What Office Collaboration Will Look Like in 2025
As more people show up in the office, its culture evolving.
Companies continue to focus on the work office experience, which has evolved in the past two years to focus considerably on collaboration, according to a recent HqO report.
The report’s forecasts extended out several years and said that by 2025, corporate workspace allocation will flip from 70% individual workstations and 30% collaborative space to 30% individual and 70% collaborative space.
Meanwhile, Gartner goes further and projects that 70% of corporate workspace allocation will be devoted to collaborative space by 2025.
“This is a radical shift from the pre-pandemic allocation, where only 30% of workspaces were designed to enable collaborative work,” according to the HqO report.
Gartner also said the frequency of 5 days per week of in-person work will continue to fall.
Hq0 said that stronger workplace connections “lead to a stronger workplace experience, which in turn leads to better business outcomes—like increased NOI and boosted productivity.”
Microsoft: Workers Value Person-to-Person Contact
“Planned meetings,” “learning from others,” and “accessibility of colleagues” also saw upticks in importance after the start of the pandemic,” according to the report.
A study from Microsoft found that 84% of employees would be motivated to come back to the office by the promise of socializing with colleagues, while 85% would be motivated to return by rebuilding team bonds.
“Today’s workers value person-to-person contact and group learning,” HqO writes. “They want to build closer connections with colleagues, and they want to leverage those connections in their hybrid work environments.”
Further, HqO found that 40% of today’s employees are not satisfied with the meeting rooms offered by their workplaces; and 45% of employees are not satisfied with the room and desk-booking systems offered by their workplaces.