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The flex office is now attracting a growing number of companies, well beyond technological start-ups. According to a study by JLL, 40% of organizations could adopt it by 2026, up from 26% in 2024.
This evolution is explained by a desire to optimize real estate costs, to better organize remote working and to reduce unused office space.
How can the return on investment be measured in concrete terms?
In this article, we analyze the key challenges of flex office and offer you an exclusive tool: a flex office ROI simulator designed to assess your potential gains and guide the implementation of your strategy.
What is flex office?
Flex office, or flexible office, is based on the idea of sharing workstations rather than assigning a fixed office to each employee. This approach, often associated with partial teleworking, makes it possible to pool spaces, reduce the necessary office space and adapt the layout to real uses.
It responds to a clear observation: according to the Savills study (2024), offices are occupied less than 60% of the time. In this context, optimizing square meters is becoming a priority to reduce costs, without affecting efficiency or the quality of life at work.
The challenges of flex office
1. Reducing real estate costs + calculating ROI
This is one of the objectives most frequently put forward by companies interested in flex office: to achieve significant savings on office space and on associated costs (rents, charges, maintenance, maintenance, furniture, general services, etc.).
According to IDET, the average cost of a workstation was €11,051 in 2023. This figure includes all the expenses necessary to maintain work environments, whether it is rented space, technical maintenance, cleaning, connectivity or security.
However, a workstation is rarely occupied five days out of five. The real occupancy rate is often less than 60%.
It is precisely to respond to this situation that we have designed a flex office ROI simulator:
- Total number of collaborators
- Average number of days teleworked per week
- Average annual cost per workstation and number of workstations
- Number of managers involved in organizing attendance
- Average time spent each week managing schedules and spaces
With this data, the simulator automatically calculates the potential savings, the square meters to optimizing, and the Return on investment office linked to the establishment of a Office ROI tool.
By integrating a workspace management software, businesses can also refine their forecasts and manage the reduction of m² of office space necessary for their activity.
2. Strengthen team cohesion
Contrary to popular belief, flex office is not a factor in isolating or dehumanizing work. On the contrary, when it is well designed and supported, it promotes exchanges between colleagues, the discovery of new interlocutors, and the transversal dissemination of information.
By decompartmentalizing services and breaking spatial routines, it encourages spontaneous collaboration and informal interactions.
Combined with teleworking, the flex office allows a judicious distribution of time spent: home days are reserved for concentration tasks or personal needs, while face-to-face days become highlights of collaboration and team life.
It is still necessary to be able to organize collectively: hence the importance of having a tool for managing attendance and reserving spaces. In particular, this means being able to plan the occupancy of workstations, the reservation of rooms and the management of shared resources, in an environment that is often open, such as an open space.
This is precisely where a management solution comes in. shared offices which makes it possible to manage office presence, reserve workstations and organize remote work in a coordinated manner.
3. Acting for the environment
Beyond economic aspects, flex office offers considerable environmental benefits. By reducing the office space used, the company directly reduces its energy consumption (heating, air conditioning, lighting), as well as the associated greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition, by encouraging partial telework, it contributes to limiting home-work trips, which represent a significant part of the overall carbon footprint of employees.
In France, transport is responsible for more than 32% of national CO₂ emissions according to the General Commission for Sustainable Development, and daily car trips are a major source of urban pollution.
Finally, the flex office is often an opportunity to rethink office layout in a more sustainable way: outdoor vegetation, use of recycled materials, choice of eco-designed equipment... profitability of shared offices is then also part of a logic of sustainability and positive impact.
4. Manage effectively thanks to adapted tools
While the benefits of flex office are real, they can only be achieved if there are tools available to orchestrate this new organization in a fluid and legible manner.
A tool like M-Work In particular, it allows you to:
- View upcoming presences, by day, by team, by site
- Reserve workstations, rooms, or shared resources
- Automatically apply current HR rules (imposed days, individual constraints)
- Provide accurate occupancy data to adjust spaces
- Facilitate HR, real estate and CSR reporting
This type of solution is part of a logic ofFlex office evaluation and can be implemented in collaboration with human resources departments, which play a central role in supporting change.
By relying on a solution, organizations can manage attendance in real time, optimize the use of office spaces and better articulate remote work and face-to-face work.
This approach also makes it possible to equip yourself with presence software that meets the specificities of each entity, while guaranteeing a smooth experience for employees.
Thanks to the office reservation Or the room reservation integrated, teams can anticipate their arrival, better coordinate and take full advantage of their days in open space. Finally, equip its shared offices with user-friendly tools contributes to strengthening operational efficiency and internal cohesion.
Conclusion: switch to flex office with complete peace of mind
Switching to flex office is not limited to optimizing surfaces. It is a profound transformation of work habits, managerial practices, and business dynamics. Its success depends on clear management, a precise measurement of the return on investment, and tools adapted to your teams.
Thanks to the flex office ROI simulator, you now have the keys to accurately assess the potential benefits for your organization and calmly support your transition to more efficient, collaborative and sustainable offices.
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