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the hos­pi­tal­i­ty sec­tor.

Lit­tle won­der new mod­els in the flex­i­ble work­space mar­ket are emerg­ing. Co-work­ing and ser­viced offices have expe­ri­enced an incred­i­ble surge in recent years, thanks to a grow­ing real­i­sa­tion by pro­gres­sive cor­po­rate organ­i­sa­tions that flex spaces should be includ­ed in their over­all space port­fo­lio.

Busi­ness lead­ers have realised that dialling up co-work­ing capa­bil­i­ties helps future-proof­ing efforts, part­ly because of the man­i­fold ben­e­fits of flex­i­bil­i­ty, which engen­der diver­si­ty and com­mu­ni­ty, two key pil­lars for the mod­ern work­place.

Increas­ing­ly, major cor­po­rates view flex office spaces, or more specif­i­cal­ly satel­lite or project spaces, as an attrac­tive alter­na­tive to house groups of staff with spe­cif­ic needs with­out need­ing to main­tain their own office areas.

As an exam­ple, Oca­do approached TOG last year look­ing for flex­i­ble project space for one of their inno­va­tion tech teams of almost 50 peo­ple. They sought a design-led aes­thet­ic, a con­ve­nient and rel­e­vant loca­tion, and a quick turn­around time. The White Col­lar Fac­to­ry on Old Street round­about, one of fifty-one flex spaces TOG offers, was select­ed by them as it matched their require­ments.

Flex space is the future

The flex-space mar­ket is expand­ing quick­ly. Euro­pean Office Out­look 2020, a report pub­lished in Jan­u­ary by Sav­ills Research, reveals that last year 12 per cent of Europe’s office space was tak­en up by the flex­i­ble work­space sec­tor, up from 10 per cent in 2018.

While flex space is often used by cor­po­rates to man­age over­flow or to assist trav­el­ling employ­ees, it appeals to the emer­gent work­force, too. Indeed, those aged under 35 val­ue work­place flex­i­bil­i­ty as high­ly as any­thing else in a job role. It’s not just the younger gen­er­a­tions though, as work­place flex­i­bil­i­ty is one of the most preva­lent trends among UK work­ers as a whole. In fact, more than three quar­ters (77 per cent) of respon­dents to The Future Work­place sur­vey, unveiled in late-2018 by Unum and The Future Lab­o­ra­to­ry, state it is very impor­tant.

As the flex-space mar­ket devel­ops, office providers should be aware of three mega­trends, high­light­ed by TOG’s Cor­po­rate Propo­si­tion report. First­ly, the ser­vice lev­el must be raised to meet the stan­dards now expect­ed. Next, flex-space providers are diver­si­fy­ing. Larg­er, more-estab­lished providers are buy­ing small­er com­peti­tors in a bid to cul­ti­vate a broad­er ecosys­tem of organ­i­sa­tions and com­mu­ni­ties.

The third, and most promi­nent, mega­trend in the flex­i­ble work­space indus­try is the pro­lif­er­a­tion of sec­tor-spe­cif­ic hubs. These facil­i­tate work and col­lab­o­ra­tion in an iso­lat­ed indus­try, tai­lored to a par­tic­u­lar type of clien­tele. By focus­ing on a niche sec­tor, a co-work­ing facil­i­ty cre­ates a com­mu­ni­ty of like­mind­ed mem­bers that can sup­port each oth­er by devel­op­ing a shared knowl­edge econ­o­my.

The TOG report fore­casts that by 2029 the flex mar­ket will have grown sig­nif­i­cant­ly, with many more providers offer­ing sec­tor-spe­cif­ic spaces join­ing the mar­ket. In the com­ing decade, as office providers explore this new fron­tier, flex­i­ble work­space pro­vi­sion needs to be at the fore­front of reimag­in­ing and shap­ing the way peo­ple work.

For more infor­ma­tion please vis­it theofficegroup.com

Power to the tenants

Flex space is the future