Nearly 60% of Office Workers Want Flex Offices
Culture-led flexible workspace operator Runway East has carried out a survey with 450 office workers across the UK: with the role of the office in question it seeks to find out what people like about the office. Some 64% like to go to the office to collaborate with colleagues, with slightly more 65% saying they go to socialise with colleagues. Nearly a quarter (24%) of people go to the office to get away from their family, with men twice as likely than women to do so.
Since the pandemic, there has been a seismic shift to flexible and hybrid working by UK employees. When offered the opportunity of where they would like to work just 19% said they just wanted to work from home, compared to 58% who wanted to work from a flexible office space and 23% who wanted to work in their company HQ.
“The rhetoric is that people don’t want to go back into the office, the reality is people don’t want to commute and they want more than a desk. Employers need to shift their thinking from providing just the basics to providing a space to work, collaborate and enhance their experience of working – the office isn’t quite dead, JUST the boring ones!” shares Natasha Guerra, CEO of Runway East.
Our research clearly shows the office still has purpose, it is a place to collaborate and meet with colleagues – these things are just too hard to replicate virtually.”
Of those already working in flexible workspaces, some 68% go to the office to socialise with colleagues, with 44% using it as a space to collaborate with colleagues. Working in a flexible workspace makes respondents 50% more likely to ‘like’ their office (17% vs. 25%).
“Not all flexible workspaces are created equally and over the last few years there has been a significant shift in our sector moving from serviced office models through to serviced hospitality offers like ours. To attract clients, we obsess over the detail of workplace culture with great coffee on tap through to karaoke on the roof – it’s great to see that this offer is attracting people back into the office, nearly a third (29%) in flexible workspaces come into the office to access good coffee - we use Grind! - vs. just 1% in ‘standard’ offices.” shares Natasha.