... where showing your face every day used to be the name of the game.

But the game has changed.

To think about the office as purely a container for your people and your equipment is very outdated.

For large multinational firms, the pandemic and hybrid working have changed the very idea and purpose of the office.

The office of today in a post-pandemic world is a social destination.

Offices are being radically redesigned.

This is where we build the offices of the future.

The changing office is changing the way bosses manage employees.

A hybrid model requires a very high degree of trust.

And this new world of hybrid working could shape what cities look like.

Remote working will affect the way we plan our cities.

(How is the office changing?)

Here in the bustling capital of India, this design consultancy is mapping out the offices of the future.

What we do here is not only test products, but we also test design.

We test human behavior; we test wellness.

How all of these come together to make good design.

In the past, office design was functional at best.

It was simply the place where employees went because they had to.

But, in management speak, there’s been a paradigm shift.

Since the pandemic, the offices of multinational companies have had dramatic facelifts.

So, our office in Delhi is a prime example of what kind of office designs organizations are looking for in the post-pandemic world.

Out have gone rows of desks and cubicles.

In have come collaboration spaces and relaxation zones, and even restaurants and bars.

From Ericsson and Standard Chartered to Boston Consulting Group and Beam Suntory, some of the world’s biggest companies have redesigned their offices.

The main driver of this redesign boom is hybrid working.

In the post-pandemic world, working partly at home and partly in the office is now seen as the new normal by many employees of multinational firms.

This has redefined the purpose of company offices and the reasons why employees go there.

The office of today in a post-pandemic world is about a social destination.

It is a place where employees come in to have informal learning and build their social capital in the organization.

In Singapore, Fae Wong is a senior manager for a multinational firm.

For her, home is now where she does her day-to-day desk work, and the office is where she goes for actual face-time.

I see the office as a base for me to go back to so that I can meet my colleagues, have lunch with them.

So it’s really a place where I reconnect, where I socialize with people rather than get work done.

Demand for flexible working has risen for employees of multinationals across the world.

A study found that at least some remote working is wanted by 76% of workers in Europe, 86% in America, and 78% in Asia.

Ben Hamley is the lead on the future of work in the Asia-Pacific Region for real-estate company JLL.

The office is certainly still the center of the work ecosystem for most of the world’s most progressive companies today.

But it’s much more expansive.

It includes much more flexible use of space and time to be able to deliver the needs of a future workforce.

In the post-pandemic era, many companies will need to change the layout of their offices and accept that employees have second offices in their homes or elsewhere.

This new concept of the office will change how employees need and expect to be managed.

If I was looking for a new job, I think having that flexibility to continue to do remote working will be my top priority, even more important than salary itself.

So, in management speak, bosses will need to think outside the box, and outside of the traditional office.

Being judged on how often you show your face in the company office will no longer cut it.

Even in parts of the world where there has traditionally been a strong culture of presenteeism.

Thinking that we are being assessed or appraised by attendance rather than performance, that’s a very Asian culture.

But I... I see things changing.

Making hybrid offices a success will require managers to give employees more autonomy.

So, a hybrid model requires a very high degree of trust between employers and employees.

Now, we find that to be a real challenge for managers, and that’s true not just in the Asia-Pacific but all over the world.

Better management of employees who are not always in the same physical office will be crucial to companies’ ability to retain and recruit the best talent.

'Cause what happens then is, managers start to move toward a way of evaluating employees that’s based on their results, not on the hours that they're putting in.

Employees are more engaged in their work, work quality increases.

It’s fantastic.

However, there could also be losers from the hybrid-office revolution.

Things may get worse for groups, such as working mothers who are likely to spend less time in company offices.

Although this will be a global problem, it could be more pronounced in Asia,

where discriminatory attitudes towards working mothers tend to be worse than in western Europe and North America.

We already have a great deal of gender inequality.

Hybrid work could carry a risk that the inequality would become even greater.

Hybrid work may not only change office management cultures and office designs,

it could also lead to multinational companies building more offices, namely, smaller and more local ones.

In the commercial-property trade, this is known as the hub and spoke model.

So, as companies have become more comfortable with hybrid work, the concept of having multiple locations that all form part of that office ecosystem has become much more popular.

One of the driving forces here is reduced appetite for commuting into city centers.

In Singapore, only 30% of workers have returned to their offices in the central business district since the pandemic.

And this pattern has repeated in cities across the world.

In the City of London, office vacancies have nearly doubled since the last quarter of 2019.

In Hong Kong, office vacancies have doubled.

In Bangkok, they have also doubled.

And in Paris La Défense, office vacancies have nearly tripled.

This trend could mean more offices and co-working spaces popping up in residential areas.

Not least in Asia, where large multigenerational households are common and space to work at home can be at a premium.

Employees will increasingly want office options closer to home.

Those locations not only attract more competitive businesses but they also attract more competitive talent.

Changes to the concept, design, and location of offices could have wider repercussions for the look of cities.

In countries across the globe, urban planners are returning to design models which incorporate concepts used after the Industrial Revolution.

Back then, businesses and industries were often found close to or in residential areas, before the arrival of the car changed this.

In the last 100, 150 years, the cities has [sic] evolved from one that is very mixed in function into cities that are becoming more and more segregated.

But we are beginning to see a reverse in this trend.

You live, work, play, learn, etc., in close, close proximity.

Now, urban planners in Singapore are pushing design concepts like the 15-minute city, 5-minute city, and even 1-minute city, where all daily necessities are within easy reach.

Although Singapore has often been ahead of the curve in urban planning, this trend could become more global.

There’s really no reason why offices cannot be mixed with residential

And I think it will be a win-win⏤it’s not just the individual, but it’s individual, community, and business.

Hello, I’m Tom Standage, deputy editor at "The Economist".

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, click on the link opposite.

Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to subscribe.