Coworking spaces demand to improve as employees return to workplace: TOP

National, April 20, 2022: Neighbourhood Coworking & Managed Offices operator, The Office Pass (TOP), conducted the second edition of its survey titled “Workplace sentiment post covid” in the month of March-April 2022. The survey saw participation from employers and employees of 173 small and mid-sized companies. Companies surveyed are in in the field of IT, Sales & Marketing, Finance, Customer Services and HR. The survey, conducted among companies and their employees, brings to the forefront various challenges and opportunities employees have faced with this new mode of operation. Additionally, the survey focuses on employees’ willingness to work remotely from their homes as well as infrastructural requirements to aid them to operate effectively, among others. 73% respondents were Male and 27% female.

As per the survey findings, post the covid pandemic, many more businesses have realised the economic, social and health benefits of implementing a hybrid working models compared to the pre-covid period.

Top 5 survey findings:

1.      Tying up with a Coworking operator is the preferred option for employers: Tie up with coworking operator to enable employees to work from near their home was the preferred option among 48% of employers. This was followed by 19% who wanted to work out of a traditional office. Around 13% employers preferred calling their employees to office 2-3 days in a week on rotational basis.  It is interesting to know that in the earlier survey conducted post covid first wave, only 29% of employers had preferred a tie-up with the Coworking operators.

2.      Employees prefer attending office: 62% of all employee prefer going to office, 28% like to work in a hybrid model (combination of #WFH & Office) and only 10% preferred permanent work from home.

3.      Main reason for choosing a coworking office: 38% of respondents would choose a coworking spaces as it helps in saving of commute time to work. The second biggest reason for preferring a coworking space was saving in office operations cost (highlighted by 27% respondents). Two smaller reasons were, networking opportunities (24%) and exhaustion of work from home (12%). 

4.      Main advantages of work from home: Top 3 benefits of #WFH for employees are, saving on commute to office (42%), better health and safety (39%) and more time for children and family (10%). 

5.      Companies are optimistic about their business growth: Companies are planning to hire more employees in the next 12 months compared to the preceding 12 months. Percentage of companies wanting to hire between 25-50 employees have grown from 8% to 25%. Percentage for companies wanting to hire more than 50 employees have grown from 6 to 8%. Companies wanting to hire only 10 employees have reduced from 60% to 45%.  

 Commenting on survey findings Nikhil Madan, Cofounder, The Office Pass (TOP) said, “Businesses worldwide face multiple challenges, including ensuring that their business is agile enough to adapt to change. Our research shows that businesses that haven’t already considered the financial and strategic benefits of flexible workspace need to do so now. Otherwise, they face being seen as out of touch, both with their competitors and with the demands of the modern workforce on what constitutes a great day at work, which means losing out on the best talent.”

In 2020, the work lives of people across the world underwent a paradigm shift, with working from home becoming the norm overnight. However, companies have already started opening offices across the country in a staggered manner. They are now expediting the pace as the concerns over the Omicron variant have subsided significantly.