Spending all of your time from the comfort of your own home became the norm during the presence of the coronavirus, with companies either enrolling their employees onto a furlough scheme or having them work remotely. Many people loved this, by getting to spend more time with family, swapped their suits for sweats to binge watch the whole of Netflix, whilst some even started their very own businesses.
A little bit of knowledge for you, during the year of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, 726,000 new businesses were formed in the UK, an extra 90,000 (14% increase) than the previous year. Even with these statistics, plenty of people enjoyed the time working from their own bed, but others want to put Covid in their rearview mirror.
Why is it Booming?
If many businesses still have their employees “working from home” – as we hear time and time again in the media – then why is commercial office space booming? Yes, there’s more demand for any type of workspace, especially with the number of new businesses being formed, but more so than any other is the call for warehouse space, thanks to all those spontaneous Amazon orders. But, more so that everyone is not going to be working from home in the near future, they’ll all be back in the office.
Yes, we know, even the bigger companies are still being slow in bringing their employees back. Some of them are even worried about bad PR and potential law suits, so they are hesitantly allowing their employees to determine their own arrangements. But not for long, this rapidly changing, with more than half of the corporate leaders wanting their employees back at their desks in the office 5 days a week. Even the Gen-Z community view remote working as a negative operation.
Employee Reluctance
As much as employees want to work from home all the time, as it easier, cheaper and causes less effect on the environment. it’s just not going to happen, at all. The actual reality is that workers in the nations smaller businesses have been back infront of their computer screens in the workplace for a while now. You don’t believe us? Take a meander around your town or city centre and look at the car parking, the majority of it will be occupied.
For decades, many bits of research have highlighted many key variables that can make workers productive, as well as those that significantly affect the probability that someone will be engaged, productive and happy with their careers. Even though people are different, with unique circumstances, there are many factors that explain their preferences of working from home, they can be:
- Autonomy – as the pandemic grew larger and forced employees into the confines of their own home for an unimagined amount of time, producing endless days of virtual meetings, workers kind of adjusted to the more independent side of their job roles by adapting their work to life, rather than life to work.
- Productivity – many workers have had confirmed what they’ve been wanting to know, even before the pandemic. This is that it’s possible to be productive when working from home, if not more. They sometimes spend hours a day commuting to work and being in pointless meetings, but without this, workers save copious amounts of time which can be spent completing other tasks.
- Toxic Policies – in any job there is, in any organisation and industry, there has always been a gap between an individuals performance and their actual success. The gap is largely down to a function of toxic policies, which includes privilege, nepotism, impression management and the ability to take credit for others’ achievements.
These are just some of the reasons why employees are reluctant to return to the office, at least full time. Even if these apply to you, you are still likely to value having an office to go to, with the benefit of having the chance to meet in person with colleagues.
A Core Benefit
There is no doubt or any question that working from home arrangements are a fundamental advantage that businesses must provide. Companies are re-addressing their working cultures and are doing their best to be as flexible as possible for their employees, up to what they can allow, anyway. However, there is a limit. There are very few that are going fully virtual, and very, very few that are allowing their employees to work remotely for more than two days a week.
Employers have a wider eye than most, as they know that real work gets completed when teams can be together, face-to-face and collaborate, innovate and even socialise. They also notice that working from home can be difficult for some, as loneliness and depression in workers is more common than ever.
Working from home is a part of the future, but from what the commercial real estate market is showing, companies are expanding, not abandoning their offices. Many businesses are slowly transitioning their employees back, but in the real world, this is business, and business gets done in a workplace, which means coming into the office – at least most of the time – is a reality that workers are going to have to face.
Are you looking at office space? Do you still want to work from home or where you are comfortable? Check out our offices, ranging from serviced to virtual workspaces. Officio will be happy to help you in your ventures, just contact us on 020 3053 3882 or by email at hello@askofficio.com.