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Sixty-eight per cent of organisations will be instituting hybrid working models globally, according to research from workplace experts Steelcase.
This study has been published as the UK government has withdrawn its advice for employees to work from home.
Steelcase researchers engaged more than 32,000 people in 10 countries through multiple studies. From the results, they uncovered five overarching needs that will drive new ways of planning and designing offices: being and feeling safe; sense of belonging; the ability to be productive; comfort: physical, cognitive and emotional; and control over where and how they work.
Hania Arafat, applied research consultant at Steelcase, said: “Organisations must prepare for a significant increase in hybrid collaboration… Leaders and teams want to harness the energy, innovation and growth that returning to the office brings, but old offices won’t work for the new reality of hybrid working – employees need to return to something better. Now is the moment for companies to reinvent the work experience and the workplace – it’s the perfect time to test new types of spaces that braid together the physical and the digital.”
The research states that definitions of “hybrid work”, however, are “often contradictory and unclear – leaving business leaders without definitive guidance”.
