Employees Aren’t Scared of Heading Back to the Office — As Long as It's the Right Office

Although working from home became a hot topic during the COVID-19 pandemic, studies show that only 11% of people actually want to work fully out of their home. Rather than simply working from home or from the office, most employees are expressing a desire for a third option — a hub-and-spoke model where they go to a flexible workspace every day in their local communities.

That is why International Workplace Group (IWG), the 3,300-location flexible workspace global powerhouse parent of Regus, a professional workplace brand; Spaces, a creative workplace brand; HQ, a hassle-free workplace brand; and Signature, a luxurious workspace brand, has seen such significant growth over the past few years. The concept added 500 locations last year and plans to add 1,000 more locations under agreement next year, with the majority coming from business investors, building owners and institutional developers who want to fill empty spaces and generate revenue and operating income.

But, some skeptics may ask, do employees who have worked-from-home for the past three years really want to go back to any office?

“It’s not about working from home, it’s about flexibility,” said IWG CEO of the Americas Wayne Berger. “Workers have demonstrated that the more they feel empowered to have a choice, the greater results for organizations. They are paid to achieve goals and results for the organization. They want the ability to do that wherever they see fit.”

Very few remote companies are providing the necessary tools workers need to work from home comfortably full-time and meet the company’s I.T. security protocols. “Only a fraction of people even have the capability to work out of a home office,” said Berger. “People need that separation between work and home. Getting people out of their homes is not challenging — it's getting them to commute an hour that is no longer possible.”

When it comes to what employees of today are looking for in an office experience, Berger says it goes beyond a great space. “For example, health and wellness is now the number one benefit people are thinking about when joining or staying with a company — superseding pay, bonus and title. It can’t be ignored,” he said.

Similarly, Berger says one of the primary shifts has been where in the country people want to work. IWG used to primarily grow in downtowns and then moved to the suburbs. Now, they are seeing a huge acceleration of demand in small towns of 10,000 to 15,000 people because workers want to stay close to home.

“As companies become more geographically diverse, we’ve also seen more and more candidates ask us for access to locations across 20 to 30 cities,” Berger said. “That is why we’ve been dramatically accelerating opening locations in smaller markets and transport hubs, like Champagne, Illinois or Duncan, Texas. Instead of traveling to the closest large city to work everyday, people from these towns have access to work closer to home.”

IWG’s flexible workspaces are designed to appeal to the hybrid employees and employers of today. This includes state-of-the-art technology, club-level experiences, health and wellness benefits, optimized floorplans, high-touch support, convenient locations, sleek design and much more.

With all of this, one thing is for sure: the old, out-of-the-way corporate headquarters office is a thing of the past. This means several large organizations are turning away from long-term capital leases when it comes to real estate, downsizing or eliminating their brick-and-mortar office space altogether. For landlords struggling to identify tenants willing to commit to long-term leases to fill current or upcoming vacancies, IWG offers an attractive solution.

“Suddenly, there is a real dramatic shift in how companies are looking at where they deploy their workforce and what working looks like every day, and in turn, savvy investors are finding ways to meet that demand and drive long-term returns,” said Berger. “Building owners can take a percentage of their portfolio, partner with IWG, invest capital to convert that space to a flexible workspace and start earning income from day one.”

Learn more at https://www.iwgplc.com/en-gb/develop-a-location.

In a recent webinar, 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills, IWG Regional Director of Partnership Growth Ryan Semler and IWG CEO of the Americas Wayne Berger discussed how IWG has seen record-breaking agreements with business investors to turn empty building space into profitable revenue. Watch the full conversation here.