WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Throughout this pandemic we’ve said that making predictions is a challenge – nobody could have expected the year we just experienced, and no one can fully forecast what will happen next.

Concerns about hygiene, and the need to stay agile, will clearly be with us for a while longer yet.

Our data also shows employees still want to work flexibly and remotely, and that the desire to do so more often is increasing overall.

When people do come to their physical office in Macquarie Park, they’ve told us they will do so to spend time working and interacting with their teams, and using the office for group collaboration, incidental encounters and to socialise.

Employees will look to their immediate teams – and each other – to set behavioural expectations and embed new ways of working.

Our data suggests we should expect to see more people commuting by car, and fewer people coming to the office by other modes. This presents significant challenges both for employers and for the wider community. Congestion will need to be offset by a boost in confidence in public transport and more flexible start and finish times.

The need to manage congestion must be balanced with the need to bring people together, and re-build company culture as part of our area’s economic recovery.

Macquarie Park is still seen predominantly as a place to work, with improved access and amenity ranking as important needs for people in the area.

Macquarie Park’s current advantages will benefit it in the future: adaptable and affordable space, an open and green environment and continuing investment in the area.

Strong relationships will help, too. Macquarie Park’s leading employers are open, engaged and collaborative. The special connection between our academic, corporate and government communities will help us overcome challenges and plan a resilient recovery together.

Looking ahead, Connect Macquarie Park Innovation District is ready to help our members and partners.

Endnotes:

1. 2020 FlexReport, July 2020, (sample: 1,622 AUS / NZ), flexcareers.com.au 2. Connect Macquarie Park Innovation District, Hybrid Working Culture Toolkit, 2021, connectMPID.com.au 3. Harvard Business Review, “Designing the hybrid office”, April 2021, hbr.org 4. Open Data Portal, Transport for NSW, 2020 – 2021 opendata.transport.nsw.gov.au 5. National Center for Biotechnology Information, USA “How Change of Public Transportation Usage Reveals Fears of the SARS Virus in a City”, (Kuo-Ying Wang) 2003, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 6. Transurban, “Urban Mobility Trends from COVID-19 Industry Report”, February 2021, transurban.com 7. Australian Tax Office, TR 2021/2 Fringe benefit tax: car parking benefits, June 2021, ato.gov.au 8. City Journal, “How to avoid an economic catastrophe”, (Paul Romer) March 2020, city-joournal.org