Hybrid Works Best When It's Close to Home

If the office was just a little bit closer to home.

A Unispace report showed that 79% of employees admit they would be happier to return to the office if it was just five to 10 minutes from home.

Therefore, “creating satellite offices to supplement an amenity-packed headquarters could be a logical approach for firms seeking to meet the diverse needs of their people post-pandemic,” Lawrence Mohiuddine, CEO EMEA at Unispace, said in prepared remarks.

Mohiuddine added that the advantages of working collectively shouldn’t be underestimated.

“In a post-pandemic world, workers are craving the human contact that they may have taken for granted pre-Covid,” he said.

“Crucially, firms must look to understand not only the needs of their current employees, but also the composition of their future workforce and their distinct preferences, which we know differ from country to country and by numerous demographics such as life-stage, income and gender.

“By taking this approach, organizations can effectively optimize short and long-term real estate decisions.

The study is based on 3,000 office workers across Europe.

At the time of the survey, just 26% of employees were working full-time in an office, and 13% were entirely home-based, with the majority (63%), working in a hybrid way. Just 27% said they would prefer to be completely office based in the future.

Unispace said that employees are “clearly” looking to employers to curate their workplace experience, providing options based on the type of work or activity taking place on any given day.

Steelcase Reaches 85% Return to Office Rate

In the US, according to a Steelcase return to office study, its Grand Rapids (GR) headquarters campus has achieved 85% of its pre-pandemic turnout.

“Pre-pandemic, we were already working in a very hybrid fashion,” Jill Dark, Vice President, Talent Futures, Steelcase, tells GlobeSt.com. “Of all employees assigned to the GR campus, an average of 64% were coming to campus on any given day.

“So, the ‘85% of pre-pandemic turnout’ figure really is only 54% of employees assigned to GR campus.

“Generally, we’re happy with this figure because we expect hybrid to be even more widely adopted today than it was pre-pandemic.”

Roughly 70% of employees coming to campus are coming three or more days a week with Tuesday-Thursday the most attended days.

Fridays are the least well-attended as “we expect most people to take Friday as their “remote” day,” Dark said. “Mondays we still have strong turnout.”

Steelcase started working in a hybrid way in early 2021 and it has been able to safely continue with that strategy despite the virus waves.

“We’re back in the office because we believe we work better when we’re together – it’s what builds our communities of belonging and helps us make meaningful progress,” Dark said.

“Together doesn’t necessarily happen over video. It’s the before, after and in between meetings that we continue to learn from one another.”

Because an integral part of Steelcase’s culture is that it trusts and empowers its employees to make the best decisions for their day, whether that means working from home or the office, employees make up one-third of the decision-making process.