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Six Trends Influencing the Future of Office Environments

Six Trends Influencing the Future of Office Environments
16 July 2024
 

Once a fundamental of working life, the traditional office setup is changing. Adil Sheikh from MuteBox outlines the latest changes in working dynamics. 

Adil Sheikh is Managing Director at MuteBox. With a robust sales career spanning over 25 years, Adil Sheikh has carved out a niche as an authoritative figure in the commercial use of modular office solutions and is passionate about reducing the built environment’s carbon footprint. Adil has achieved outstanding results in his previous role at US startup ROOM, where his strategic acumen was instrumental in leading a UK, Europe and APAC expansion and achieving an impressive 100 per cent year-on-year growth and multi-million revenue figures ahead of the business’ sale, enhancing workspaces for notable clients like the NHS, Imperial College London, Braze and Canva.

 

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Picture: a photograph of Adil Sheikh. Image Credit: MuteBox

 

The Changing Role of the Office

 

The role of the office has rarely been under such intense scrutiny. Indeed, all over the country, the role and function of the office and practical utilisation of space is undergoing regular assessment, review and revision, far more than ever before. Once a set fundamental of working life, the office space and setup has become fluid, and even a factor open to question for businesses.

To understand what’s driving these trends in more detail, MuteBox partnered with Proptech Connect to hear from voices throughout the commercial property space, across design, fit-out and investment. From the feedback it was clear that several main factors are converging to accelerate this sea-change in working dynamics. 

 

1. Sustainability

 

One area we learnt is fuelling reappraisal is a growing number of sustainability initiatives – in particular when it comes to ESG drivers from financial stakeholders. The rise of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) as a priority comes at a time when new environmental standards are coming in across property (re)development and are combining to drive a new focus on the environmental impact of the built environment as a whole.

When it comes to office spaces, this means a greater focus on natural light, and organic, sustainable materials as well as those which can be reused and repurposed. We also noted the increase in Green Leases and Building Management Systems to optimise and control energy usage. It could be argued that this environmental focus is long overdue, but it will influence how commercial office environments are experienced in times to come. Expect much more use/ reuse of fittings, modular design, sustainable materials and for the carbon footprint of commercial spaces to be a regular assessment with the c-suite and investors for the foreseeable future.

 

2. Cost-Cutting

 

An equal driver in promoting more sustainable use and reuse of physical space is the financial pressures which have acted on businesses across the country. This has also forced many to reevaluate line items on the balance sheet, and any property costs would have been natural areas to streamline given the corresponding rise in hybrid working and legislative introductions which have enshrined a certain level of working from home for many, previously office-based, employees. 

This has also led to much greater tracking and analysis of how spaces are being used, to avoid budgets being spent on unnecessary “dead space”. While co-working places have thrived as a result, they also face issues of certain weekdays seeing much greater occupancy than others, but also fluctuating demands on their own workspaces with meeting rooms and private spaces often an exceptionally high demand.

 

3. Footfall

 

While the introduction of the Flexible Working Act has reinforced that hybrid work patterns are here to stay for white-collar workforces, the fluctuations in their physical presence in dedicated offices remain hard to predict. Many large multinationals have hit the headlines precisely for mandating in-office work, five days a week to protect historical investments in permanent property portfolios which may now be significantly under-occupied on any given day.

Some have turned to automated footfall trackers to add insight and understand the direction for their own businesses, while others are advocating for the office to be viewed as the heart of company culture and colleague collaboration instead of the engine of individual productivity and responsibility. This also means that many offices need to support a diverse range of needs no longer supported by decades-long dedication to open plan layouts. Access to a range of different zones to suit private conversations and individual focus needs is rising up the interiors agenda, whether in shared spaces with fluctuating occupancy or designated areas.

 

4. Flexibility

 

One notable contribution to the research stated that office trends are now in perpetual flux, and likely to keep shifting on a 6-18 month timeframe. This makes it tremendously difficult for owners, investors, fit-out businesses and tenants to predict what the office space may be asked to host in the medium to long term. This is why a focus on modular, rather than rigid and inflexible office designs and layouts is becoming much more needed, allowing for investment in the trappings of office life to be repurposed and reused to a different plan as offices expand and flex to shifting work patterns and preferences. One contributor even noted that fit-out contracts are starting to have "refit clauses" baked in, to make sure that after signing, tenants can alter interiors more easily.

 

5. Investment Protection

 

One of the primary shapers of the office evolution has to be the investment community. Commercial property had long been seen as a pretty safe bet – multiple tenants giving healthy returns, typically good appreciation of value, lower competition than in the residential sector. The black swan of the pandemic has shaken this concept to the core, and with London office space tenancy only now recovering and the rest of the country lagging behind on commercial rents (according to RICS), investors are having to take a serious look at protecting their assets. Many have turned to incorporating flexible working spaces as standard to maximise pay-as-you-go short term returns, and the especially forward-thinking  are trying to make sure that interiors can be repurposed and changed rapidly if needed.

 

6. Continued Reinvention

 

If the office is now a constantly malleable property, workforce trends are also constantly shifting. If the research feedback that modern offices will shift in usage on a 6-18 month timeframe is accurate, then the physical environment is going to have to cope with a constant reassessment and re-structuring plan. Fixtures and fittings which can adapt to these changes in a modular way and accommodate fluctuating staff numbers and daily footfall are likely to become the norm, rather than design and layout plans which are set in stone. We look set to seeing the office environment almost as a giant Lego set, with reusable components which can be easily broken down and rearranged at will – rather than expensive fixed commodities which no longer suit changing use.

Ultimately, the framework of the office has seen a number of impactful changes over the last few years. If these predictions from industry voices hold course, this state of change is set to become the norm. The true test for the future of the work environment is whether they can continue to flex and adjust to meet the needs of tenant businesses, owners, investors and users alike.

The MuteBox white paper is available to read in full here.

Picture: a photograph of an open-plan office area with a private meeting/telephone box. Image Credit: Mutebox

Article written by Adil Sheikh | Published 16 July 2024

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