Drawing on data from 12 countries* in Europe, North America and the Middle East, PlanRadar provides analysis of the influence of the pandemic on office design and usage. Thus, driven by the development of remote working, individual workspaces tend to be drastically reduced in 80% of the countries studied in favor of the development of more modular and collaborative offices.
- 92% of countries expect flexible working environments to become mainstream;
- Spain is the only country to predict a decline in remote and hybrid working;
- The United States is the country that has increased office space per employee the most after the pandemic (from 13,9 m2 to 18,2 m2 on average);
- France is the country that grants the highest minimum legal office space per employee.
The 12 countries studied: Germany, Austria, United Arab Emirates, Spain, United States, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, United Kingdom and Slovakia.
The teleworking boom: a generalized dynamic…
The emergence of telework and hybrid work, namely the possibility for an employee to combine face-to-face and remote work, has spread around the world for almost three years. PlanRadar's study reveals that 22,9% of all employees now work remotely on an occasional or permanent basis. In the United States, 58% of workers report working from home at least one day a week. Germany, France and Austria are the European countries where remote working is the most developed: more than 20% of employees there work remotely exclusively or very regularly (at least several times a week). In Central and Eastern Europe, this trend is less followed: only 8,3% of Hungarian employees and 7% of Polish staff work exclusively from home.
Remote work can thus be considered as a means of lowering the cost/employee ratio: the countries which develop remote work the most are also those whose law imposes the most m² per worker, such as France (10m²) , Germany or Austria (8m² each). Spain (4m²) expects a decline in telework, and Poland (2m²) makes little use of it.
The increase in the number of remote workers has permanently transformed the way of occupying workspaces. The office has now become more of a place of collaboration, flexible according to needs. A paradigm shift that has also encouraged the development of flexible offices (without assigned space) and coworking spaces.
In favor of the development of flexible offices and co-working spaces
Some countries like the United Kingdom and the United States are particularly fond of it. In 2020, the United Kingdom already had nearly 6.075 flexible and coworking spaces, or 9,5 million m². A figure that is expected to almost double to 15,5 million m2 by 2023. The United States has 6.200 coworking spaces in 2022. Western Europe as a whole has also developed an affinity for coworking spaces: Germany had 1.200 in 2020, while in 2021, France had 2.787 and Spain 1.483, Italy and Eastern countries such as Slovakia are behind. Other countries, like Hungary, have even seen a drop in the number of coworking spaces in recent years.
More functional and collaborative offices
Less frequented, employees expect their offices to be more open and better suited to group work and team activities. This growing interest in flexible spaces involves the implementation of movable partitions, modular meeting rooms and light furniture that allow the layout of the workplace to be adapted to fluctuations in the workforce and the needs of the company.
The design of offices around the world also takes environmental issues into account: designing sustainable offices is considered a priority in the majority of the countries studied in order to contribute to the achievement of carbon objectives.
Find the complete study of this second part on this link.