Four out of five workers in corporate Australia will not go back to full-time office work, new research has found, as work permanently becomes unshackled from physical spaces.
57% would even forego a pay increase or promotion to secure flexible work locations in the future, and half (53%) would even take a wage sacrifice to have more flexible work hours.
What were the highlights of the Liberated Work Report?
According to the Liberated Work report, published by independent workplace researchers, WORKTECH Academy and Australia’s private flexible workspace provider, Hub Australia.
A survey of 500 corporate employees at some of the country’s largest firms found that:
- Only 21% see themselves returning full-time to the traditional office environment
- More than half 58% said they expected to be working across multiple locations in 10 years’ time, including the traditional office, coworking spaces, home and other locations
- One in five (19%) believe the traditional office will be obsolete within the next decade
The report shares insights from the world’s top workplace and real estate experts, like Tica Masuku, Human Geographer and Workplace Strategy Manager at Charter Hall and David Cairns, SVP Office Leasing at CBRE, about why hybrid work from the office and home is only the beginning of a flexible work that will cater for how employees want to work in the future.
What does the report mean to landlords?
The Director of WORKTECH Academy Jeremy Myerson made these remarks on the findings: “Our research shows there are three major reasons why employees still want to visit an office: collaboration with colleagues, access to technology and improved productivity.”
“So while commercial landlords fear office leasing demand will shrink in the face of hybrid work, they can be assured there’s still an important role for the office to play and hybrid work is only the beginning of the what has been dubbed ‘the future of work’.”
“The time is now for landlords to plan for how workforces will use and access space, not just in this current COVID environment but also a decade down the road – where creating diverse environments to meet the demands for ‘liberated work’ will be essential.”
What must employers do to keep a productive workforce?
Hub Australia CEO and Founder Brad Krauskopf said: “Work has been unshackled from physical spaces and leaders must consider policies that allow employees to be the judge of how, when and where they work best. While the role of the traditional office isn’t dead, what this report shows, is it’s changed to be part of a broader liberated work eco-system.”
“What this work eco-system will look like is still evolving and remains to be seen, as key learnings from the past two years of hybrid work are applied and technology catches up to the new demands of split workforces across virtual and digital environments.”
“We’re seeing the rise of space-as-a-service, including coworking, hub-and-spoke arrangements and suburban work hubs, in addition to remote and work-from home models. It’s why we’ve seen enquiry for Hub Australia sites spike by 60% since early 2021.”
“We believe the new employee benefit will be offering employees choice of workspace. Providing workspaces that are hospitality-centric, offer advanced future-proofed tech while supporting health and wellness are essential to meeting demands of the modern worker.”
The Liberated Work report is available via https://www.hubaustralia.com/liberated-work.
