The Workplace You Need Now

3The Future Is Flexible

“As hybrid work emerges as the preferred way of working, businesses need to reinvent themselves with the workforce being ‘front of mind.’ In the future of work that is increasingly worker-centric, the human experience will take center stage.”

Christian Ulbrich, CEO and President, JLL

Corporate America has been on a 40-year workplace optimization journey that was accelerated by the pandemic and has led to what we’re now calling the hybrid workplace. The hybrid workplace assumes that work can happen anywhere, across a range of physical and digital spaces including, but not confined to, the office.

Workers want the ability, or flexibility, to work where, when, and how they choose. They want to have more control of their schedules and routines, as well as their workspaces. Although such a demand might have been viewed as fanciful or ludicrous a few years ago, this type of work flexibility is now a legitimate option. If nothing else, the pandemic made clear that knowledge work can also be completed outside the central workplace setting, just as it can be completed in different hours than the traditional 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. No wonder 88 percent of employees globally would like some flexibility in working hours and schedule.ⁱ

A majority of workers now prefer remote work for at least part of the work week. Our human experience research shows that 63 percent of employees across industries globally now desire the flexibility to continue ...