Survey: Almost 88% of employees in Romania believe that offices will exist in the future

After a year and a half of working mostly remote or hybrid, Romanian employees say that the office will play an important role in their professional lives even after the pandemic is over. Almost 88%  believe that the office will continue to exist in the future, with most expecting a transformation of the workplace, shows a recent survey initiated by Genesis Property among 1,183 employees across the country. 

Over 60% of respondents say that it is important for them to continue having a dedicated office space, even if the work model changes and the office becomes more of a multifunctional space where employees will be able to work, but also interact with their team and relax. Nearly 37% of the respondents to the Genesis Property survey expect the office of the future to be redesigned in order to include safe collaboration and socialization spaces. At the same time, almost 34% expect offices to resemble the coworking model in the future that’s specifically designed to ​​support interaction between people and creative activities.

Another 30% believe that offices will evolve in the long run into ecosystems that will combine the use of residential, hospitality and work spaces, shows the survey conducted by Genesis Property, one of the most important class A office developers in Romania, which owns the West Gate Business District and Novo Park. Only slightly over 27% believe that the office will remain largely unchanged, and another 12% say that, in their opinion, the “offices of the future” could be any place outside the house where they can perform tasks.

“The pandemic has changed people’s perception of offices and their expectations for the post-pandemic workplace. Employees do not want to return to the office just to work in spaces that aren’t adapted for the future and on a fixed schedule, they’d rather be in a place with new facilities where they can socialize, be more creative and collaborate with colleagues. The office of the future will be a place of complex, multi-level human interaction, supporting innovative actions with great added value. Of course, people are also waiting for sanitary measures to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, measures that we have included in The IMMUNE Building Standard™ (IMMUNE) in order to offer them trust and peace of mind”, says Ștefan Tudos, vice president of Genesis Property.

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From their post-pandemic office, employees say they want measures to limit epidemiological risks (56.1%), but also an integrated work, interaction and relaxation experience (40.5%) and a context in which to express their creativity (35.5%), as well as having technologies based on artificial intelligence that eliminate repetitive daily tasks and allow them to focus on more relevant activities (29.9%).

A third of employees are now more closely evaluating health measures implemented in the office that limit the risk of viruses and bacteria spreading. IMMUNE is a certified rating for the built environment based on scientific evidence that proposes a practical system, composed of a network of devices and available technologies, specialized equipment, dedicated personnel, new amenities, a system which promotes operational and health rules focused on the physical space where occupants and visitors interact. The standard proposes 135 coherent measures that empower building operators to verify and adjust the condition of the building to a healthy performance level, providing the occupants with a healthy experience when returning to the office.

The Genesis Property survey on employees’ perceptions of the future of offices and the prospect of returning to the office was conducted in February-March 2021 through the iVox platform, on a total sample of 1,183 internet users from all over the country. Almost 59% of the participants are women, about 60% are between 25 and 40 years old and 9 out of 10 are full-time employees.