Microsoft has published the results of its latest Work Trend Index survey, highlighting the various challenges businesses encounter as they transition to new working models.

 

Based on a survey of 31,000 workers across the globe, and trillions of signals drawn down from Microsoft 365 and LinkedIn, the report identifies a series of trends brought about by the shift towards hybrid working.

 

The company cited the push to bring employees back to the office full-time, driven by fears shared by more than half (54 per cent) of senior executives about the ability for workers to remain productive at home.

 

At least half of companies plan to mandate a full-time return to the office within the next twelve months but a similar proportion of workers (52 per cent) said they would prefer a hybrid or fully remote model.

 

Remote workers happy at newsXpress 

 

Jenny Searle (pictured), a merchandising manager for newsagency marketing group NewsXpress, now permanently works from home in Melbourne's outer suburbs.

 

Until 2020, she would drive between two and two-and-a-half-hours a day, commuting every weekday to her office in the inner suburb of Hawthorn.

 

"Where it was quite dark when [my partner and I] would get home for work … now we go for walks, we go boating. We can do that after work now and we could never do that before”, she told the ABC in a recent interview.

 

NewsXpress and associated company Tower Systems employs around 70 people and managing director Mark Fletcher told the ABC that before the pandemic, only two employees ever worked from home. Now, he's got employees who've moved home to New Zealand, and he's just hired a staff member interstate.

 

"We've never met them, maybe we never will meet them. Being able to hire people through this working-from-home situation gives us a bigger pool to pull from, but also more flexibility,” he said.

 

The rise and rise of co-working offices

 

One of Singapore’s leading co-working firms is launching in Australia through a partnership at Sydney’s newest prime office building, the 49-storey Quay Quarter Tower, with plans to use it as a springboard to become one of the city’s top five co-working operators.

 

The Work Project (TWP), operator of 10 co-working sites in Singapore and another in Hong Kong, will manage 4300 square metres over levels two and three of Quay Quarter Tower, which is due to reach practical completion in two weeks.