Majority of employees in telecom and consulting sectors have returned to office with significant fall in COVID-19 cases but the IT sector is lagging, according to a survey by Colliers and Awfis.

Property consultant Colliers India and co-working operator Awfis’ joint report explores the status of return to work across different sectors.

“As the third wave of COVID-19 started waning in February, the return-to-office gained momentum. As a result, by June 2022 about 34 per cent of the companies saw about 75-100 per cent of the employees back in office (includes hybrid work),” the report said.

About 41 per cent of occupiers stated that only up to 25 per cent of their employees have returned to office.

The survey showed that telecom and consulting sectors saw the highest (75-100 per cent) rate of return to office while IT and new technology companies saw the lowest (0-25 per cent) rate of return to office.

“The survey has made it clear that a distributed workspace strategy is the way to go for occupiers in this new era of experiential workplaces, as occupiers emerge from the after-effects of the pandemic. Flex spaces, in particular, are leading this growth, as occupiers from varied sectors are housing teams in flex centres across cities,” Colliers India CEO Ramesh Nair said.

Flexible workspace operators leased about 3.5 million square feet of office space in January-June this year across the top six cities, almost three-fourths of the flexible space leasing in entire 2021, he added.

The survey was conducted during May-June among occupiers to understand their strategies regarding distributed workplace. The respondents were from different sectors such as IT/ITeS, BFSI, engineering and manufacturing and others.

Total 150 responses were received from C-Suite executives spanning Founders, CEOs, COOs and CHROs of various companies. The company size of the respondents varied, starting from a range of 1-500 employees to companies having over 10,000 employees.

As per the survey, about 74 per cent of the occupiers are likely to adopt distributed workspace while 53 per cent of occupiers prefer working from home plus office as their preferred workplace portfolio strategy.

About 49 per cent of the occupiers are likely to adopt flex centres to enable distributed workspace, followed by setting up their own offices in metro and non-metro cities.

The consultant sees opportunities for flex spaces not only in metro cities but also in non-metro cities. “In fact, in non-metro cities, total flex spaces are likely to grow more than two-fold to 5.5 million square feet by the end of 2022,” Nair said.

Amit Ramani, Founder and CEO, Awfis said the findings of the survey are a testament to the success of the distributed work model and subsequently of flex spaces in catering to the ever-evolved workspace needs of India Inc.

“Going forward, 77 per cent occupiers will include flex spaces as part of their workplace strategy. We expect exceptional demand in the future, driven largely by large corporates for de-densification of existing traditional offices,” he added.

According to the Colliers India data, the gross leasing of office rose to 32.9 million square feet in 2021 from 30.1 million square feet in the previous year. During 2019, the numbers stood at 44.8 million square feet across six cities — Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.

In the first six months of this year, the office leasing has risen to 27.5 million square feet from 10.3 million square feet in the year-ago period. The share of leasing by flexible workspace operators stood at 13 per cent.

This story appeared in the 4 August, 2022 issue of News Drum and was originally published at: Return to office highest in telecom, consulting sectors; IT lags: Survey

Co-working operator Awfis on Tuesday said it has partnered with Blackstone group firm Nucleus Office Parks for a new centre in Mumbai with a seating capacity of 450.

In a statement, Awfis said it has opened its first premium category centre ‘Awfis Gold’ in Mumbai.

This centre has been launched in partnership with Nucleus Office Parks, the operating platform for fully-owned Blackstone offices in India, it added.

The centre is spread across 27,000 square feet with 450 seats and is located at One International Center, Lower Parel.

Awfis Founder & CEO Amit Ramani said, “Given the rising demand of co-working spaces, Awfis Gold will emerge as the premium partner of choice for enterprises and CXOs who are now looking towards a hybrid model of working.” Currently, Awfis has 10 Gold centres spread across 3.5 lakh square feet in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Awfis has 131 centres and 77,500 seats across 14 cities. It plans to expand to 200 centres by the end of 2022.

The demand for managed office spaces in co-working centres has improved in the last one year as corporates want flexibility.

Recently, real estate consultant CBRE came out with a survey suggesting that nearly 75 per cent of office space occupiers are evaluating hybrid working models as their real estate strategy.

Around 78 per cent of the occupiers surveyed have underlined employee health and wellbeing as the most important element while facilitating return to office.

Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO – India, South-East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE said, “Return to Office for several corporates in India is already underway, with varying occupancies currently observed across cities as well as sectors.” With the widespread adoption of hybrid working since the pandemic, he said many companies are still considering the degree of flexibility needed to enhance employee productivity and connectivity.

Property consultant Colliers and co-working marketplace Qdesq, in a joint report, said that flex workspace stock would rise to 60.8 million square feet in metro and non-metro cities by 2023 from 43.8 million square feet at the end of the September 2021.

There are more than 3,000 co-working centres across major cities.

In India, the major co-working, including managed office space, operators are WeWork, Awfis, Smartworks, The Executive Centre, Simpliwork Offices, 91Springboard, Skootr Global and The Office Pass, among others.

This story appeared in the 12 July, 2022 issue of News Drum and was originally published at: Co-working firm Awfis ties up with Nucleus Office Parks to set up 450-desk centre in Mumbai, News Drum