Workers in the technology, media and finance industries are the most likely to consider an office unnecessary given ongoing changes to working practices after the Covid-19 pandemic.
New research shows a notable divide between the sectors in which employees are most and least likely to view working in the office as mandatory after more than a year of remote working in many businesses.
Based on a survey of 100,000 Savills clients across the UK and Europe questioned in May 2021, the sectors most in favour of the office were manufacturing, where 76% of respondents said it was a necessity; real estate and construction (73%); and legal (71%).
The sectors in which respondents were the most sceptical about the value of a bricks-and-mortar office were technology (57% in favour); media (59%); and finance (64%).
Across all industries, two-thirds of respondents said the office remained necessary, at least in the short term.
Katrina Kostic Samen, head of workplace strategy and design at KKS Savills, said on a webinar to discuss the findings that manufacturing workers’ enthusiasm for the office reflected recent trends in the industry.
“In manufacturing, increasingly we’re doing a huge amount on changing the way that the office component of a logistics and warehouse centre is being designed and performed,” she said. “No longer is it an afterthought, it’s about the people, and that function still has to exist.”
Technology workers’ relative scepticism was more of surprise given that “they are the ones that are taking all the bricks and mortar”.
Regardless of sector, Kostic Samen added, the need to adapt the office to meet the needs of returning staff after more than 15 months of working from home will be pressing.
“What’s embedded in all of that is the culture, the brand and staffing presence on the horizon,” she said. “You have to take care of the staff. Disrupt that at your peril.”
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