Future of Work: Offices Are Becoming Social Meeting Places

As the debate about the future of the office rages on, more companies and experts now envision a hybrid future, with more time spent working remotely, yet with chances to regularly convene teams.

Bolt is piloting the concept of hybrid office with only 20% of employees having designated seats.  The data shared by Bolt, the leading European mobility platform operating in 35 countries, indicates that most of their employees prefer to work from home but visit the office for infrequent and periodic meetings or social interaction with colleagues.

The survey conducted among 1000 Bolt employees at the beginning of June indicated that almost 80% of Bolt employees would like to work from home at least half of the time or more. Based on the key card use data from Bolt HQ in Tallinn, Estonia, office visits peak during the company’s all-hands meetings and on Fridays for social gatherings. Another trend is teaming meetings in the office to have lunch together.

“Based on our survey, the future of our office space looks hybrid – a situation where you have teams working from home and others in the office. We are listening to our employees and we want to provide them the flexibility to fit work in their lives. During the COVID lockdown, many of our employees were surprised how efficient they were working from home. However, the conditions certainly differ based on someone’s living situation and personal preferences. We want to enable everyone to work where and when they find it most convenient,” said Ola Akinnusi, Country Manager at Bolt Kenya.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made many organizations adapt to the new working style, either work from home or a combination of working from home and having some staff occasionally working from the office. This might actually be a permanent change and something that organizations would want to adopt.

The added value of the hybrid office concept brings about the possibility to keep growing fast while retaining the same office premises and the highest attainable productivity for the business. During the past few years, Bolt has seen hypergrowth to 1600 employees in 35 countries. To accommodate the rise in employees, Bolt needs to constantly expand their office space. By introducing hybrid offices, Bolt gets to sustain the same offices for a bit longer and further increase its growth strides and impact on the community.

Bolt currently operates its hybrid office in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on the African continent. In the last months, the company has accelerated the expansion of Bolt Delivery for Business and Bolt Lite in Kenya in diversifying their offering, while also introducing Bolt Protect to keep Drivers, Customers, and the public safe.