New, and some not so new, office trends

While it’s fair to say that one of the key trends that has changed the nature of the office since – hybrid working – we probably wouldn’t be talking about anywhere near as much if it weren’t for the pandemic, there are several others which were emerging before Covid-19, and continue to influence landlords and occupiers. Health and wellbeing; increasing sustainability credentials; the shift to prime (and ‘ultra prime’) amenity-rich spaces; and the changing relationship between landlords and tenants, which has moved to focus more on collaboration and landlords being aligned to the priorities of employers, have shaped office requirements for at least the last five years, and are likely to continue to influence them for the next five and beyond.

Hybrid working models go through several stages

Although these latter trends largely emerged and evolved relatively organically over a period of time, the hybrid working trend was harder to adjust to. Home-working arrived for most occupiers almost overnight in 2020, with many employers scrambling initially to adjust. This was followed fairly swiftly by a number of predictions about the ‘death of the office’ as working life would ‘never be the same again’. Once it became apparent later in 2021-22 that these assessments were premature, we entered a period of flux, where occupiers experimented with a variety of different strategies for allowing employees to combine working from the office with working from home/elsewhere.  

In the last couple of years, we’ve reached more of an equilibrium and the stage where employers are adapting their initial hybrid working policies to differing regional and generational preferences. New best practices have emerged as businesses look to harness the benefits of hybrid working, while managing the practicalities of seeing offices fully occupied on some days. Interestingly, a poll of our global network at the start of the year found that, while overall almost 90% anticipate that companies will increase daily office attendance requirements this year, especially in North America where the return to office has tended to lag other markets, there are likely to be regional differences. In Asia Pacific, almost half of markets don’t expect any change and 11% actually anticipate the introduction of more flexible arrangements – probably largely due to strict office-attendance models already being the order of the day – while in EMEA there’s likely to be a small uptick in employer mandates, although most anticipate little change.

The future office must expect the unexpected 

Office landlords and occupiers have seen a huge amount of change in the last five years. While, fingers-crossed, we don’t anticipate another pandemic-level event causing further transformations almost overnight, there are plenty of other dynamics to be aware of. Demographic shifts, environmental factors, working patterns and technology look set to continue reshaping the traditional office and redefining what constitutes premium space. The best offices will continue to accommodate all the demands we place on it now, evolve to reflect these ongoing trends, and be flexible enough to respond to further, as yet unknown, challenges ahead.

Further information

Contact Sarah Brooks

Five years, five big changes: the trends shaping what tenants want from offices