Jamie Hodari & Alain Brossé: The future of the flexible workplace is industrious

The Industrious story...

Jamie took an industrious dive into the flexible workplace space from running an education organisation. Whilst preparing for a meeting with the president of Ikea, he felt his office space didn’t supply a professional setting for him to prepare effectively, resulting in his moving to a Belgian coffee shop.

This sparked a question in Jamie, if he was feeling this way, there must be 50,000 companies wanting to take advantage of a more productive shared workspace. Buying into a subscription rather than signing a long-term lease, but also wanted something more professional, more elegant that they could be proud of.

In fact, Jamie’s next-door neighbour did share this experience, and so they decided to team up and create a more professional, more elegant, shared workplace product. This is where industrious was born.

Where is the future of office spaces heading?

Pre-covid there seemed to be a clear evolution of the office industry. Since the pandemic there has been a clear march towards flexibility, which was not only driven by the pandemic, but by globalisation, insecurity, recessions, and economic downturns.

Alain explains that the demand for flexibility has always been there, mainly driven by start-ups and consultancy companies, only to have been reinforced by the pandemic.

What could this look like over the coming years?

Jamie highlights three observations:

• Employee empowerment: An increase in acceptance of alternating working from home and in the office. The choice seems to now be in the hands of employees to decide where they do their best work
• Increased availability: There are now more choices for companies when it comes to their office space. Companies are now setting up ‘Hub’ and ‘Spoke’ models. For example, having a central London office, but also an office in West London and more suburban locations. This accommodates employees who can’t commute and turns companies’ offices into a network of spaces.
• Choose your workplace: There is a movement from 5 days a week to choosing your own adventure style type of working. Employees are now able to choose whether they work at a desk, at home, in a soft seating area or at a satellite office.