More than three-quarters of managers believe that a ‘collaborative’ workspace is now better suited for employees rather than a fulltime office.
This comes from Onecom data, an independent business telecommunications provider which found that 77 per cent of managers agreed that casual workspaces are better designed to meet the needs of the workforce, where meetings can be held and collaborative working can be done.
Only 7 per cent disagreed and said they still support the idea of a fulltime office.
At the same time, more than half (56 per cent) of workers think that the COVID-19 changes have altered the way in which teams operate ‘forever’.
The research states that Millennials are 27 per cent more willing to support a ‘collaborative’ workspace instead of a fulltime office compared to Baby Boomers and managers from older generations.
Managers in London were most in favour of ‘collaborative’ workspaces out of the whole of the UK, with 85 per cent of London-based managers wishing to make this change over a fulltime office.
Managers in Northern Ireland and Wales were the least enthusiastic about accommodating ‘collaborative’ workspaces over offices.
Helen Myers, operations director at Onecom said:
There has been a move towards more flexible and collaborative working for many years now, however its clear to see from this study that the impact of the Coronavirus and the lockdown has sped up this process exponentially. Many of the managers that we work with, who were perhaps a bit apprehensive about what it would be like to manage employees remotely, are telling us that they’ve found working from home remarkably easy and enriching for their teams. The real thing that people are missing is the face-to-face interaction and many businesses are now waking up to the fact that you don’t necessarily need a fulltime office for that.
Onecom obtained these results by speaking to 1,000 UK managers and 1,000 UK employees.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.