Conclusions

SPACE sent this survey out to our client contacts, who, for the most part, are at a more senior level within businesses and organisations. This has to be borne in mind when reading the responses.

On a day-to-day basis, we deal with our colleagues, with our clients and read reports of studies others have conducted. Through these different channels we hope to gain a rounded (and grounded) picture of where we currently are and where we might be going.

What is clear is that technology and the physical environment are not the main issue —and they never really were.

Every workplace solution is essentially a people-solution and since people come and go within organisations, since teams are born, grow and are often disbanded, it can be nigh on impossible to devise the perfect solution. We aim for the best solution at that time and trust the flexibility of any design to cope with most change on a sensible timescale.

It is clear that recruitment has been, and continues to be, a major issue. Costs— from salaries to services—are also an issue. There is hopefully light at the end of the tunnel in terms of stability of costs. Whether costs will drop will be determined by the market—appropriately enough given that it is the 300th birthday of Adam Smith.

The hybrid working experiment continues, and will continue to evolve. Judging by the responses, some are not warming to this increased flexibility, preferring pre-pandemic levels of influence over the 'what, where, and when' of work, rather than building on the trust established during the days of enforced home working.

Thank you to all participants of the survey.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Phil Muir: philip.muir@spacesolutions.co.uk

Chris Carr: chris.carr@spacesolutions.co.uk