Reimagining workspaces: Perspectives from vantage point

The definition of an office is forever evolving with the pandemic changing the idea of a traditional workplace. Organisations and employees alike had to adapt quickly and with vaccinations rollouts and gradual easing of restrictions, they have begun to reconsider the concept as well as purpose of an office space. It has become important to reshape workplaces for the modern workforce and the post pandemic offices of tomorrow will have to be redesigned in such a way that it meets the changing needs and expectations of employers and employees, both.

“Working at Behub is truly a pleasant experience. I love the wide glass windows that inspire me and bring my thoughts out of the box.”

Abraham Maslow

Key Highlights:

• We are now dealing with a liberated work environment and collaborative workspaces are a subset of this new work environment. With this trend, a conventionally popular trend of building the office first and then hiring has been reversed. Despite these changes, office is a flag that stands for stability, retaining and hiring talent.
• Working from home had its impact on employees in terms of stress and diminishing the overall well-being of the employees. In today’s world, hybrid work model, remote working, work from home will co-exist.
• The other change which will take front seat in reimagining workspaces is the safety of employees. Offices will be designed in line with the new reality where space utilization will get monitored, behaviour adjustments will be taken into consideration and the offices will provide an environment that yields higher productivity.

While Work from home has its positives, offices are about collaboration, engagement, culture building and talent development which is only possible with physical offices. Covid-19 has accelerated a few trends like digitalization where the new age workforce have different attitudes and preferences compared to the millennials.

There is no doubt that the pandemic has highlighted the need for innovation in CRE and accelerated the growth of trends that will carry over in the coming years. With customer preferences changing rapidly along with increasing influence of advanced technology, it is imperative for commercial real estate to take note of these emerging trends and undergo a swift transformation putting the end user’s needs at the forefront.