Purpose Built Offices Replaced by Work from Home (WFH) in a Time of Business Disruption: Hybrid Office Model (HOM)

Abstract

With the pandemic of COVID-19 came a time of significant business disruption, particularly in relation to social distancing rules that effectively shut down organisations physical office spaces, and moved employees to Work From Home (WFH) in a very short space of time. This research looks at the current office space that employees use and compares it to the WFH space. The results showed that employees valued their physical office space, but that open plan or shared offices were often noisy and lacked privacy. Most described their office space as personal, comfortable, and conducive to productivity. In relation to the ability to work collaboratively, most respondents stated this happened in their current office space (87%), and with the move to WFH, 76% stated that they were still able to work collaboratively. Employees will no longer need to commute to work, can spend more time perusing personal plans and feel more productive when WFH. For employers, they now have access to a wider pool of talent, can enjoy cost savings and decrease their carbon footprint. The office of the future will be a hybrid model, a combination of WFH, working in the office and both, known as the Hybrid Office Model (HOM).