Flex Office, another vision of work.

Brought back to the forefront by the health crisis, Flex Office and, by extension, hybrid work, offer many advantages for both companies and employees. Savings for some, a better quality of life for others. Will this way of working be the future of the office?

Trendy in the 1990s, Flex Office had somewhat fallen out of favor, only to make a comeback with the health crisis. Gone are the impersonal open spaces or closed offices with family photos and the youngest child’s drawings in a place of honor. The time has now come for SBF, or “No Fixed Desk.”

Flex Office, literally “flexible office,” allows us to rethink workspaces so that each employee, depending on their tasks and the time of day, can settle wherever they like: in an office, an alcove, or even in a third place such as a company cafeteria or a co-working space.

Advantages All Along the Chain

Now, if the health crisis boosted remote work and, as a result, the more frequent implementation of flex office in companies, it is precisely because these ways of working offer several significant advantages.

First observation: digital works, even if employees are not glued to a desk. Zoom and Teams meetings have thus become commonplace without any professional task suffering as a result. Even better, they make it easier to coordinate everyone’s schedules, which was sometimes more complicated when these meetings were only held in person. Consequently, professional nomadism is definitely no longer an obstacle to work. Second observation: by adopting this way of working, companies can significantly reduce their operating costs. Today, in fact, the actual occupancy rate of an assigned desk is about 60%. By no longer assigning desks, the company saves on space. A luxury in large cities. In short, hybrid work, combining remote work and flex office, is no longer a strange practice reserved for a few brave pioneers! In fact, according to a Deskeo study conducted in 2021, before the crisis, flex office concerned only 16% of French companies. Now, 55% of them plan to implement it in the short term.

Finally, last but not least, employees themselves also benefit from this new way of working. By allowing them to work where and when they want, flex office enables them to meet people from different backgrounds and thus further stimulate their creativity. But above all, flex office, a true remedy for routine, allows them to break free from the constraints usually associated with professional life, such as commuting time and the stress that often comes with it. In the Paris region, for example, the average home-work commute is 92 minutes! By allowing employees to work wherever they want, or even to work remotely, they are more relaxed and more productive.

A Must: Taking Employees’ Wishes into Account

Obviously, like any disruption of habits, the system can be seen in a less favorable light. Notably because no fixed desk means an impersonal workspace and, as a result, a sense of belonging to the company that can sometimes be undermined. As a result, according to a 2017 Opinion Way study, 47% of employees felt that it dehumanizes the company and its employees. And 68% of French people were outright opposed to it!

Yet now, so-called hybrid work is gradually becoming the norm. And the previously reluctant French are now clearly in favor of it. Proof: today, 78% of French employees support this way of working. Thus, most of the recently signed work organization agreements in companies provide for 2 days of remote work per week. Now, the average ratio of workstations in companies that have adopted flex office is 0.67 per person. Finally, these same companies would save between 15% and 35% of square meters thanks to the implementation of hybrid work… The revolution is therefore well and truly underway. But for employees to fully embrace it, the company must build its project with one essential element in mind: absolutely taking into account their aspirations and well-being.