Balancing flexibility and security: Rethinking the future of workspaces

Where should your people work to be both productive and secure? And what’s the right balance between organisational and employee expectations around where, when, and how they work? 

More than five years on from the pandemic that reshaped our world, leaders continue to grapple with these questions. While employer return-to-office policies dominated headlines in 2024 and 2025, a Robert Half survey paints a more comprehensive picture. As of November 2024, 81% of Australian organisations have mandated that their employees work at least three days in the office, up from 74% twelve months prior.  

Crucially, most return-to-office mandates include a hybrid working arrangement. This lines up with employee expectations. 

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 36% of employed Australians worked from home most of the time in August 2024. And while recent return-to-office policies have reduced this cohort from its pandemic-era peak, a CEDA survey found more than half of employers expect a hybrid balance of office and remote work to continue indefinitely. Employees clearly want flexibility, but they also crave collaboration and connection that’s easier to find in the office.  

For roles that can be done remotely, hybrid work is the future of work. But while employers can dial back pandemic-era flexibility, they can’t adjust employee expectations of the office’s role in a post-pandemic workplace. 

The new rules of employee experience

Today’s workforce expects more than a desk. Employees want a space that feels professional, connected, and human. Shared kitchens, breakout zones, and meeting rooms recreate the sense of community people miss at home. 

The solution for many businesses has been a move to office spaces that reflect these changing work patterns. CBRE’s 2024-2025 Global Workplace and Occupancy report highlights the shift.

To achieve this, many organisations turned to co-working spaces. Co-working spaces provide a flexible office that can grow with the organisation as needed, plus the “buzz” that employees increasingly expect from their office. 

At the same time, regulated industries, from banking to healthcare, can’t compromise on security, compliance, or uptime. Co-working spaces often fall short of these enterprise security requirements. And while conventional offices offer control, they lack agility and struggle to meet employee expectations. 

So, where’s the middle ground? 

The Secure Space advantage

That’s where Interactive’s Secure Spaces come in. Secure Spaces provide the flexibility and energy of co-working spaces, with enterprise-grade reliability, security, and business continuity.  

Purpose-built for regulated, digital-first organisations, they deliver all the energy of a collaborative workplace without sacrificing security or continuity. 

Unlike typical co-working hubs, Secure Spaces are designed to meet the demands of APRA-regulated businesses, critical industries, and any organisation that needs always-on infrastructure. They offer: 

• • Resilient uptime: Built-in redundancy across power, servers, and telco providers. 
  • Scalable flexibility: From a single office to a full floor, you can scale up or down as your workforce shifts. 
  • End-to-end support: Fully managed by Interactive, with facilities, IT support, and even on-site baristas to keep culture (and productivity) thriving. 

In essence, you get the flexibility of co-working with the security of a private office. 

Flexibility without compromise

With employees demanding flexibility, organisations need a smarter alternative to traditional offices. One that balances cost efficiency, collaboration, and resilience. 

Interactive’s Secure Spaces offer an optimal solution. Businesses can access ready-to-go, fully managed offices that scale with need and deliver the security, compliance, and uptime that today’s digital-first organisations demand.  

For APRA-regulated, digital-centric, or customer-facing organisations, in particular, every minute of downtime comes at an increasing financial and reputational cost. Interactive’s Secure Spaces are engineered to provide business continuity and compliance. Whether it’s a power outage, an ISP failure, or a compliance audit, your teams stay up, running, and confident. 

As one CIO recently told us, “Hybrid doesn’t mean half-secure. We need both flexibility and resilience.” 

Interactive delivers exactly that: workspaces where collaboration, compliance, and culture can all thrive together. 

Ready to find your new way of working?

Book a tour of Interactive’s Secure Spaces today and discover how you can give your people the best of both worlds: a flexible, modern workplace that never compromises onsecurity, reliability and business continuity.