Flexible Suburban Offices Could Be The Next Big Trend

The coworking and flexible office industry has mostly focused on servicing major cities such as New York, London and others. But now, as more employees opt to work from home, these companies may be shifting their focus to suburbs.

“I think you might see a change in location preference from customers,” said Richard Morris, IWG UK chief executive. “People want to work closer to home, in a dispersed way, and companies might not just want that big cluster in the middle.”

Specifically, the “hub-and-spoke” model where companies adopt a smaller headquarters location and add small satellite offices closer to where people live could meet the needs of workers who want to avoid dense, public transport.

Although working from home has its own benefits, some employees are seeking the socialization and interaction that an office provides. Flexible offices become the perfect solution to this problem as it can be used to accommodate the needs for as little or as many workers that want to be in the workplace. 

Still, some are wary of this model since the point of a central headquarters is that it is in the middle of everything. Plus, public transportation may still have to be used to travel to satellite offices.