Home working: just a jolly or jolly good sense?

On the one hand Prime Minister Boris Johnson pleads with office staff to return to their places of employment, mainly to help get the wider economy operating normally, but also with a particular eye on how doing the job from home has proved devastating for the commercial viability of city and town centres. On the other, Nicola Sturgeon says employees should “not be intimidated” into returning to the office environment while they feel it is not safe to do so.

How city-centre firms, for whom footfall from office workers is vital, are supposed to survive for much longer in this environment was not, to the best of my knowledge, explained. It’s a bit rich of Boris to egg on the private sector when reluctance to return to the office still appears to be endemic among the various departments of his own government. I suppose we at least know where we stand with Ms Sturgeon and that, consequently, national and local government office staff in Scotland will not be returning to their desks any time soon. What is not clear is how effective home working has been in the public sector in terms of serving the general pub - lic. Or for that matter the corporate world; for the consumer, getting through to the right person in a major company was never simple at the best of times but now it requires more patience than ever.

I can, however, offer some perspective from the point of view of a small and(/or) medium-sized enterprise (SME) as working from home has been the rule rather than the exception at DJ Alexander since the end of March. Much to my surprise, it has been very successful both practically and commercially without any diminution in service to our clientele. Basically, employees’ office telephone extensions are linked to their home computers from which they have remote access to all the areas of our business relevant to their line of work. It is almost as if they were back in the office.

There are only two areas where a physical presence is required, one being the check-out and inventory-taking process following the departure of a tenant. The other, of course, is property viewings as, understandably, most owner-occupiers still wish to physically visit any house or flat they might buy. Even here, however, people are paying much more attention to detail with virtual viewings and only literally visiting those properties in which they have a definite interest. This, of course, has cut our costs because it means staff time is not wasted on “dead viewings”. The situation is different in the rental sector where, since the start of lockdown, most new tenants are prepared to agree a contract on the basis of a virtual viewing. Borne of necessity, this has actually become the desired choice as it not only saves people’s time but lets them inspect many more properties than they would have done if viewing physically. The popularity of online viewings has been helped by the increase in quality of the images, in addition to detailed floorplans and dimensions that give as clear an impression as possible of the size and shape of each property. Only tenants bringing their own furniture and white goods (if relevant) tend to want to physically view. I am often asked: “How do you know an employee is actually working from home and not playing golf, climbing Ben Nevis or simply lounging in front of the telly?” The answer is that in this hi-tech age, monitoring staff remotely is actually quite simple, although of course there has also to be an element of trust involved. And we try our best to accommodate those who prefer the office – like the handful who are not local, have no family nearby and especially miss the company of their colleagues. Even some of those for whom operating domestically has improved their work-life balance are now saying they would like to spend some of the week back at their desks. And this is probably the future: a hybrid situation whereby a parthome/part-office rota becomes the norm. It may not be suitable for every SME but – touch wood – it seems to be for this one.

David Alexander is MD of DJ Alexander

In this hi-tech age, monitoring

staff remotely is actually quite

simple