New ways of working create opportunities to do things differently, so let’s grab them – and invest the time and thought needed to get them right.
By Emma Stewart, Co-Founder, Timewise
It’s simple maths, really. If you’re an office-based organisation, and the majority of your employees are going to be spending two or three days working remotely, you probably won’t need the same amount of space going forwards as you did before the pandemic.
Certainly, an Institute of Directors survey suggests that this is likely to be the direction of travel, with more than half considering cutting back on their office space as staff move more permanently to new ways of working. However, if leaders are assuming that they’ll just stagger people’s in-office days to reduce their square footage and operational costs, and otherwise carry on as before, that’s a real wasted opportunity.
Instead, companies need to use this shift in working practices to consider three questions. Firstly, what could we gain as an organisation from radically rethinking how we use our office space? Secondly, what would be the right changes to make, for our people and our organisation? And thirdly, how should we approach the process?
At a macro level, there are a number of opportunities created by this shift in workplace use, outside of simple cost savings. One idea that’s being frequently mentioned is to move from one centralised office to more, smaller regional ones; for example, as the CEO of Coinbase puts it, “One floor of office space in 10 cities, rather than 10 floors of office space in one city.”
Decentralising in some way would allow employers to gain access to a wider talent pool, and a greater diversity of background, experience and opinion, than if they remained based in one of the big cities. And it would potentially allow people who can’t afford the high cost of living centrally to have access to more, better jobs.
From a societal perspective, given the concerns about the effect of the pandemic on high street retailers, and fears of ‘ghost towns’ developing, an increase in the number of localised offices or hubs could also help with town centre regeneration. And of course, there are both environmental and individual gains from minimising commuting, from a decrease in pollution to the impact on people’s mental and physical health.
So, what would these new-style offices be for – and what should be done elsewhere? The pandemic has highlighted the suitability of home working for certain tasks; writing a report, finessing a presentation, or tackling a complex spreadsheet can be tricky to complete in a chat-filled open plan office. And some meetings are highly effective by Zoom or Teams; chaired properly, with a carefully curated invite list, they can be more efficient than a face-to-face equivalent.
Equally, there remain some circumstances in which face-to-face is best, with the most obvious being tasks that require creativity and collaboration. However, although these require people to be in the same place, they’re not best suited to a traditional, cubicle-based layout.
So ideally, instead of simply tweaking their existing real estate for their new ways of working, leaders should start with a blank sheet, thinking about what the new office should be for, before creating spaces to match. And that means thinking about job design.
Before getting excited by floor plans and paint colours, leaders need to invest time and thought into how their employees’ roles break down, work out what can and should be done where and when, and then base any new plans on these redesigned specs. That means considering issues relating to both tasks and people, such as:
Our suggestion would be to start by focusing on tasks, and then take people’s needs into account. It’s also important to consider the wider challenges around hybrid working, to ensure that any new model is both fair and inclusive. And as a side note, it’s worth remembering that there are tax implications for hybrid workplaces in certain circumstances.
A number of companies have already spoken openly about their plans to significantly change the purpose of their workplaces. Aviva is planning to close three offices (but not withdraw from any locations, or lose headcount) and “invest in our sites to provide a more vibrant, inspiring and flexible workspace for our people”.
And Vodafone has gone on the record to say that, while they will retain a presence in London, they can also “see the power of a distributed model, with hub offices elsewhere in the country, to help drive diversity and inclusion, reaching out to undiscovered talents nationally.”
They’re right to have got started; well-executed change of this scale won’t evolve or ‘just happen’; it takes time and investment to get right. We can help; if your organisation doesn’t have the right skills and experience in job design, or you’re not sure where to start, do get in touch.
Published April 2021
