After two years, return to offices has gathered momentum with ebbing Covid-19 cases, signifying positive occupier confidence. As per a C-Suite Survey conducted by Colliers and Awfis, about 35% of the occupiers have seen a majority (75-100%) of employees returning to offices. This includes a hybrid way of working wherein employees come into the office a few times a week. At the same time, about 74% of the occupiers are looking toward distributed workspaces as a strategy to shift from location-centric to people-centric workspaces. This will enable flexibility to employees while furthering productivity gains for businesses.
The key statistics from the survey conducted show:
- Sectors with the lowest (0-25%) rate of return are IT and New Technology companies
- Telecom and Consulting sectors see the highest (75-100%) rate of return to the office
- About 74% of the occupiers are likely to adopt distributed workspace
- About 53% of occupiers prefer working from home + office as their preferred workplace portfolio strategy.
- About 49% 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 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. This shift in strategy is also reflected in the leasing by flex operators – flex operators leased about 3.5 million sq feet of space in H1 2022 across the top six cities, almost three-fourths of the flex leasing in the entire 2021,” said Ramesh Nair, Chief Executive Officer | India and Managing Director, Market Development, Asia, Colliers.
Amit Ramani, Founder & CEO of 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.,”