The traditional office, with small functional rooms and located in an out-of-town business park, is losing ground to more flexible company spaces in which worker wellbeing is central. 

Working from home has not led to a significant decline in demand for offices, but it is driving a change in the sort of spaces companies are looking for if, say, they want to rent an office in Amsterdam.

It is a major shift and one which has been given an extra impulse by coronavirus. Today’s office, says Michiel Bijmolt, commercial director at the ‘new style’ office broker Flexas.com, is more than just a place to sit behind a desk and work in.

‘Companies want a space where people can work in a concentrated way behind a desk, or have a confidential meeting but they also want more informal places, where you can have a coffee, or lunch together,’ says Bijmolt.  Once the preserve of geeky tech start-ups, a pool table or bean-bag filled break-out room, is also an increasingly popular part of the mix.

Happy workers

The trend, says Bijmolt, is about what makes workers happy, rather than finding a space that encourages everyone to work as hard as possible, or in which the price is the most important factor. It’s a shift which has been boosted by working at home – partly people have become used to having access to more creature comforts during a working day.

However, predictions that working from home would lead to a decline in demand for offices are coming true so far. Bijmolt says that while there may be a slight drop in demand, companies are not looking for smaller spaces. Fewer people may be in the office at the same time, but the modern office needs more space per worker to fit in all those extra facilities.

The surroundings are also important. Some people want variety, a mixed-use area with shops and cafes rather than the more traditional business estate, or a more quirky location.

Flexible options are also increasingly popular, particularly if you want to rent an office in Amsterdam. Some experts have suggested that flex offices will account for 30% of supply at some point and current trends definitely point in that direction.

If you look at how much space co-working and flexible office operators like IWG (known for labels like Regus and Spaces) and We Work have in Amsterdam, then you can see just how important the market in the Dutch capital is to them, Bijmolt says.

Do it yourself

While worker comfort has become more important, and flexible spaces are particularly useful for companies in the early stages, companies are also looking for offices in a different way than in the past.

‘Traditionally, you would employ an advisor to help you find an office but people are becoming more used to doing things online – and that includes looking for a place to base a company,’ Bijlmolt says.

You can comb through what is on offer – in Amsterdam, for example, Flexas has offices available in Olympic Stadium, in the heart of the old city centre and in the Zuidas business district – at a time and place to suit you.

It is no longer just start-ups with a handful of people which are looking for their own offices either. Bigger companies are also opting to kickstart the process in-house and only include a broker later in the process. ‘This is why we adopted this ‘new style’ approach,’ says Bijmolt. ‘We facilitate both an online portfolio and personal service by our broker specialists.’

‘In the past, finding an office was also a much less transparent process,’ he says. ‘But if you look online, you immediately know what the real costs are, the quality on offer, if the complex is energy efficient and if the office is ready to move into
or not.’

For more information about renting office space and Flexas services, visit the website.