How WeWork Workplace Is Helping Companies Returning To The Office In 2024

In 2024, the most preferred style of work, by employees and employers alike, is a hybrid model. 

It is estimated that 50% of companies require employees to work in a hybrid capacity, where they spend part of the week working from home and come into the office on other days. However, the rate of hybrid work is expected to rise even more over the next several years, and some companies are struggling to ensure they have the technology and space needed to keep their employees connected and productive whether they are at home or in the office.

To solve this concern, WeWork has unveiled WeWork Workplace, a new suite of office management solutions designed for the hybrid workforce. 

“Now that companies are heading back to the office, there comes the question of how to organize your entire workforce when they’re coming into the office and when they’re working from home,” said Harish Krishna, global head of WeWork Workplace. “WeWork Workplace aims to be a solution for a seamless hybrid work experience.”

Launched in July 2022 in collaboration with Yardi, WeWork Workplace provides businesses with a variety of online and mobile tools to manage office space efficiently, including desk-booking software, interactive floor maps, analytics and insights dashboards, visitor management and calendar integrations. 

Today, it is common for employees to choose which days they would like to work from the office, with most coming into the office about two days per week. Team meetings can become more difficult when employees have different in-office preferences and schedules, but WeWork Workplace provides users with greater visibility and optionality, preventing potential miscommunication between team members, Krishna said. 

Employers can also easily see how their office space is being used through Workplace’s analytics dashboard and make educated decisions on how to best activate a hybrid work strategy.

“It lets companies of all sizes make executive decisions on how to use their space as effectively as they can,” he said. “It clearly tells you who’s coming in, when, at what times people will be in the office and where they’ll be sitting that day.”

Krishna said optimizing space in today’s office market, where nearly 20% of offices sit vacant, is crucial. A large part of figuring out the right balance between how much space a company already has and how much it needs relies heavily on the data and analytics that WeWork Workplace provides.

“Companies can easily see how their office space is being used and if they need to grow or shrink their physical office footprint,” he said. “A 250-person company can now use a 50-person office, which didn’t and couldn’t happen before the pandemic. That’s a big deal.”

According to Krishna, while most office management software “just shows the floor plan and who’s sitting where,” WeWork Workplace is designed to let employees overflow into any WeWork location if their office runs out of space. Considering that WeWork has more than 500 office locations across the globe, Krishna said this is a major advantage that WeWork Workplace users employ as an essential part of their real estate strategy.

“Our data is valuable,” he said. “This platform becomes the eyes and ears for management to make the right decision for their employees and their portfolio both within and outside of a WeWork.”

In addition to real-time data, WeWork Workplace helps companies formulate a real estate strategy that is both flexible and “future-proof.” If a company has multiple offices in its portfolio, it can review the utilization data and trends of each of its offices to make informed decisions to upsize, downsize or shutter offices completely based on how many employees are going into the office regularly. 

At a portfolio level, Krishna said every company's real estate strategy is different. One common theme, however, consists of the need for flexibility while waiting for the market to regain a steady rhythm. WeWork Workplace is giving companies tools as workforces change and evolve.

“Workplace has helped more than 500 companies since its launch in 2022,” he said. “We've seen companies of all sizes use Workplace in different ways to be able to be ready for the future. All of these tools help employees to collaborate and congregate more easily than ever before.”

This article was produced in collaboration between WeWork and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.