The Hybrid Workplace: The Best of Both Worlds

What is a Hybrid Work Model?

The car industry speaks of the hybrid engine as the best of both worlds – economical and environmentally-friendly over short distances, but with a more powerful, fuel-driven component for faster, longer runs. Now expect the working world to be speaking of the hybrid office, bringing with it the same flexibility. 

So, how does a hybrid workplace work? It combines remote work and in-person collaboration, allowing employees to have the flexibility to work from different locations while also coming together for face-to-face interactions and teamwork.

This isn’t exactly new – well before the pandemic the decoupling of work and where it got done was well under way. But the shift away from the conventional, expensive, ‘everyone under one roof all day’ office has accelerated post-COVID as business explores different models, out of both necessity and opportunity.

The Benefits of Hybrid Working

Workers have adapted to – and for 87% of them, according to a Wakefield Research survey, actually grown to prefer – splitting their work time between home and office as well. After all, being at home allows them to better juggle, and enjoy, a personal life around their workload. 

This, and the many health benefits that come with it, is true – up to a point. But being at a coworking space like the Mindspace workspace Brooklyn has also been shown to be essential to the well-being of many too. 

One of the advantages of a flexible workspace is that keeps employees grounded in routine, gives them the crucial sense of engagement and collaboration with real people on real projects, keeps their social life ticking over and saves them from going mad staring at the same four walls, or as the long office hours culture is replaced with genuine cases of WFH burnout and Zoom fog. Like the offices of old, it also helps keep some boundaries around work, which is no bad thing at all, improving overall employee wellbeing. 

Productivity has actually been shown to improve under this new digital/physical arrangement, and employees’ contentment with their employment too. People want to get back to work, almost as they knew it, but better. Most employers – 68% according to a PwC survey – want their employees back in an office at least three days a week too. But, excitingly, what ‘office’ means is up for grabs.

Indeed, with what is potentially a radical change to the way we work has necessarily also come a radical, hybridized conception of the workspace, at least for that work that can be done digitized and connected. Businesses will create their own version of this, according to their needs – and, in fact, it’s the very lack of fixed ideas that make the hybrid workspace an efficient, affordable one. 

Will there only be Hybrid offices in the future?

Still, we can expect ideas like dedicated workstations being replaced with hoteling spaces, resources the likes of podcasting studios and brainstorming rooms to be available for reservation, and arrangements allowing casual access to office space for just a few days a month if that’s what’s needed. Mindspace already offers flexible on-demand access to offices, from the hip coworking spaces Williamsburg to chic and elegant coworking locations in the heart of London, Munich and more.

Hybrid workplaces as the new reality can work similarly for small businesses who don’t need their own office, and big ones with dispersed staff – and who knows what fresh innovations may be fertilized by the unplanned but fortuitous interaction of big and small companies too?

Demand for flexible space is set to grow to a predicted 30% of all office space by the end of the decade, six times what it is today. 

Mindspace offers flexible office spaces all around the world – in the UK, in Hammersmith, Old Street and Shoreditch, or in Germany, Berlin. And so many more.  Looking for flexible workspaces in Berlin? Mindspace offers fully equipped coworking spaces for rent in Ku’damm, one of the most vibrant areas of the city. With a variety of private offices and communal areas, our coworking space in Ku’damm is the perfect solution for freelancers, startups, and established businesses alike. Discover more about our Ku’damm location and book a tour today.