Research Shows That Employees Want A Safe Workplace

According to new research from Steelcase, 68% of organizations will be implementing their own hybrid work models moving forward.

Although there is no concrete definition of hybrid working, the broad description is that businesses allow their employees to work both in and outside of the office.

Steelcase’s report Changing Expectations and the Future of Work aims to provide companies with the guidelines of what employees will need moving forward in order to keep operations running smoothly and ensure productivity isn’t hindered.

The research identified five specific needs that will play a role in how the modern workplace will need to be designed: feeling safe, a sense of belonging, the ability to be productive, physical comfort and control over the environment.

One of the most important factors in future work environments is making sure employees feel safe and comfortable returning to the office. This doesn’t mean just working from home though — it’s a combination of remote and office-based workplaces.

Because of this, 86% of businesses stated that they plan on adjusting their long-term real estate strategies. 

“Leaders and teams want to harness the energy, innovation and growth that returning to the office brings, but old offices won’t work for the new reality of hybrid working – employees need to return to something better,” said Hania Arafat, Applied Research Consultant at Steelcase. “Now is the moment for companies to reinvent the work experience and the workplace – it’s the perfect time to test new types of spaces that braid together the physical and the digital.”