Is 'Working From Anywhere' The Next Big Thing?

We interviewed almost 400 global business leaders to understand how they’re adapting their real estate strategies for the years to come. The results, published in our latest edition of (Y)OUR Space, illustrate that three main flexible working policies will trend: hybrid working, hub and spoke models, and working from anywhere. Beyond a headline-grabbing perk, is working from anywhere feasible? And is it the next big thing?

In February 2021, Spotify made headlines by announcing its ‘Work From Anywhere’ policy for employees. The tech giant now invites employees to work from home full time, or work from the office full time, or a mixture of both. On top of that, it has introduced additional flexibility around which city – and even which country – employees decide to work from.

In essence, Spotify employees really can work from anywhere. To some, the ability to be a globe-trotting free spirit is an exciting incentive. But for others, the thought of managing a team that’s split between Bali and Boston is stress-inducing.

For Spotify, it’s a way of giving employees more freedom around work-life balance, encouraging more intentional collaboration, unlocking new pockets of talent, as well as enabling “diversity and inclusion, and making new jobs and markets available”.

The downfall, of course, is that in-office culture is likely to take a hit with such a dispersed workforce. But Spotify acknowledged this in its announcement, explaining: “We’re trying this out knowing that there are likely to be some adjustments to make along the way.”

In doing so, it echoed a similar sentiment to other tech giants: the past year has been a learning curve for all. Carolyn Everson, Vice-President of Facebook’s global business group even admitted when discussing working policies: “We’re making this up on the fly.”

Though it’s certainly catching interest, working from anywhere comes with a set of downfalls – a crucial one of which was highlighted by Spotify – losing in-office culture.

On the office space side, there have been schemes and deals designed to support the work from anywhere trend, too. WeWork, for example, has created a new coworking membership dubbed ‘WeWork All Access’, which provides access to “hot desks, conference rooms and private offices worldwide”.

Contrary to initial misconceptions, working from anywhere actually places a significant emphasis on the office, rather than negates the need for it .

Francesca Cooper-Isow

Senior Surveyor

Meanwhile, Japanese telecommunications group, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), recently signed a deal with IWG, the world’s largest flexible office provider, to allow its 300,000 employees to use IWG’s global network of workspaces.

You may have also heard about Barbados’s visa scheme for remote workers, which allows digital nomads to spend up to a year in the Caribbean paradise. After launching the scheme at the end of June, the country had received 1,693 applications by October.

Naturally, a community emerged, punctuated with Slack channels, WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages for remote workers settling in Barbados for the year, which is a testament to our hunger for a collective working culture, and perhaps a subtle foreshadowing of what will matter to those digital nomads who do view the world as their oyster.

But working from anywhere doesn’t have to be so global. Nationwide recently told its 13,000 employees they could work from anywhere following an extensive staff survey which highlighted a demand for remote working, as well as a blend of the office and home. Joe Garner, Chief Executive of Nationwide explained: "We are putting our employees in control of where they work from, inviting them to 'locate for their day' depending on what they need to achieve."

Workers aren’t necessarily looking to work from anywhere that isn’t the office – some are looking to work from anywhere that isn’t the home, and employers will need to cater to that need if they want to retain top talent.

And contrary to initial misconceptions, working from anywhere actually places a significant emphasis on the office, rather than negates the need for it – as shown by NTT’s deal with IWG. And when it outlined the opportunity to work from different cities and countries, Spotify explained: “If someone chooses a location that is not near a Spotify office, we will support them with a coworking space membership if they want to work from an office.”

In fact, LinkedIn recently published a story on ‘third workplaces’ popping up around cities, with employees heading to local cafes, coworking spaces and even hotels to tackle their working day: “These alternative work environments are not new, but they're gaining popularity because they help with work-life balance and are mostly distraction-free — qualities challenged by work[ing] from home.”

And so, workers aren’t necessarily looking to work from anywhere that isn’t the office – some are looking to work from anywhere that isn’t the home, and employers will need to cater to that need if they want to retain top talent.

Though it’s certainly catching interest, working from anywhere comes with a set of downfalls – a crucial one of which was highlighted by Spotify – losing in-office culture. Writing in The Harvard Business Review, Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury explains: “Concerns persist regarding how WFA affects communication, including brainstorming and problem-solving; knowledge sharing; socialization, camaraderie, and mentoring; performance evaluation and compensation; and data security and regulation.”

As with all of these flexible working models, businesses need to factor in change management, appropriate tech, and an open dialogue between teams.

Amanda Lim, Head of our Flexible Office Solutions team explains: “A lot of companies are in the midst of a really pivotal decision right now: how to organise their workforce. Some are starting out with a few days in the office, others are leaving it entirely up to their employees. But the most important thing is to stay flexible, and amend policies as you go along if they’re not working for your teams.

“Having a flexible office contract that allows you to scale-up or scale-down depending on what’s working can be a remedy for teams anxious to make their next move, while finding an office contract with multi-site access can be a great way to trial working from anywhere policies.”