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AT THE
OFFICE

Will the office make a comeback
post-COVID-19?

Designing Ways spoke to Emma Luyt, co-CEO of JLL

sub-Sahara Africa and MD of Tétris Design & Build

ow has the COVID-19 pandemic • Aesthetics will become more
affected the way people work important in the future office. It
Hand communicate? is crucial that the post-pandemic
It has definitely challenged conventional office is attractive, comfortable and
ideas and hybrid working is the new buzz visually interesting.
word. The office will however become
the primary place of work again and the Will the traditional 9-5 workday and
months to come will see a ‘flight to quality’, five-day work week at the office come
with top employers acknowledging the to an end as new, more flexible work
new workforce expectations through an patterns emerge?
in-depth rethinking of their approach to It seems that this may be the case, although
work, the workforce and the workplace. offices will still play a leading role in the more productive at home, down from 48
way we do business. Tétris Design & percent last April. However, 63 percent of
What are the key considerations for Build released the Worker Preferences workers do not want to be office-bound,
businesses in the future? Barometer Research earlier this year. It showing preference for a hybrid style of
• Business leaders need to get back into was conducted by JLL, a Fortune 500 working from both home and the office or
the office to protect and grow their company. The study, which surveyed third-party locations such as coworking
business culture, and nurture younger 3,300 office workers across ten countries, lounges and coffee shops.
teams who require office infrastructure showed that 79 percent of the workforce While the disruption in workflow due to
and connection to perform. aspire to be back in the office at least once COVID-19 has had a negative impact on
• Investment in workspace solutions a week, up from 74 percent last October, business over past year, it has also paved
that can foster inclusivity and co- highlighting the declining appetite to the way for innovative working solutions
working while providing quiet work solely from home as homeworking and new ways of achieving a good work-
spaces for thinking and doing. fatigue sets in. Thirty-seven percent feel life balance – a top priority for Millennials
and Gen Z.

What are some of the key insights from
the research?
1. Work-life balance is the number one
workforce priority, ahead of salary.
Over 80 percent of the workforce
want to be able to choose their
working hours in the future.
2. Homeworking fatigue is growing.
Over sixty percent of the workforce
want to keep the possibility of
alternating between different places
of work in the future with two days a
week outside the office being the new
optimum.
3. A homeworking learning curve has
developed. Expectations regarding
homeworking frequency in the
future are directly linked to the
intensity of the habit today as 58
percent of employees working one
to two days a week from home
currently want to do so in the future.
4. Productivity at home is declining,
but it’s not translating into stronger

50 Issue 246 • dw