IWG on The Future of Work & Current Trends

International Workplace Group (IWG), the worldwide flexible workspace leader with over 3,500 locations in 1,200 towns and cities in over 123 countries worldwide, recently published a white paper titled “The Future of Work.” In the report, IWG outlines 10 emerging trends that are set to dominate the workplace as hybrid working becomes the pandemic’s ultimate legacy.

“Work in the future will be happening in the heart of local communities everywhere, so our focus at IWG is on providing local workplaces that people can access close to home, no matter where they live,” said Mark Dixon, the Founder and CEO of IWG.

1. Human Relations

With the pandemic shifting how we think about the workplace, IWG says one of the primary trends is employers no longer thinking of workers as commodities. “Rather than HR standing for human resources, in the hybrid world, it can be rebranded as ‘human relations.’ This is because companies are realizing that happier employees are more productive, and they are therefore investing in mental health, employee wellbeing and improved lines of communication,” the report said.

Compared to the traditional models, hybrid working is better positioned to prioritize respect and personalization for the employee by providing more flexibility outside the traditional 9-5 working week. With this in mind, IWG says that the hybrid model naturally aligns with

better mental health because people are less frequently forced to compromise their own needs for those of the company.

2. Hyper Flexibility 

While some companies were looking into flexible workplaces before the COVID-19 pandemic, it is now simply the expectation across the board. Last year, an IWG survey revealed that almost half of all office workers would quit if asked to return to the office five days a week, while nearly three quarters said they would prefer the option of hybrid working to a 10% pay rise if offered the choice. And with historic labor shortages and The Great Resignation, workers have more power than ever when setting the terms of their workplaces.

3. Workforce Dispersion

Now that employees have more freedom under a hybrid working model, employers also benefit from a larger labor pool to hire from. This will provide companies with better candidates, more diverse teams and financial savings, IWG says.

“Of course, there will still be demand for company HQs as places for people to come together and collaborate, but the hybrid model also allows for people to work remotely both from home and local flexible workspaces,” the report states. “For example, a company in California could hire someone living in London to do a job that previously would have needed them to relocate to San Francisco. In the hybrid world, they can simply check in via Zoom from a coworking site in Mayfair and visit the transatlantic head office two or three times a year.”

4. Suburban Revitalization

With workers no longer obligated to attend a central office in an expensive city on a daily basis, they have more flexibility to move to more affordable areas. This means once-dormant local towns and villages are blossoming into vibrant places to live and work as companies

invest in local coworking spaces that are more convenient and less costly than expansive HQs at premium city addresses.

The new hybrid working trend will create more jobs in these smaller cities, IWG notes, while also increasing spending, triggering an “unparalleled wave of suburban revitalization.” According to a recent study by IWG and Arup, rural and suburban areas in the UK could receive an injection of £327 million in spending a year, thanks to the roll-out of flexible office and coworking spaces for hybrid workers.

5. Part-time Commutes

Long gone are the days of frustrating hours spent in rush hour traffic. As people choose to work closer to home, employees are saving money, time and stress by avoiding long, unnecessary commutes. In 2019, the average daily commute in the UK was 59 minutes, according to findings from the trade union body TUC. In the U.S., before the pandemic, there had been a 45% rise in ‘super commutes’ of 90 minutes or more each way between 2010 and 2019 (according to a report in The New York Times).

Now, hybrid workers can enjoy “part-time commutes.” Instead of going into the city every day, they can head to the office now and again on an ad-hoc basis or combine it with a night or two away from home.

6. Experience Design

As the average office space changes, so will the actual office experience for employees and employers. Many experts believe hybrid workspaces will become social hubs with the integration of bars, wellness spaces, expansive communal tables and residential-style lounges.

In order to build relationships and enhance creativity, hybrid workspace providers will be delivering spaces that exhibit everything from biophilic design and seamless video-conferencing suites to convivial social spaces, recording studios, hot desks that can be booked by app and al fresco forums for team gatherings. Best of all, the hybrid working model will allow workers to use these new facilities in ways that best fit their own lifestyles and working needs.

7. Virtual collaboration

With cloud-based technology central to the success of hybrid working, everyone from independent entrepreneurs to big corporations will be adopting various online tools for virtual collaboration, IWG said. These include everything from the virtual reality Metaverse to the workflow platform Monday.

At the end of 2019, Zoom had around 100 billion annual meeting minutes. By October 2020, it was hosting 3.3 trillion meeting minutes (that’s the equivalent in time of 6.3 million years). Microsoft Teams has experienced similar growth — acquiring 40 million new daily active users between February and October 2020, taking the total to 115 million. In July 2021, it hit 250 million.

8. Green dividends 

Reduced commuting also brings environmental benefits due to fewer cars on the road and downsized offices resulting in decreased energy consumption. According to Global Workplace Analytics, if all U.S. residents who could and wanted to work from home started doing so for half the week, it would be the greenhouse gas equivalent of taking the entire New York State workforce off the road.

“There’s no doubt that sustainability is now very much front of mind for companies around the world — and they know this is something their customers expect,” said Dixon. “At IWG, we believe that adopting a hybrid working model brings considerable sustainability benefits and can be a major pillar in any company’s ESG agenda. And it can also be the foundation of a new approach to work and life that benefits both the planet and its people.”

9. Reduced overheads

Office rent is typically one of a company’s highest costs. According to global real estate consultancy JLL, the world's most expensive premium office rental markets are Hong Kong, New York, Beijing and London, costing as much as $313 per square foot in 2020.

With hybrid working and smaller corporate real estate (CRE) footprints, business owners can enjoy higher profits thanks to lower rent, utility bills, cleaning fees and office equipment costs, IWG says. According to Global Workplace Analytics, a typical employer can save about U. S. $11,000 every year for every person who works remotely for half of the week.

10. Productivity metrics

While it may seem like having employees dispersed all over the place would make it harder to evaluate productivity, the hybrid working model actually creates heightened transparency thanks to cloud-based workflow tools such as Quixy, Hive and Nintex integrated into company operations. With this real-time data, it is much easier to monitor, track and assess who is doing what and whether or not deadlines are being met, IWG says.

Additionally, those certain aspects of employee performance that can’t be measured, such as fresh thinking and innovation, will be better nurtured in a hybrid working environment. By giving employees the flexibility and space to be more creative, companies will inevitably see better results.

Check out the full white paper here.