THE OFFICE IS CHANGING WORKPLACE TRENDS 2022

BY Realty Plus

Human being a social animal craves to interact with others. The increasing vaccination has boosted the confidence for socializing and going back to work. As Ramesh Nair,CEO India and Managing Director, Market Development Asia, Colliers rightly points out, “Omicron delayed the return to office however, the impact on office sector leasing activity remained mild as occupiers have realized the importance of offices and its role in attracting and retaining top talent.”

Amit Grover, Executive Director, Office Business, DLF Ltd added, “In fact, Covid has brought more business to India largely driven by digital acceleration of the global companies. Nasscom has predicted that the Indian IT industry will grow up to 300 to 350 billion and the growth will continue for the next five years. The top five Indian IT companies have already announced that they will be hiring 1,00,000 people in 2022. In addition, start-ups, Fintech and Pharma are expected to grow at rapid pace fuelling the demand for office space.” Harsh Lambah, Country Manager India, Vice President Sales, South Asia IWG said, “People are definitely looking at going back to work but also have new found love for work-life balance. They want to reduce commute and so suburban areas in metros and tier-2 cities are gaining traction for flex spaces for the employees to work. We are really well set to hit the prepandemic occupancy and revenue levels in 2022.”

Ritesh Sachdev, Senior Vice President and Head Commercial Leading and Asset Management, Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd said, "Commercial real estate witnessed its best period till about 2019 till the pandemic emerged. Today we are talking about hub and spoke model with multiple work centred of an organization. The challenge that has constantly worried the companies has been the data security and compliances in such a model.

In my view, sooner or later traditional offices will become a priority though its look and fell will change.” Amit Ramani, Founder & CEO, Awfis Space Solutions sharing a different perspective said, “The hybrid model of work is here to stay with a distributed kind of an approach for almost all companies. The industry trend is reflected
in our own coworking space occupancy demand. About 30- 35 percent is coming from large enterprises, roughly 40- 45 percent is from mid-corporate to SMEs and the
remaining 10-15 percent is from start-ups.” RETURN TO WORK TRENDS As per Ramesh Nair, “Grade-A commercial real estate gross absorption in 2022 should be about 15-20 per cent higher, as occupier confidence is back in the market. While, tier-2 cities are witnessing increased growth of flex spaces.”

“Till now it was talent following workplace now we have got work following talent. In USA one-fifth of employees quit and that was termed the great resignation period. Thus, more companies are willing to embrace change to attract and retain talent,” shared Ritesh Sachdev “The enterprises which were fence sitters are now
moving into flex and co-working in a big way, so they are clearly adopting the hybrid work model. At least for the next two three years till they are able to figure out
their strategies this will continue to drive demand for flex spaces,” expressed Amit Ramani

According to Harsh Lambah, “Moving back to work is gaining momentum particularly in cities of Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. Delhi –NCR is still muted in terms
of occupancy which could be the result of prolonged impact of the pandemic. In smaller cities almost 60-70 percent employees have returned to offices.” Amit Grover was of the view, “Sustainability and hygiene factors will be the deciding factor for the employees to come back to offices and organizations will be using technology in a big way to ensure health compliant buildings.”

Tags : Ramesh Nair CEO India and Managing Director Market Development Asia Colliers Amit Grover Executive Director Office Business DLF Ltd Harsh Lambah Country Manager India Vice President Sales South Asia IWG Ritesh Sachdev Senior Vice President and Head Commercial Leading and Asset Management Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd Amit Ramani Founder & CEO Awfis Space Solutions