A nationwide survey of more than 300 end users, operators, landlords, and developers found that an agile workplace has a positive impact on user engagement.
The survey—conducted by The Instant Group, a workplace innovation company, and the architectural firm HLW—also exposed a blurring of the lines separating “flex” and “conventional” approaches to office design and operations.
“Agile working practice has been widely adopted and is now viewed as a strategy to mitigate uncertainty and risk,” observed the authors of the research report based on the survey titled The Marketplace for Flexible Work. “Furthermore, many companies now see agile solutions as offering value to their business planning.”
Peter Bacevice, HLW’s Director of Research, adds, “Today’s workplace calls people to action and to do great things. Great workplaces inspire people and provide the essential staging for the cultivation of community from which fresh ideas emerge, evolve, and underpin sustained business growth.”
End users of co-working and flex office spaces spend an average of 54% of their total work weeks in these spaces, the survey revealed. Among its respondents, 83% of the survey’s end users of co-working and flex space claim they’ve benefited from these new work environments over the last five to 10 years. And 71% stated that these workspaces positively affect the ways that they engage their work.
The survey found a high level of satisfaction with flex and co-working spaces among end users. Image: The Instant Group/HLW
End users say they are thriving in flex office spaces because these environments expand their professional networks and business opportunities, engender innovation, and give them a higher feeling of energy. The experience in these kinds of office spaces is akin to what users might encounter in hotel operations, observed John Williams, Instant’s head of marketing.
It’s not surprising, then, that while the majority of end users expect they will be working in a range of work environments in the future, more than two-fifths (42%) expect to be using flex office spaces more going forward in their work lives.
Three-fifths of corporate respondents to the survey agreed that the rise of co-working and flexible approaches to office design and operations has benefited their businesses, particularly in the area of being able to add or reduce the amount of space needed to seat employees at any given time.
Corporate tenants are looking for maximum flexibility from the workspaces they lease. Image: The Instant Group/HLW
For landlords, flex and co-working space creates value for their portfolios, the survey found. And office operators see the growth of these approaches as a way to gain more market share from corporate tenants.
While corporate tenants remain divided on co-working and flex space as a short or long-term solution for their companies, more than two-fifths of landlords agreed that flex space is a long-term solution, and 72% agreed that working with co-working operators that have a strong brand has “significant benefits” for their development.
“There is still much work to be done by the landlord market to assess who these potential clients [for flexible spaces] are and their specific demands, but the desire is there to adapt their offer to the market,” wrote John Vaughan, Instant’s Director.
Overwhelmingly, all respondents agree that wireless connectivity and wireless security are the most important technology-related features of flex and co-working spaces. Printing compatibility and printing security were also very important to almost two-thirds of respondents.
And with leases, on average, down to as low as 5.2 years, and with the average tenure or stay around 36 months for operators, the choice among tenants between a “flex” or “conventional” approach is now based more on cash-flow and strategic considerations than the length of stay.
Related Stories
| Aug 27, 2014
Designs for community-based workspace in Carlsbad unveiled
Cruzan announced make, a 175,000-square-foot office redevelopment project on the coast of Carlsbad, Calif. Cruzan will usher this next generation of community-based, integrated workspace into existence in fall 2014.
| Aug 25, 2014
Tall wood buildings: Surveying the early innovators
Timber has been largely abandoned as a structural solution in taller buildings during the last century, in favor of concrete and steel. Perkins+Will's Rebecca Holt writes about the firm's work in surveying the burgeoning tall wood buildings sector.
| Aug 25, 2014
'Vanity space' makes up large percentage of world's tallest buildings [infographic]
Large portions of some skyscrapers are useless space used to artificially enhance their height, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
| Aug 25, 2014
Photographer creates time-lapse video of 1 WTC using 30,000 photos
Choosing from 30,000 photos he took from the day construction began in 2006 to the day when construction was finished in 2012, Brooklyn-based photographer Benjamin Rosamund compressed 1,100 photos to create the two-minute video.
| Aug 19, 2014
Goettsch Partners unveils design for mega mixed-use development in Shenzhen [slideshow]
The overall design concept is of a complex of textured buildings that would differentiate from the surrounding blue-glass buildings of Shenzhen.
| Aug 18, 2014
From icon to breadbasket: Gehry building to be turned into Whole Foods
The Howard Hughes Corporation, in association with architecture firm Cho Benn Holback + Associates, plans to turn the building—at least the majority of it—into a Whole Foods.
| Aug 18, 2014
SPARK’s newly unveiled mixed-use development references China's flowing hillscape
Architecture firm SPARK recently finished a design for a new development in Shenzhen. The 770,700 square-foot mixed-use structure's design mimics the hilly landscape of the site's locale.
| Aug 14, 2014
How workplace design can empower employees, businesses
Focusing on recent work at Follett and Zurich, CannonDesign’ Meg Osman reveals the power of research, strategy, change management, and measurement to transform businesses for the better.
| Aug 12, 2014
Shading prototype could allow new levels of environmental control for skyscraper occupants
Developed by architects at NBBJ, Sunbreak uses a unique three-hinged shade that morphs from an opaque shutter to an abstract set of vertical blinds to an awning, depending on what is needed.
| Aug 11, 2014
The Endless City: Skyscraper concept connects all floors with dual ramps
Rather than superimposing one floor on top of another, London-based SURE Architecture proposes two endless ramps, rising gradually with a low gradient from the ground floor to the sky.
