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STANDARD CHARTERED, NATWEST, GSK, HALEON, THE EXECUTIVE CENTRE, HAWORTH AND HICKEY & ASSOCIATES AMONGST MAJOR CORPORATE PARTNERS JOINING THE HYBRID FUTURE STUDY

Eight major companies now onboard Leesman’s definitive investigation into the impact of hybrid working

Global workplace experience analysts Leesman and the MIT Center for Real Estate (MIT/CRE) Real Estate Transformation Lab have today announced the addition of eight major corporate partners to The Hybrid Future survey.

Global bank Standard Chartered, UK bank NatWest, pharmaceutical and biotech giant GSK, multinational consumer healthcare company Haleon, premium flexible workspace provider The Executive Centre, global furniture manufacturer Haworth and global site selection leader Hickey & Associates are amongst the first group of major companies to join The Hybrid Future. The study, which has now launched, is the definitive investigation into the impact of hybrid working on people, places and society, surveying over 10,000 participants from around the world over a three year period.

With the first set of pulse survey questions now live, strategic and corporate partners of The Hybrid Future will enjoy first access to new data and insights emerging from the study. With 24 surveys set to be issued every six to eight weeks, the volume and diversity of data, length of study, and breadth of topic range make The Hybrid Future the most comprehensive study of hybrid working ever conducted.

The rapid, widespread adoption of hybrid working across the world’s knowledge economies is one of the biggest cultural shifts of the 21st century, but setting the opinion and conjecture to one side, the long-term impact of hybrid working on our societies remains a complete unknown. The Hybrid Future, which went live in early summer, has been launched as a way to gather increased insights and data and will become a key influencer of press, policy, and thought leadership.

Commenting on the addition of new corporate partners, Tim Oldman, Founder and CEO at Leesman, said:

“There’s no greater signal as to the importance of The Hybrid Future than the calibre of corporate partners that have joined the study at the outset. Standard Chartered, GSK, NatWest, Haleon, Haworth, The Executive Centre and Hickey & Associates are well-established, leading companies within their markets, with a combined workforce of many thousands.

“Whilst The Hybrid Future will benefit greatly from their contributions, the corporate partners themselves will receive early and detailed access to the most comprehensive data ever recorded on the impact of hybrid working, helping them to shape their working policies for years to come.”

Shelley Boland, Global Head of Property at Standard Chartered, commented:

“Leesman was introduced to Standard Chartered in 2017 by one of our workplace partners and we have been using Leesman’s workplace experience metric ever since.

“We've now signed up for The Hybrid Future to really challenge our thinking around what sustainable hybrid working looks like over the long term. We not only want to think about our 86,000 colleagues, and what the next generation of the workforce looks like, but we want to contribute to a sustainable model for our industry.

“To support this, we are excited to be working alongside a number of corporate real estate experts to bring this insight to them and help develop the benchmark hybrid working strategy of the future.”

Chelsea Perino, Managing Director, Global Marketing & Communications at The Executive Centre, commented:

“We have been a champion of flexibility since our founding in 1994. As one of the pioneers in the flexible workspace industry, our focus has always been on delivering the best experience, both from a workplace design and also a customer service perspective.

“We are excited to be a part of The Hybrid Future project: Work is becoming more personalised, and adaptability is essential to ensure business continuity, employee satisfaction, and talent attraction. Being able to lend our 30 years of experience and insights into asking the right questions is exactly what reflects TEC’s core ethos of helping our partners make the smartest decisions for their business.”

Anjell Karibian, Senior Workplace Research at Haworth, added:

At Haworth, we believe great spaces empower people to thrive. As a leading global furniture maker, we are steeped in workplace expertise that fuels innovative designs for optimal performance. Understanding the long-range effects of hybrid work on people and organisations gives us extensive insights into the office of the future.

“What we learn from the Hybrid Future research will inform the solutions we develop for customers, positioning Haworth as a trusted advisor for our customer and partners around the world.”

Guy Douetil, Managing Director EMEA at Hickey & Associates, said:

“Globally, we are at a pivotal time as businesses recalibrate their strategies for the future, thus we are excited to be participating in this 3-year research project to provide a definitive, fact-based investigation into the global impact of hybrid working on people, places and the wider society.”

To learn more about The Hybrid Future, visit www.thehybridfuture.com

ENDS

About Leesman

Founded in 2010, Leesman is the global independent authority for workplace experience.

Leesman equips organisations with critical insights into their employee workplace experience, to help them create environments that enable employees to thrive.

Through a series of assessment tools, Leesman captures employee sentiments on how effective their work environments are at supporting them. By rating organisations’ ability to support employees in the home and in the office, performance can then be benchmarked against the largest database of its kind.

As organisations look to adapt to a fast-changing work culture, Leesman’s insights equip businesses to make informed, forward-thinking decisions that mitigate risk, plan for the future, and create happy, productive workforces.

About MIT Center for Real Estate

The MIT Center for Real Estate (MIT/CRE) was founded in 1983 by MIT alumnus, Charles “Hank” Spaulding CE ’51. A prominent real estate developer himself, Spaulding had the vision to improve the quality of the built environment and to promote a more informed professional practice in the global real estate industry.

Educating the men and women whose innovations will serve the industry worldwide, the MIT Center for Real Estate is home to the first one-year Master of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED) degree, as well as an intensive two-week Professional Certificate in Real Estate Finance and Development.

The Center’s pioneering research investigates the real estate transaction from initial concept to market reality, providing breakthrough knowledge to help organizations capitalize on today’s dynamic markets and technologies.

Uniting industry leaders with MIT’s distinguished researchers and students, the Center’s diversified industry partnership program advances and bridges the gap between theory and practice.

For Leesman:

PJ Appleton
[email protected]

Tom Lickley
[email protected]

Miranda Harrington
[email protected]

For Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

James Scott
[email protected]

Kairos Shen
[email protected]

Paul Adornato
[email protected]