“The last two years have seen a steady shift by enterprises towards hybrid working – aligning with shifting workforce preferences. In this period, an overwhelming number of employees have grown to prefer and opt for hybrid work practices, leading to improved productivity and collaboration. This has allowed flexible work arrangements to become integral to enterprise hiring and retention strategies. At IWG we have seen this trend reflect across not just metros but across smaller cities as well. 2022 saw large cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune, NCR, Kolkata, and Chennai lead the growth for flexi-work spaces along with tier 2 and 3 cities contributing substantially to the sector’s growth. At the same time, we are also seeing more sustained enterprise focus around ESG and a shift in their operations to reflect greater purpose and sustainability. Given the hybrid work sector’s lower carbon footprint and its alignment with multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, we expect more businesses to move towards hybrid working to meet compliance targets. As a consequence of this shift towards flexi-spaces, IWG aims to double its network in India over the next two years. Looking ahead at 2023, we believe that hybrid working will become even more mainstream, and this positive momentum is likely to help the sector bridge 50 million sq ft by the end of next year. We expect that a significant contribution to this growth will be seen from India’s vibrant start-up ecosystem. This will push the flex-spaces sector to innovate and elevate their services further to offer more new-age and better tech-enabled office spaces.”
(Harsh Lambah, Country Manager India, Vice President Sales – South Asia, IWG)
