Before the pandemic, we saw a huge rise in flex workplaces. Big companies like Google and Pinterest were maximizing their spaces to create almost a home away from home, with so many spaces dedicated to employees' comfort, satisfaction, and productivity. It was visually and socially appealing, making even more people want to work at companies with workspaces like that.
Since the pandemic, people have slowly been returning to work, and flex spaces have been gaining popularity. The Economist talks about this transition and highlights that these workspaces have become more of a place of socialization for employees instead of work, meaning more people like working from home and only come in to work to see colleagues.
In fact, remote and hybrid workspaces have become the most popular choice ever since remote work was the only choice during the height of the pandemic. People love the flexibility of remote and hybrid working, especially in a flexible workspace that fuels their productivity, creativity, and collaboration.
Flex office spaces have plenty to offer. In an article by Hubble HQ, they discuss what flex office spaces do to boost employee productivity, collaboration, and office morale. A flexible workspace provides open-plan designs, which fuels collaboration between departments. This means that something as simple as a wall separating departments no longer exists or that some companies have their entire company in one place where they can easily go from a business space to a warehouse. This kind of design allows the company to be more collaborative because the normal physical boundaries aren’t there.
You can simply walk from the conference room to the warehouse to the coffee bar! Or you can go from the casual, collaborative open space to the more quiet corner to get some work done, which brings us to our next point: quiet areas.
Each flexible workspace has this as well. With an open-plan design comes lots of noise since everything’s open, so this makes it so everyone has somewhere to go if they need a more quiet area. Establishing quiet areas within your workspace design is important to allow for productive task completion when socialization and collaboration are unnecessary.
Adaptable workstations are the next factor, which could be a standing desk, or going to the more common areas like a coffee bar to get some work done. These areas also have natural lighting and comfortable chairs, making them even more popular.
lighting and comfortable chairs, making them even more popular.
The last thing is shared amenities. People may hoard things like work supplies and snacks in more traditional office spaces at their desks since it’s only in one area. Shared amenities in a flex workspace make it so that plenty of areas have these amenities, so you don’t have to go too far to get them.
Flex spaces aren’t just popular amongst employees. There’s a reason why companies are adopting these spaces. According to an article from JLL, companies started utilizing flex spaces more for several reasons, including increasing portfolio flexibility, reducing occupancy costs, and enhancing collaboration.
The article by JLL talks about how flex spaces allow companies to reduce occupancy costs, increase productivity during growth periods, avoid fixed long-term leases, provide room for staffing flexibility, give protection from rapid changes in the market, and simplicity when it comes to new market measures.
This makes converting to a flex space a win-win for businesses and their employees. Employees get more say in how they will work, and businesses get increased productivity. These are the reasons why flex spaces are becoming popular, along with their popularity online, where employees are posting about how much fun they have working for companies that utilize this kind of workspace.
We’re beginning to see workplace designs like this everywhere, from the healthcare field to areas of education, and WPI offers designs perfect for a hybrid workforce.
We offer design and space planning, workplace moves, furniture services, and more to create your perfect flex workspace. Our website also has a feature that lets you get a virtual tour of our showrooms.
These tools on our website can help companies visualize their plan to convert their space into a flex workspace and proceed with lots of help along the way. Flex spaces don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, and we’re here for it!
