4 What´s the purpose of the office? Change is the only constant. Even before the pandemic, many organisations had begun to change their office set-ups in response to increased digitisation and new ways of working. Then came the pandemic. Working life as we know it today has been changed down to its foundations, and we have a new normal in terms of how and where we work. However, the high degree of remote working since the pandemic has also caused great uncertainty among organisations as to the role of the office: What is the office for? What roles should it play? What will be the consequences of remodelling, refurnishing, downsizing, condensing or moving? And how should employees communicate; effective work processes be maintained; community and job satisfaction be created – all while knowledge development and innovation are able to flourish? Starting with the physical environment, we investigate how things stand as of spring 2023 and the thoughts, approaches and strategies of organisations to handle the changes that have taken place in the wake of the pandemic. The primary focus of the study is thus office and premises strategy. We are not primarily concerned with issues of organisation, management, staff and health, but because these matters are related to the way in which the office is design- ed, we have also included them to a certain extent in our report. As is well known, all of these factors are interconnected. A balancing act between different needs Today, organisations have an even greater need than before to balance the various wishes and needs of employees against those of the organisation (see footnote Media1). The study shows this to be a real challenge, not least because competition for talent has intensified and many organisations have been contending with recruitment and staffing problems for several years now. The quality of the office environment has become an issue for management as a result. This is not just about getting employees to be productive or to make sure they are satisfied and likely to remain with the company. The big question today is how organisations can get their employees to return to the office. We have summarised our key findings of relevance to organisation office strategies over ten chapters, the last of which looks towards the future. 1 Stockholm Chamber of Commerce: Future of Work – Spaningar om kontorets betydelse [Reflections on the Importance of the Office]. Link: https://stockholmshandelskammare.se/rapporter/rapport-future-work/
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