Otilia Bordei, Avison Young: “Employees want the flexibility of choosing where to work from in the future”

“I want to emphasize that no single way of working was disrupted more or for longer by the pandemic than the office work. Millions of workers had to retreat suddenly from their office buildings to their homes. The faith of the corporate workplace is still now subject of significant debate as positive experience of home working contrast with organizations and individuals eager to get back to the office.

Surveys are showing us that working from home has been a positive experience for many employees. They have found aspects of remote work that are beneficial to their performance and they have enjoyed upsides of working flexibly that they would like to retain in the future,” Otilia Bordei, Head of O­ffice Agency, Avison Young said during People Empowering Business Forum 2021 organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“But actually, the longer people have been away from their office the more they have missed their colleagues. For some, inadequate, crowded spaces of living are really difficult to manage.

The workplace is about talent. It’s no longer a place to warehouse people or to store your files. The other thing about the workplace is that it comes with a cost. The cost of space represents 10 percent out of the cost of salary & benefits per employee.

What do employees really want? It was a surprise to many employers that we were actually able to work effectively in a remote manner for so long. I had some ups and downs, I was looking to returning to the office, to have lunch with my colleagues, to have face to face meetings. I support flexibility. There is no place like home but sometimes it’s good to be somewhere else.

People and employees want flexibility to choose among a variety of workplaces. Prior to 2020, almost a third of employees said that they have worked from home or remotely at least once per week. Today, three quarters of people said they want to work from home at least once per week in the future. So, we have gone from one third to three thirds very fast. Only 16 percent of people say they would like to be 100 percent working remotely.

Another survey found out that 30 percent of people would consider looking for another job if they were forced to go back to the office full-time. 59 percent of people would consider a job with remote flexibility. Employees want the flexibility of choosing where to work from in the future.”

Full recording of the event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NOugHtxJ4M&t=5965s