Hybrid Work

The concrete impact of hybrid work on your offices (in numbers)

Hybrid work does not just change the way people work: it fundamentally changes the relationship between headcount and surface area.

Before hybrid (classic model): 100 employees = 100 workstations = 1,000 to 1,200 sqm GUA (at 10-12 sqm/workstation). The office is sized for 100% simultaneous presence.

With hybrid (2 days of remote working average): daily presence drops to 55-65 people on average. But the office still covers 1,000 sqm. Result: 35 to 45% of the surface is paid for but empty every day. On a rent of €500/sqm/year in Paris, that is €175,000 to €225,000/year in unproductive expenditure.

The Tuesday-Wednesday problem. Presence is not uniform. Tuesday and Wednesday concentrate 75 to 85% of the workforce. Friday often drops to 30-40%. Your offices are saturated 2 days a week and almost empty 1 to 2 days. Sizing on the average (60%) creates saturation problems on peak days. Sizing on the peak (85%) leaves 40% of the surface empty on Fridays.

The double penalty of meeting rooms. In hybrid mode, in-person meetings concentrate on days when everyone is in together. Result: meeting rooms are saturated on Tuesday-Wednesday and empty the rest of the week. The demand for small rooms (2-4 people) for calls with remote colleagues explodes, but most offices only have large rooms (8-12 people).

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The 4 hybrid work models

Not all hybrid organisations function the same way. The chosen model directly determines the impact on your spaces.

The "fixed days": model. The company mandates the days of presence (e.g. everyone in the office on Tuesday and Thursday). Advantage: presence is predictable, spaces can be precisely sized. Disadvantage: rigid, not well received by employees who want to choose their own days.

The "flexible days with minimum" model. The company sets a minimum number of days in the office (e.g. at least 2 days per week, at the employee's choice). Advantage: more individual freedom. Disadvantage: presence is unpredictable, impossible to know in advance how many people will be in on any given day. This is the most widespread and most complex model to manage from a real estate perspective.

The "by team" model. Each team defines its own rules (marketing team comes Monday-Tuesday, tech team comes Wednesday-Thursday). Advantage: team cohesion maintained, presence spread across the week. Disadvantage: cross-team interactions become rare if days do not overlap.

The "office-first with remote permitted" model. The office remains the norm, with 1 to 2 days of remote working tolerated. The impact on spaces is limited, a flex ratio of 0.9 is sufficient.

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How to adapt your offices to hybrid work

Step 1: Measure your actual presence. Before making any decision, collect data. Badges, sensors, observation. Measure by day of the week, by zone and by time slot. This is the foundation of any adaptation.

Step 2: Define your target ratio. Based on your measured presence rate AND your weekly peak. If your average presence is 60% but Tuesday reaches 82%, your flex ratio must cover the peak: 0.85. If you mandate fixed days and the peak is controlled at 70%, you can go down to 0.75.

Step 3: Redesign for hybrid. A hybrid office is not a classic office with fewer workstations. It is a differently designed space. Reduce fixed workstations and increase flex workstations (hot desking). Multiply small meeting rooms (2-4 people) and phone booths, demand explodes in hybrid mode. Create collaborative spaces for days when the team is together (workshops, brainstorming). Maintain quiet concentration zones for those who come to the office for focus (not achievable at home).

Step 4: Equip for remote work. Every meeting room must be "hybrid-ready": wide-angle camera, ambient microphone, screen sharing display. If 3 people are in the room and 4 are on video, the experience must be seamless on both sides.

Step 5: Add value to freed-up sqm. The move to hybrid mechanically frees up surface area. Two options: return it (if the lease allows) or add value to it. Entrusting excess spaces to an operator like Sora allows you to generate income on these sqm, not through subletting, but via a service contract. The Host retains the flexibility to recover their spaces if their hybrid policy evolves.

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Classic mistakes in the hybrid transition

Reducing workstations without diversifying spaces. Going from 100 fixed workstations to 70 flex workstations without creating phone booths, small meeting rooms and collaborative spaces is a guaranteed failure. Employees who come to the office to take video calls (because rooms are saturated) in a noisy open plan will flee to remote working.

Not investing in acoustics. In hybrid mode, video calls multiply and are taken from the open plan when there are not enough phone booths. Noise becomes the number one problem. Acoustic investment (panels, booths, carpet) is non-negotiable.

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Hybrid work as a real estate opportunity

Hybrid work is often presented as a real estate problem (too much surface, falling occupancy rate). It is also an opportunity.

For companies with excess spaces, the Host/Guest model allows you to monetise freed-up sqm without breaking the lease and without losing the flexibility to recover them. The financial analysis carried out by an operator like Sora (rent, charges, taxes, OPEX) determines the achievable coverage rate, often between 50% and more than 100% of the rent on the surfaces added to value.