HCM City (VNS/VNA) - A hybrid working model comprising both remoteand office-based work is a trend that many companies will embrace since workingmethods have changed globally after the pandemic broke out, including in Vietnam,experts have predicted.

In a note on trends in the property market this year, property consultancyJones Lang LaSalle (JLL) said a year of lockdowns that forced people to workfrom home showed many tasks could be done remotely, spurring companies to adoptnew, hybrid working models.

The shift was already underway at many businesses, but was accelerated byCOVID-19 like many other things, it said.

“In 2020 a work from home experiment took place globally and showed thatbusinesses can continue to operate effectively by leveraging technology” PaulFisher, country head of JLL Vietnam, said.

“But for many, the lack of face-to-face interaction has put pressure on teamsand whilst a number of our clients expect to adopt flexible working practicesin the future, for the majority this will include the office remaining thecentral point for business activities.”

But many aspects of work would not change, the note said. People would stillneed to collaborate, innovate and liaise with managers on projects and theircareers, a reason why people missed the office, and it was why for many officeswould retain a central role in corporate life.

The office still existed as the best and most convenient place for teambuilding and connecting with management.

WeWork predicted at an ongoing roundtable on office trends in the region thatbeyond economic pressures and realities that enterprises face, tapping newworkspace strategies is crucial for future-proofing themselves in a volatileclimate.

Amidst the changing face of its enterprises, Southeast Asia is seeing a shifttowards flexible workspaces bridging enterprises’ challenges and opportunities,it said.

Talking about the future of the workplace after the pandemic, Elizabeth Fuller,the company’s head of growth, SEA, said after a year of pandemic working fromhome might be an alternative option for many companies.

But this is not sustainable for businesses in the long term, she claimed.

In the workplace, innovation, creativity and organisational health hinges onsuccessful collaboration, and a loss of these would hinder sustained businessperformance, employee engagement and organisational health in the long run, shesaid.

The new work order would thus be a hybrid of flexible workplace arrangements,she said.

She cited the example of two Fortune 500 companies that have expanded theirpresence with WeWork across several buildings by establishing a headquarterpresence in one location and supporting functions and business units in theothers.

“They have leveraged our CBD presence, with locations in close proximity toeach other. This allows them to scale accordingly without having to renegotiateexisting real estate commitment, implement distributed workforce as a safetymeasure and also enjoy engagement.”

Property consultancy CBRE said the pandemic has changed the structure of officedemand.

Due to COVID-19, technology and online shopping utilisation have increasedsignificantly, which led to the expansion of e-commerce companies last year, itreported.

The pandemic has also changed the real estate strategies of occupiers.Previously employees were heavily relying on being in office, but are now morewilling to work in different spaces.

Pham Ngoc Thien Thanh, associate director, CBRE Vietnam, said: “COVID-19 hasreshaped the market’s dynamics, and unaffected sectors will drive market demandin 2021.

“Besides, tenants will start paying more attention to all factors includingsaving rental costs, ensuring employees’ wellness and maintaining businessperformance.

“To do that, occupiers tend to adopt a hybrid workplace model, designingoffices with lower density and also diversifying the workplace into differentsites such as decentralised options and co-working spaces.

“The market will be intensely competitive in the next two years with a wave ofnew supply. To stay ahead of the competition, landlords should considerapplying workplace strategy tools to evaluate current strengths anddeficiencies of their buildings to come up with an optimal solution to increasetheir assets’ values.”

The HCM City office market remained in a deep slump last year due to COVID,which badly affected many enterprises. It witnessed negative net absorption of- 20,544sq.m of leasing area.

Three new office buildings came into the market, Friendship Tower (grade B),UOA Tower (decentralised grade A) and Opal Tower (grade B), with a combined65,372sq.m of net leasing area, but it represented a fall of 31 percent in areacompared to the previous three years./.