Offices are transforming forever. Here's what to expect when you go back to work — and why it won't be like you remembered.

• The coronavirus pandemic is transforming how employers, real-estate services providers, and landlords are thinking about the office.
• Architects are already laying out the floorplans of the near-future. And companies are rethinking how much office space they really need.
• Many experts see the very concept of the office transforming from a place you go every day to more of a hub for high-stakes meetings and collaborative work.
• Business Insider has talked with dozens of experts to learn what offices will look like when you go back to work, and what it will take to return to normal.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus pandemic is proving to be a huge catalyst that's transforming how employers, real-estate services providers, and landlords are thinking about the office.

Top architects are already laying out the floorplans of the near-future, while companies that have been forced to go remote are rethinking how much office space they really need.

Many experts see the very concept of the office transforming from a place you go every day to more of a hub for high-stakes meetings and collaborative work.

Meanwhile, the remainder of your workweek will likely be spent in a dispersed network of sites that could include your own home. Technology as well as safety-focused upgrades will be key to making this new ecosystem work.

Business Insider has talked with dozens of experts to learn what offices will look like when you go back, and what it will take to return to normal. Here's everything you need to know.

Rethinking communal space

Even before the coronavirus, the world's largest architecture firm was sounding the alarm on the looming challenges with the increasingly common open-floor plan in offices. Now, organizations are looking to revamp designs to encourage employees to eventually return to the office.

Potential changes ahead include health checkpoints in reception areas and the greater use of ventilation methods to allow for more outside air, according to Gensler co-CEOs Andy Cohen and Diane Hoskins.

Read the full story here:

3 ways that offices will change post-coronavirus, according to the co-CEOs of the largest architecture firm

The pros and cons of temperature-taking

As reopening the workplace draws nearer, major landlords are split on what type of screening protocols they will use to help prevent a resurgence of the coronavirus. Popularized in Asia, temperature-taking has become a common screening method that some landlords say they will impose on workers and visitors as they enter office buildings.

But checking for fever brings up privacy, logistical, and liability issues that have made some major owners wary. Landlords say that a lack of protocols from government has created confusion around the issue.

Read the full story here:

Mandatory temperature-taking is largely seen as a critical way to return workers to offices. But some big NYC landlords are worried about its effectiveness.

The timeline for getting back to the office

The return to the office will likely be marked by two waves: before a vaccine, and after a vaccine. In the short term, offices will feel emptier than before as people return in shifts to workplaces with more private spaces, cubicles separated by plastic guards, and hallways signposted for one-way traffic.

In the long term, the office might convert into the social backbone of a company while focused individual work will take place remotely.

Read the full story here:

What to expect when you're back in the office: 7 real-estate experts break down what the transition will look like, and why the workplace may never be the same

Reimagining how people work

Business Insider's Dan Geiger spoke with experts from JLL, Goodwin Procter, and Warburg Realty about the future of real estate. The three agreed the crisis has forced everyone from corporate execs to bosses of smaller businesses to rethink how they use offices.

Companies are considering a more distributed form of working, with traditional offices sharing space with virtual reality technology, a range of coworking centers, remote work, and even hotels as potential places where work can be done. Meanwhile, landlords are considering whether investing in tech that promotes public health could add value to their buildings.

Read the full story here:

'We should be prepared for a new normal': 3 real estate experts on how the coronavirus is transforming offices and accelerating the rise of industrial property

Companies think twice about new leases

Major office tenants have begun to rethink big leasing decisions costing tens of millions of dollars as the coronavirus crisis has threatened to bring on a recession and casts uncertainty over the future of the office space. Raymond James Financial, Freshly and other major tenants have put big leasing decisions on hold.

And Manhattan's once-booming office leasing market has already begun to dip amid the crisis and as tenants increasingly grow hesitant to sign deals.

Read the full story here:

Major tenants are delaying big leases in NYC as they re-think their office space needs for the post-coronavirus world

Overhauling workplace continuity and contingency planning

Three factors make this crisis unlike any other, even compared to era-defining moments like 9/11: the disease has no geographical center, so there's no way to move operations away from it; it is transmitted between people, so work has to be done remotely; and it is not a singular event, but instead a global pandemic.

Workplace continuity plans need to be able to run for much longer than they may have been previously designed to. If transmission of the virus slows but does not stop, businesses could find a middle ground between full density and remote work by clustering employees in different, geographically scattered locations. The longer-term response is also fertile ground for the development and adoption of technology.

Read the full story here:

Real-estate services giant JLL explains how the coronavirus could usher in a permanent 'paradigm shift' towards more remote work

What the future holds for flex space

Millions of workers suddenly forced out of the office are discovering that they can work from home – and in some cases that they want to work from anywhere but home. Employers making real-estate decisions are weighing how to safely bring their employees back, and, bigger picture, exactly how and where they'll have offices in the coming months and years.

Before the pandemic, flexible-office companies like WeWork made up a growing sliver of real estate – 2.3% of leasable space in the US as of the first quarter of 2020 — and the sector has grown an average of 23% per year since 2010. Now, insiders predict a short-term pinch for the industry, as employees fear returning to dense floors and some of the small businesses that relied on these spaces cut headcount.

Read the full story here:

The coronavirus is a 'nuclear bomb' for companies like WeWork. 10 real-estate insiders lay out the future of flex-office, and how employers are preparing now.

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