Some 41% of occupants stated that only up to 25% of their employees have returned to the office.
Most employees in the telecom and consulting sectors have returned to the job with a significant drop in COVID-19 cases, but the IT sector is lagging behind, according to a survey by Colliers and Awfis.
The joint report from property consultant Colliers India and joint venture operator Awfis explores the state of return to work in different sectors.
“As the third wave of COVID-19 began to subside in February, the return to the office gained momentum. As a result, in June 2022, around 34 percent of businesses saw between 75 and 100 percent percent of employees were returning to the office (includes hybrid work),” the report says.
About 41 percent of the occupiers stated that only up to 25 percent of their employees have returned to their positions.
The survey showed that the telecommunications and consulting sectors saw the highest rate (75-100 percent) of returning to the office, while IT and new technology companies saw the lowest rate (0-25 percent) of returning to the office. Back at the office.
“The survey has made it clear that a distributed workspace strategy is the way forward for occupants in this new era of experiential workplaces, as occupants emerge from the aftermath of the pandemic. Flexible spaces, in particular, are leading this growth as occupiers from various sectors host teams in flex hubs in every city,” said Colliers India CEO Ramesh Nair.
Flexible workspace operators leased about 3.5 million square feet of office space between January and June of this year in the six major cities, nearly three-quarters of flex space leasing in all of 2021, it added.
The survey was conducted between May and June among occupants to understand their strategies regarding the distributed workplace. Respondents came from a variety of industries, including IT/ITeS, BFSI, engineering, and manufacturing, among others.
A total of 150 responses were received from C-Suite executives spanning Founders, CEO, COO and CHRO from various companies. The size of the company of the respondents varied, from a range of 1 to 500 employees to companies with more than 10,000 employees.
According to the survey, about 74 percent of occupants are likely to adopt a distributed workspace, while 53 percent of occupants prefer working from home plus the office as their preferred work portfolio strategy.
About 49 percent of occupants are likely to adopt flex centers to enable a distributed workspace, later setting up their own offices in metropolitan and non-metropolitan cities.
The consultant sees opportunities for flexible spaces not only in metropolitan cities but also in non-metropolitan cities. “In fact, in non-metro cities, total flex spaces are likely to more than double to 5.5 million square feet by the end of 2022,” Nair said.
Amit Ramani, founder and CEO of Awfis, said the survey findings are a testament to the success of the distributed work model and later flexible spaces in meeting India Inc’s ever-evolving workspace needs.
“Going forward, 77 percent of occupants will include flexible spaces as part of their workplace strategy. We expect exceptional demand going forward, driven largely by large corporations for traditional office density reduction.” exist,” he added.
According to data from Colliers India, gross office leasing increased to 32.9 million square feet in 2021 from 30.1 million square feet the previous year. During 2019, the figures amounted to 44.8 million square feet in six cities: Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.
In the first six months of this year, office rent increased to 27.5 million square feet from 10.3 million square feet in the same period a year ago. The share of leasing by flexible workspace operators stood at 13 per cent.
This story appeared in the 4 August, 2022 issue of Bulls Trade and was originally published at: Return To Office Highest In Telecom, Consulting Sectors; IT Lags: Report