MBL’s office team together with Sterling Serviced Offices Group conducted a survey among 100 office occupiers in Sofia in attempt to understand the effect of Covid-19 on business operations during the lock-down and whether their vision for the office spaces had changed.
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents expect a negative effect on the business due to the pandemic and 19% experience no noticeable effects. 7% hold a pessimistic view on both short and long term outcome while 11% of the companies see the pandemic as a chance to grow. The majority (42%) of occupiers don’t plan any changes in terms of headcount while 30% are still unsure whether they will increase their numbers or a shrinkage will be required. One-fifth of the respondents give a negative feedback regarding their headcount projection while 9% plan to expand in the future.
Plans for longer-term redesign of conventional office space have been made among tenants as well. More than half (55%) of the office occupiers that participated in the survey agree (12% of which strongly agree) that as a result of the pandemic their organization will fundamentally reshape the office workplace from a pure real estate model to a cloud-based or semi cloud-based. One-fifth (20%) of the respondents are still unsure whether a new mode of work will be accepted, while a quarter remain conservative (9% of which strongly disagree) and will likely continue to operate in the already established ways.
The feedback collected during our survey shows that the office of the future will be flexible, with the majority (57%) of workstations situated in a conventional office, one-third (32%) of employees working from home, while 11% will use flexible office spaces.