Only 9% do not allow home office on specific days (e.g. not on Fridays) and 26% ask their employees to come to office on the same day(s). This implies that 74% offer full flexibility. Also 67% replied that their employees are free to choose their home office day(s). This flexibility limits the potential of space savings. Only 17% of the participants mentioned “Save office space / costs” as a reason for home office allowance. Although there is a certain potential for cost savings with space reductions, it’s limited without flexibility restrictions and stronger policies. Current hybrid strategies make it difficult for organizations to optimize office utilization and footprint. Implementation at Swiss companies is much gentler and less drastic than observed in other countries.

A few more selected results from the survey:
 

• When two thirds of the surveyed companies have offered every employee its own workplace in 2019, only 27% consider to do so in the future.
• The most important reasons for encouraging employees to work from the office is face-to-face collaboration. It may come as a surprise that potential productivity gains or the possibility of saving office space and costs are not so more important in Switzerland.
• 73% of the companies surveyed will accept (at least) two home office days.
• When smaller firms tend to keep their office footprint, companies with an office footprint of >3,000 m² show a higher willingness to change their office space footprint.

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