Bob Dickinson, Director at Installation & Refurbishment Solutions Limited discusses his ideas for the future of the work place and working from home.

It certainly is a weird time at the moment!

The streets and workplaces are empty with so many people working at home away from the normal office environment. In the down time I have been considering what will be next, will there be a return to the old type of workplace we operated in before the Shutdown.

Doing “business” has been turned on its head from the normal means of holding a meeting to a day to day social interaction of a hand shake, it has raised some interesting questions for what work will be like when we return to “normal”.
– Will working from home remain as the new office?
– Will office space cease to be the main location to operate a business?
– Will commercial rents drop?
– How important is a bank of desk’s, PC equipment, expensive telephone access?
– What is important about the workplace?
– Will 9-5pm last as typical working time frame with its historical effect family social interactions?
– How important is going to work, routine, staff interactions, problem solving, for productivity?

The usual cacophony of noise over social media I believe tends to lean on the vested interest of the writer when comments are made and doesn’t always cover the whole spectrum.

Before the epidemic there were already conversations within our industry discussing a dramatic shift of importance for break out and communal workspaces. Landlords and office designers undertaking work to improve/ enhance / redefine those social interaction elements / spaces of all workplaces so as to attract new tenants, or indeed just to improve the space to increase rents, or even to outdo competitors with helter skelters in the office attracting the best people for the vacancy.

However the delay or reduction in those plans always seemed to be with:
– Overall cost
– Sceptical bosses not convinced of the benefits to the business in the first place and staff in the second
– Landlords not willing to invest in those areas, sometimes on advice from commercial property advisers trying to maximise income for their clients.

Certainly the controversial effect that ‘We Work’ had on the industry did make, a generally stayed body of professionals take a long hard look at itself, completing factual reports and investigations into the workplace and how it could be improved to maximise return on investment. Leaders of industry and open-minded business owners took this further and looked at how these changes could be implemented for the benefit of their staff and thereby improve the productivity of the business. How accurate and truthful these reports are could be debated.

The current pandemic now however could allow for a more accurate review of these questions, whereby it is certainly now possible to state the other extreme of any experiment. Which is what if all offices / workplaces were shut down? While certainly not all are closed, many are, enabling business time to look at the lack of face to face working relationships and the consequent increase or decrease in productivity. This weird time frame could be an ideal context to establish and answer some of those grey areas of social interaction that result in the progression of any business.

The working contract in recent years between Employer and Employee has been undergoing changes whereby:
– The employer undertakes to define work for employees and then reward them for the return (money / benefit’s)
– The employee undertakes to complete that work within defined minimum times (value / effort )
The agreement obviously the battleground, which some would suggest has been in the employee’s favour over recent years, as it has been argued that there were not enough employees of sufficient calibre to fill all the job offers available.

Once the restrictions are removed I wonder, will business revert back to the status quo, to the way things went on before or will employers and employees begin to wrestle to suit their own requirements based on their personal experiences in recent weeks?

Relationships and dynamics between groups may change due to the extended time apart, more than normal holiday breaks and weekends. Certain considerations that have come to my mind during this isolation period will, no doubt have occurred for other employers and employees:
– Arranging meetings remotely rather than booking meeting rooms.
– Keeping to strict meeting timelines rather than allow meetings to overrun.
– No coffee or snack organising.
– What to wear.
– Chance conversations before or after meetings to clarify or consider different points of view.
– Meeting (Social and casual)and talking during breaks, playing games with work colleagues.
– Head space from going out for lunch or shopping.
– Social meetings for future family partnerships
– Inviting your boss into your home to meet over a screen
– Spending more time with partners and families is actually quite a nice weekday activity for some but a struggle for others

Perhaps the irony is, that even if the above points are all raised, with answers put forward the bottom line in business will always be, what is the return on investment ? Be that the employer or employee asking the question.

It seems to me that just before the pandemic, ‘’well being’’ was dominating all conversations on the workplace as much as cost. That employers were considering the benefit of their staff’s mental Well being on a balanced scale of their productivity. Perhaps now the reports that will come out as a result of the past few weeks, will further quantify and justify those considerations and that just because staff can work from home, Isolated Productivity perhaps isn’t the complete future.