The Evolution of Office Space over the Pandemic

Women of FinTech look at the Evolution of Office Space over the Pandemic and speak to industry leaders about their insights and thoughts as to how workspace will look when the lockdown measures ease and we finally 'return' to work...

While all industries have felt the pressure over the last 12 months, the office space market has been at the helm of feeling the brunt.

Peter Dudley, Commercial Real Estate Agent at O&A Property Consultants saw this first hand;

It will come as no surprise to anyone that there has been a monumental shift in how people see and use office space as a result of this pandemic.

After the announcement in March last year informing the country of the first lockdown there was a huge majority of offices that emptied overnight.

The initial impact was throwing up questions about how to shift the technical challenge of the office to the thousands of remote workstations that had been created overnight. The aim was to cope without the office as best as possible.

There was, however, a need for the office to be a base for IT, technical and senior teams looking to navigate their business through the challenges suddenly placed in front of them.

It took a good few months for the dust to settle on this initial impact and for people to start to look rationally at their operation. There was not a mass cancellation of leases and serviced office agreements, more a period of reflection and discussion about what the business will need.

Back then we were unaware of how long these changes would go on for, so a few weeks working from home were embraced as a novel change of scenery by many. But a year down the line we are now aware that this is having a long-term effect on how businesses will choose to 'return' to work once the restrictions are lifted. Colin Slight, MD & co-founder of The Realization Group, is one of many who had previously embraced flexible working and can see that there will be a positive side to this new realisation that WFH options can offer both the workers and businesses a positive work-life balance;

Clearly the debate around whether WFH can be an important component of the operational regime for almost all ‘white collar’ jobs is now over and about time too. My firm has successfully operated a hybrid WFH + London office based regime for over 18 years. It’s a shame it has taken the unfortunate circumstances of the pandemic to prove this.

WFH 100% of the time is unlikely to be the answer for most teams however. There are times when WFH is the right place to be and other times when getting together face to face with colleagues, clients, suppliers and other associates works best.This can be for purely business reasons or quasi business/social. 

Either way it doesn’t matter, all that is required is for each individual firm to figure out what the optimal WFH/Office attendance regime is and implement it. Some policies will need to change but smart execs with good HR and Finance support will work those out in time and the templates and processes for the new hybrid model will spin out of that. 

This will not be the same for all firms or indeed for all members of staff within those firms but now we know beyond doubt that WFH can work with great effectiveness then this is a great opportunity for owners and managers to positively transform the operational frameworks of their businesses. 

Finally, on a personal note, I will be absolutely delighted to see what I hope will be the demise of the rush hour. What a horrible, stressful, expensive, insanitary and environmentally unfriendly experience that is. By working the way we have done for the last 18 years, our team has largely been able to avoid this horrible and unnecessary experience despite the fact that most of our business is conducted in the heart of The City. If only for that reason, we would highly recommend this way of working!

While there are positive outcomes to this style of flexible working, we are left wondering how commercial real estate will be able to offer innovative solutions to these newfound ways of working. Gary Brown, CEO & Founder of Debt Register, a payment solutions company for overdue invoices has been working closely with a number of commercial real estate firms who were left unpaid over the pandemic;

We are a paytech company born in the pandemic to help companies like this, stay afloat during this economic crisis. According to a survey from the office of National Statistics, businesses in the UK are owed hundreds of thousands of pounds in overdue payments.

This high level of debt is not helped by businesses being unable to chase invoices as a priority, with many workforces still being stretched thin in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. We have been helping a number of commercial real estate and office space companies claim their rental invoices in a way that is 10 x faster and cheaper than legal action, ensuring they are able to keep their company in positive cashflow.

Having seen these issues up close I believe there is a space for a new type of office, where it runs in an AirBnB style, with companies renting the space as and when they need it. This also gives them the ability to choose a geographical location suited to their differing needs each time.

Tony Margiotta, GM at RISE London, an office space hub for FinTech startups created by Barclays, also believes there will be a need for a new style of working that will rise up from this;

I imagine post-lockdown there will be more flexible hours of office usage for some companies, but I believe the need for space/meeting/project rooms will increase. Big corporates are considering closing their major buildings and having smaller satellite groups in co-working.    

Having spoke with a number of C-suite leaders they state that the hybrid solution could work well as there will still be a need for space where internal teams can come together and share ideas and work -community- meetings - 121 recruiting intervals.  

I think apart from the above, businesses will want to come back to the office in some form as community/connections/talent interviews (physical) is super important.  However, I think hybrid working will be more prevalent.

Having worked in co-working for many years and the sales pipeline currently is still strong, so I believe office space is still very much wanted and needed.    

This attitude to offering flexible options seems to be the most popular way of returning to work. Salesforce, the San Francisco-based cloud computing giant, this week revealed a new work policy for its 54,000 global employees, including over 9,000 Bay Area workers, giving them three options: flex, fully remote and office-based. Flex will apply to the majority of their workers, meaning coming into the office a few days a week for meetings and such, fully remote will mean never having to come into the office and office-based, is, well, self-explanatory. The company believes that “in our ever-connected world,” employees no longer need to adhere to a strict 8-hour schedule and rather can work around other duties, such as childcare.

While these options look set to be the new trend, there will still be a lot of companies wanting a standard office working structure, which is what Niki Fuchs, Managing Director of Office Space in Town, predicts;

There will always be a place for the office, mainly because people value the sense of community derived from working alongside colleagues. In particular, post-pandemic workers will place a premium on face-to-face contact with others, as we attempt to bounce back from the mental health crisis caused by repeated lockdowns. In addition, emerging SMEs will want to take the next step in their development by operating from offices (rather than their founders’ homes) as soon as possible.

While this may all feel like a very British problem, as we have Boris Johnson telling us daily what we can and can't do, it extends globally, as Sarah Leighton, Client Solutions Manager at the internationa company Korum Legal, has seen;

 In London and Singapore we have yet to return to the office but our office in Hong Kong has mostly been in use throughout the pandemic. It’s interesting as it has certainly led to noticeably different working dynamics in different offices, we’ve found in our remote offices that we need to put more processes in place to encourage collaboration and team working.  

While this makes it clear none of us know what 'returning to work' will look like, it is also a resounding message that options are key to its success. Options that will benefit not only the employees but also the employers.