While before the pandemic as many as 76% of organizations employed people working exclusively on-site, only 24% of organizations surveyed by Colliers declare the adoption of the same employment strategy in the future. Due to this significant change in the labor market, we are observing new phenomena – employee expectations towards employers are changing, as is the way office spaces are shaped, which today must meet the needs of hybrid employees. The Colliers report “Hybrid and Beyond”, developed with partners HRK S.A. and Well.hr, shows the most important aspects of implementing hybrid work in companies operating on the Polish market.
Hybrid prevails
Some companies used a hybrid work model even before the pandemic, enabling employees to have remote connectivity, flexible working hours, or electronic document flow. The pandemic forced the introduction of this model also in organizations that previously worked exclusively from the office.
– Today, few companies work exclusively in an on-site or fully remote mode. Research shows that so far, as many as 89% of organizations have implemented a hybrid work model. Most employees of these companies work remotely for two to three days a week, 24% of employees work mainly from the office, and 18% perform work in a mode where remote work prevails. At the same time, 21% of the surveyed companies plan to increase the scope of work performed from the office in the future – says Karolina Dudek, Associate Director, People & Places Advisory, Colliers Define.
New employment strategy
Trends in the labor market indicate that the place of performing professional duties is ceasing to be a factor determining employment. According to the Colliers report, in the long term, 33% of companies intend to hire remote employees living in close proximity to the office, and 34% declare a desire to recruit employees working remotely from anywhere in Poland. Despite the global opening of the labor market, the least popular strategy, which only 10% of the surveyed organizations plan to implement, is hiring people working from anywhere in the world.
– The COVID-19 pandemic has had a very significant impact on how employers look for employees. They have opened up to candidates who are willing to travel long distances to work from the company’s headquarters, e.g., twice a week. Recruitment decisions are currently made based on the search for skills and predispositions other than those before the pandemic. Employees are now expected to have digital competencies that allow them to efficiently operate the devices and systems used in the organization – claims Piotr Mazurkiewicz, Managing Partner at HRK S.A.
Increasingly demanding employees
It turns out that organizations are getting used to the new vision of work and notice that for many job seekers, the hybrid model is a “must have” in the job description. However, within the hybrid work model, every fifth organization plans to switch to work more localized in the office. Why?
– Already today, 71% of the surveyed organizations declare that they encourage employees to work from the office to a greater extent than before or will start doing so in the near future. This may indicate a growing awareness that from the perspective of business needs, aspects such as mutual contact between employees in the office, information exchange, or building brand attachment are particularly important – explains Dorota Osiecka, Partner at Colliers and Director of the Colliers Define platform.
However, this is not an easy task – even a partial return to the office is still a lively topic of discussion among employees.
– It turns out that 66% of organizations encouraging employees to return to the office encounter resistance because employees have “settled in” to the remote work system. They value home silence and the lack of distractions. They explain that this mode positively affects their individual productivity and work-life balance. Therefore, companies use various types of motivators to encourage people to appear in the office. However, today “fruit Fridays” or “Tuesday pizzas” are not enough. It is rather by providing the opportunity for direct contact with colleagues, in conditions adapted to the needs resulting from the work style of specific employees, that organizations are able to create a space that can compete with a home office and will encourage employees to overcome the often time-consuming commute to the office – adds Dorota Osiecka.
Working from home preferred by employees also carries risks.
– We spend the time saved on commuting to work on performing professional duties, and often we extend working hours until late in the evening and lose the balance between professional and private life. This increases the risk of fatigue and professional burnout. Due to the changes that have occurred, new, previously unknown phenomena have also appeared, such as digital stress and fear of being disconnected, which are the result of too intense and prolonged contact with technology, as well as poor work organization – says Joanna Kotzian, Wellbeing Strategist, Co-founder of Well.hr.
The office anew
The popularization of the hybrid work model has also forced changes in office space. In the pre-pandemic period, individual workstations dominated in offices and accounted for about 70% of the space, and only 30% of the area – smaller and larger meeting rooms and common areas – was allocated to zones used for building relationships between employees. Today, great emphasis is placed on creating zones conducive to collaborative work and spontaneous meetings that build relationships in teams and their creativity. For example, special team rooms are being created in offices, i.e., conference rooms with workstations and computer access, where employees can work together on a given project. In addition, companies are increasingly investing in AV infrastructure to ensure the possibility of conducting meetings in both on-site and hybrid models. Since it rarely happens that all employees are in the office at the same time, many companies decide to move away from desks assigned to specific employees and introduce flexible workstations. So-called focus rooms are also popular, i.e., small rooms, e.g., in the form of mobile phone booths, which are an ideal place for holding small meetings.
– Currently, organizations are facing the challenge of creating a space that will be for the employee not only a place to perform professional duties, but also a unique experience – an experience of the company and its organizational culture, the team, as well as the workplace itself. I am referring here to the so-called social glue – points out Małgorzata Michalczyk, Administrative Director at Colliers.
The report is available for download via this link.
Source: Colliers