Traditional offices on way out before the pandemic RETHINK HOW WE WORK
TWELVE months after the first national lockdown, and despite current restrictions starting to lift, the nation’s offices have changed for ever.
The upheaval of spring 2020 has subsided and, for millions, a new style of remote working has become the norm.
As the economy tentatively opens up, where will new technology such as mobile phones, high-speed internet, Zoom and remote PA services leave those offices?
Some companies have already said they will be shutting offices completely. Others have said it could be months before staff are able to return.
Many others have mooted a combination of home and hub working, which could provide the best of both worlds.
This month call centre giant Capita told 35,000 out of 55,000 staff they can work from home permanently if they want.
Jon Lewis, Capita’s chief executive, said: “Call centres are, to some extent, a historic capability today.
“There’s no reason why you need to put 2,000 people in a warehouse in the UK. Those people can work from home.
“It isn’t dead, but there’s certainly going to be a lot less of them.
“There may be some financial services activities where, for reasons of security, people have to be in a secure environment, but for many of the things we do they don’t have to be in such a facility.”
Office interior specialist Rob Day said the writing was on the wall well before the pandemic.
He believes the traditional office space and huge call centres of the last 30 or so years will have to change or die.
Rob runs workplace consultancy and commercial office fit-out specialist Blueprint Interiors.
Based in Ashby, it serves the Midlands and beyond.
The team recently completed an office for law firm Gleeds, in Bristol, creating openplan workspaces to encourage agile working.
Rhys Davies, who heads the new south west office, said the changes represented a “first step in a shift in approach as we think about changing the ways in which we all work”.
Mr Davies said: “We want our staff to have access to working spaces that are Covid-compliant in the short-term and encourage collaboration and flexible working practices long-term.”
As well as helping clients adapt, Blueprint has been working on a behind-the-scenes project at its own offices, WorkLife Central, putting in audio-video systems with big, interactive digital screens and software which helps people work together wherever they are.
A new work-cafe area, furniture, greenery and clever acoustics have been used to demonstrate how agile spaces can be created for individuals and groups to work together and socialise safely.
Rob said: “Over the past 20 years we’ve continually evolved to create workplace environments designed with people in mind.
“While there has been a steady progression in this belief, the effects of the 2020 pandemic has significantly accelerated this demand.
“It was therefore time to redesign our own office space so those who need to redefine their office for the return of workers can see and experience for themselves the latest in design, furniture and technology as part of the overall discovery of how their offices and culture could be transformed with our help.”
He said many companies will have no choice but to shake-up how they operate.
“The IT revolution is the fourth industrial revolution and the rate of change is doubling, so those rows and rows of people in call centres are the
INTERIOR DESIGN FIRM BOSS SAYS WE NEED TO
ones that are changes.
“With the pandemic it’s changing even faster now. We started demonstrating the new way of doing things three years ago when we opened our office.
“Since my first job 35 years ago for Barclays, when I worked in three big hexagonal tower blocks in Poole, Dorset, the evolution of the workplace has been phenomenal.
“I first became aware of office design in 1979 in an openplan office, which was revolutionary back then.
“But in the past five years the evolution of the personal computer and then mobile computing has been exponential. facing the biggest A PC or MacBook Pro has more computing power than the computer floor of a bank 30 years ago.
“Think what you can do with that – my job has gone from moving bits of information on pieces of paper to engaging directly with members of other organisations.
“So our ability to collaborate and work together as individuals has developed.
“The workforce that mimics the oldfashioned transfer of paper from one desk to another will simply not exist.
“Whenever I call someone in a call centre I always ask them what’s going on, and quite early in the pandemic they were saying ‘I don’t miss the commute, but I really miss the social side of things.’
“If you look at solicitors’ offices, for instance, many of them are massively over-represented with desks.
“If you think about how they have changed in the past 20 years, partners have become their own secretaries, planning their own work. They are knowledge workers and the whole world is going that way.
“This changing dynamic has been going on a long time, but the reasons for it are now clearer to everybody.
“It’s not just about giving your workers cheap gym membership – it’s about empowering them and entrusting them to work smarter.
The workforce that mimics the old-fashioned transfer of paper from one desk to another will not exist
Rob Day
“I’m not a massive fan of everything Richard Branson does but he was wise enough to say if you look after your staff they will look after their customers.
“If people just continue in the old nine-to-five, same-old same-old, they will get left behind. If you do not change, you will die.
“Gleeds wanted us to help them change the culture of their Bristol office and that’s how things are going to have to change.
“Not every business will make it. Companies need to change their systems and their processes and their people control, and if that happens we will have better, richer, more stimulating work environments.”