*This is an excerpt from our report The Next Era for Australian Office Owners and Operators. You can download the full report here. 

It’s very likely that companies will adopt or experiment with several different ways of working as they test the waters in these initial months post-return to work. The hybrid or ‘working from anywhere’ concept has already been highlighted as an emerging trend, and these are four models to support this, which property owners should be attuned to.  

1. Work from near home

Companies could look to provide employees with professional working spaces that are within walking or cycling distance from their homes, such as co-working spaces. This prioritises their safety while supplying an environment optimised for individual tasks if the employee does not have one at home, without requiring them to travel to the main office. 

2. Decentralised offices

A hub-and-spoke model that provides employees with satellite offices closer to their homes, helping them to avoid long commutes while providing space to safely collaborate in small groups. This can give staff the feeling of community even at a distance from a central HQ.

3. Collaboration hubs

A model that shifts the purpose of a central office to primarily host intentional collaborative activities while maintaining work-from-home policies for individual tasks.

4. De-densified workspaces

A model that reconfigures a company’s original office space for social distancing in the same physical footprint. This may mean, for example, a space that once accommodated 1,000 people will be redesigned to support 300. 

It seems likely that these four models, as well as working from home, will play a pivotal role in the future of work. Giving people the freedom to choose where they work is becoming the rule rather than the exception, and while the office space is undergoing great change, it is also a time of great opportunity. 

The Next Era for Australian Office Owners and Operators is now out!
The report encompasses the new ways of working that tenants and modern companies now expect. It has been designed to help all members of the office ecosystem within Australia maximise their assets and spaces.