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With full-time RTO mandates and doubling down on flexible work headlining this year, 2025 is shaping up to be one where organizations must achieve a delicate balance between ensuring employees are satisfied at work and requiring them to be present in offices more.
Despite recent pushes for RTO from some high-profile companies, nearly 70% of US companies still offer work location flexibility. New research continues to show that companies taking a flexible approach to where and when people work dramatically outperform their competitors:
In today’s dynamic work environment, the shift in where people work has transformed how organizations utilize their spaces and resources—and engage the people within them. It’s essential to be set up with the right technology that evolves with your workforce’s changing needs. New tech and AI will be more prevalent; and IT and facilities leaders will be at the heart of aligning tech and the office to create productive workplaces (both physical and virtual) that support the employee experience.
The organizations that will win must be able to support all of their workforce in accessing the right space with the right resources at the right time. This report aims to help organizations, especially the IT and facilities leaders within them, utilize new technologies and office design to manage spaces better in the modern workplace. From automating processes to optimizing space utilization, the advice and strategies provided here can future-proof your organization, ensuring it stays relevant and resilient in the face of workplace changes.
The modern workplace is agile and flexible — in both location and schedule. A Pew Research Center poll found most current hybrid workers (72%) want it to stay that way, and that's not just from employees who’ve tasted the sweetness of flexible working. 62% of workers who never or rarely work from home said they would if they could part of the time.
And hybrid work is working. It improves work-life balance, job satisfaction, talent recruitment and retention. Approximately 87% of HR leaders with a hybrid model say hybrid work has improved work-life balance, 84% say it has improved job satisfaction, and 79% say hybrid work has improved their ability to attract and retain talent.
Our team is ready and waiting to talk through your specific desk scheduling requirements and see how Skedda could work for you.
"Remote work will evolve into a more balanced hybrid approach. While some companies may push for a full return to office, the ongoing demand from employees for flexibility will likely ensure that hybrid models remain dominant. Ultimately, the winner of the RTO debate will be the organizations that find the right balance, offering flexibility without compromising performance. Hybrid work will be the sustainable solution."
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As companies signal a shift to returning to the office, nearly half of workers (46%) say they would quit their job if their employer required them to be in the office full time.
Companies that have flexible working also have better stock returns. University of Melbourne assistant professor of finance Gabriele Lattanzio found that companies ranked highly for flexible work opportunities had higher short- and long-term share prices compared to peer firms in their respective industries.
University of Pittsburgh associate professor Mark Ma also found that the stocks of companies like Nike and UPS, which introduced four- or five-day-a-week RTO mandates, underperformed peer companies like Adidas and FedEx following the policies’ announcements. Among nine companies with RTO mandates, seven underperformed their peers with flexible work options. Companies with five-day RTO mandates saw, on average, 15% lower stock returns than their flexible work counterparts.
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After a company survey revealed more than 85% of its employees wanted some form of work-from-home option, Synchrony launched a hybrid work model. With this flexible approach, it saw a 30% increase in job applications in 2024 and lower employee turnover.
Synchrony also rose to 5th on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, up from 51st place in 2019. 95% of employees say Synchrony is a great place to work and 95% say that the company’s way of working gives them the flexibility they need.
“In the end, our story is proof that when you build a culture of trust and accountability, you can expect a lot from your people, and they will come through for you, driving peak performance. That—and not where they happen to be sitting from day to day—underscores the pivotal role of trust in hybrid work success.”
Companies with five-day RTO mandates saw on average 15% lower stock returns than their flexible work counterparts.
AI enables flexible work arrangements by optimizing scheduling, automating administrative tasks, and enhancing remote collaboration, allowing employees to work efficiently from anywhere. Employees using AI reported a 30% increase in productivity. Additionally, smart workplace management systems powered by AI help organizations maximize space utilization, reduce overhead costs, and improve productivity.
By streamlining operations and enabling a more agile workforce, AI not only supports employee well-being and work-life balance but also drives revenue growth through increased efficiency, better resource allocation, and data-driven decision-making.
AI can reduce administrative tasks, accelerate productivity, and allow more time for strategic and innovative work. For example, facilities leaders responsible for coordinating meeting room bookings can use AI-powered booking assistants to automatically suggest available rooms based on specific preferences and needs.
Our team is ready and waiting to talk through your specific desk scheduling requirements and see how Skedda could work for you.
"Looking ahead, our vision is an AI-powered workspace that keeps distributed teams efficient, engaged, and connected through virtual meeting assistance, seamless workflows, and smarter project management. AI is not about cost takeout. It's about the ability to do more and amplify the potential of our employees. By accelerating conversational AI responsibly, we can emerge stronger."
"The pervasiveness of AI is going to create the need to be much more focused on ideation, collaboration, and innovation. And those conversations are inevitably better in person, so AI is going to create the gravity of people needing to be at the office."
AI is making workers more efficient in many individual tasks, allowing them to be productive no matter where they sit. However, AI tools cannot yet replace the fluidity and spontaneity of brainstorming in person. While AI streamlines more technical and knowledge-based tasks, it will drive a greater need for office presence to foster innovation.
Top objectives for organizations actively implementing AI include creating new business and/or sources of revenue (23%) and increasing revenue from core business (27%). The future of the workplace will be one powered by human-AI synergy, where technology and humanity flourish together.
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"Today's workers need two things: an effective workplace and a great work experience." Gensler's Global Director of Workplace Research Janet Pogue McLaurin explains the increasing demand for high-quality office spaces.
Employees want a functional workplace with offices designed around specific use cases—having hot desks, breakout rooms, and huddle spaces for collaboration. These spaces also need to be retrofitted with the best technology to ensure seamless connection for hybrid meetings, coordination among a flexible workforce, and collaboration for in-office days.
"Employees need a functional and effective workplace that supports how they work. Providing a variety of work settings to work in-person with others, for hybrid meetings and work requiring high-concentration, is essential and the foundation of a good workplace. But to meet today's workers' expectations, a 'good' workplace is no longer sufficient."
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Space management software with interactive floor plans (and Slack and MSFT Teams integrations) makes it easy for teammates to "see who's in" and find each other when they’re in the office. Additionally, software with a robust rules and roles engine lets organizations create office neighborhoods based on departments, job functions, project needs, or equipment requirements, to better meet work needs.
However, employees also want a workplace that evokes emotion and connection to feel inspired, valued, and motivated to do their best work. That's why the notion of the “village office” is also becoming increasingly popular. Workers expect offices to become more like welcoming hotels and cafes and operate like small villages.
"Forward looking companies are no longer contemplating if they will need high-quality offices going forward. Instead, they are planning what their office spaces will look like well into the 2030s. Location and amenity are crucial. Our research shows three in four young people regard being near to gyms, bars, and restaurants as important, and one in four office workers would turn down a job if they’re not keen on the working space."
Modern workplaces require high-quality office spaces and technology that support employees' new ways of working, with many seeing the office making a comeback. More than 60% of commercial real estate operators expect increased workplace utilization over the next five years. 43% of organizations expect the number of days in office to increase by 2030—though still within a hybrid workplace strategy.
While other banks enforce more return-to-office mandates, Citigroup doubled down on its hybrid work policy and invested in a range of amenities to make the office a magnet and not a mandate.
The company refurbished its 42-story building in London’s Canary Wharf, investing in outdoor winter gardens, mini villages, and a client entertaining space at the top to create a state-of-the-art workspace for its workers.
“In the past, if you weren’t at the corporate office, you had a sub-optimal experience. You had bad technology and difficulty accessing materials. You couldn’t see, you couldn’t hear. With our NMG hub network, anywhere can be a hub. A distribution center, your house, a coffee shop – everyone has access to the tools and technology they need to work effectively and equally.”
The future of work will be a mix of full-time in-office and hybrid employees, further leading to the need for more high-quality spaces and technology that support modern workplace needs. Almost 80% of U.S. business leaders surveyed say they are looking to move to a new building in the next five years. Of those respondents, 62% say they’re most looking for good internet/Wi-Fi connectivity and 54% said excellent mobile/5G reception.
Whether full-time in office or hybrid, organizations that win will be able to support their employees in finding the right space and resources at the right time to do their best work. Leveraging a desk booking solution that can manage both flexible and assigned spaces, and the amenities and equipment in those spaces, will be key to supporting various preferences and needs.
“The workplace is now a choice, and companies need to compete for attendance just like theaters and hotels do. The best buildings, locations, and experiences will win. The future of the work ecosystem isn’t just about getting people back—it’s about making it worth their while.”
Say goodbye to the chaos of space allocation and welcome a new era of workplace harmony.
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