At the September Edition of MIPIM, the realities of the future of work were a focus of discussion.
According to IWG CEO Mark Dixon, the UK is now fully open thanks to vaccination rates, but that doesn’t necessarily mean things are expected to return back to pre-pandemic normalcy.
“Things that we’ve all become used to are changing,” said Lord Gerry Grimstone, Minister of State for Investment at the UK’s Department for International Trade.
Lord Grimstone added that businesses and people have gone through “the Covid-19 storm” that has totally uprooted the way the real estate sector operates.
For instance, companies are transitioning to hybrid work models that are bound to alter how they use their office space, including downsizing their real estate footprint.
To confront this, many companies are turning to flexible office operators to offer employees a secondary work location closer to their homes. For instance, IWG added nearly two million users to its network by signing partnerships with NTT and Standard Chartered, providing employees an alternative office solution.
Not only do these flexible offices help employees have an office closer to their homes, businesses can also use these spaces to boost their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals.
“Hybrid working is driven by concerns about ESG, sustainability and the planet, as well as by employees,” said Dixon. “The health of the planet, once Covid-19 moves aside, will become one of the biggest drivers to change in the future – and commuting and underused office buildings are huge polluters.”
