Delhi-based start-up Awfis and tech-enabled workspace provider Qdesq jointly conducted the Indian Flex Occupier’s Survey, covering the preferences of workspace occupiers and understand employee expectations. Additionally, it aims to understand the critical impetus for finalising the workspace, amenities priorities and perspectives of tech enhancements for companies.
According to the survey, nearly 35 per cent to 40 per cent of companies of all sizes prefer the idea of hybrid working.
As flexibility became the cornerstone of workplace solutions during the pandemic, the workforce now needs the same level of flexibility in the post-pandemic era.
According to this survey, more than 90 per cent of companies in the pharmaceutical sector prefer to work from the office, while 50 per cent of technology and retail organisations prefer a hybrid mode. After the pandemic, 70 per cent of the smaller firms, including start-ups, are keen to call employees back into the office.
The pandemic has caused a clear division in office spaces in India. Companies with a conventional office approach demand employees to work from the office, while companies with flexible office approach allow employees to work from different places.
Currently, 45 per cent of both conventional and flexible companies are looking for office spaces and 35 per cent of them instituted a multi-office approach through collaboration with co-working spaces.
According to Amit Ramani, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Awfis, the long-term future of the entire business will be determined by the current occupier patterns, which is also creating new expansion opportunities for flex space operators in the short term. "This is an opportune time for flex space operators to reinvent their workspaces, diversify their presence in cities, and carefully analyse tenant expectations to accommodate them effectively as flexibility continues to hold sway over workplace strategies of enterprises of all sizes,” he noted.
Paras Arora, founder and CEO of Qdesq added that the post-pandemic era is a witness to the deployment of new workspace models to maintain profitability, instill work flexibility and employees' well-being. "No longer confined to small start-ups, the flexible workspace segment, today, is embracing the arrival of various big enterprises. As firms continue to evolve with the changing market dynamics, the workforce expectations, too, have changed with new working models like hybrid, work-from-home, and working from office coming to the fore.