WeWork effect: How big firms look for amenity-rich environments for workers

The biggest employers on the planet see a future filled with free beer and new age motivational posters. Their offices will need to catch up.

After WeWork Cos reinvented the office experience for freelancers and start-ups, large businesses see their use of flexible space rocketing over the next three years, according to a survey of global companies with 3.5 million employees by broker Knight Frank LLP. More than half of them expect the non-traditional space to account for at least a fifth of the total compared with about 5 percent now.

“WeWork has changed the narrative around corporate real estate,”