People are a business’s most valuable asset - so how are we making the City of London 'people friendly’?

Once upon a time, the growth in technology made us fearful that it would replace the need for people at work. Now, we know better. Now, we know that technology has shown the value of the different skills that people bring to the workplace. Technology hasn’t taken away the need for people, it’s just shown that people have skills, especially soft skills, that machines don’t have. In turn, it has made the spaces around us even more important and purposeful than ever.

No longer chicken coop offices crammed full of as many people as possible, today’s working environments need to be about health, community, collaboration, inspiration and inclusivity, and London is at the forefront of that movement.

Collaboration is the key

Contrary to popular conjecture, technology has not resulted in a mass exodus from cities as we all choose to work from our living rooms. Instead, it has meant we want more from our office spaces, and companies are responding by choosing to base their headquarters in locations where they are most likely to find (and keep) the best talent in the world, and in buildings specially structured to meet their needs.

For example, according to the City Property Association’s Locate, create and innovate: London in a changing world report, the new headquarters of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook together provide capacity for over 20,000 tech professionals – while three new buildings in the City of London’s Eastern cluster house nearly 30,000 workers. Far from wanting to isolate talent in separate locations, by following it to its preferred location and keeping it together, it creates the opportunity for an ecosystem of skills and more natural opportunities for collaboration.

It’s not just tech oligarchs who are getting in on the idea either. According to the report, a 2019 FTI Survey “showed that for financial services firms around the world, collaboration across and within business teams was seen as the most important factor in driving innovation.”

London is the perfect place to work together 

If people are our most precious asset, and collaboration is the key to a successful future, then location is the ingredient that sets the alchemy in motion. That’s not just in terms of geography, but also in terms of how a place is set up - from transport to the buildings themselves.

Location determines “who [businesses] can hire, who they can meet, and who they can learn from, work and trade with,” and London has already cemented its position as a global favourite.

As The City Property Association’s report The City is a Place for People, put it: “the City [is] one of the densest business agglomerations in the world, with almost half a million people working in the Square Mile each day, seven out of 10 of them in high skilled jobs.” 

The report went on to say that:

“2,500 European corporate decision makers polled revealed that they see London as the leading European city for business and talent, receiving a fifth of votes from respondents, outstripping continental rivals. Global institutional investors were even clearer - 58% identified London as the best European city for business.” 

Those polls are reflected in numbers on the ground as well. Businesses are reflecting this positive message with serious investment and relocation to London with growing numbers and also growing diversity in the types of businesses being drawn to The City. Younger companies in a variety of sectors are joining the world renowned financial and business services typically associated with the Square Mile. The result is that London is home to 40% of the top 250 companies with global or regional headquarters in Europe.

What makes an appealing environment?

So when we talk about spaces that appeal to talent, and that support collaboration, what do we mean? We mean buildings that are environmentally friendly. We mean spaces that support health and wellbeing. We mean work environments that inspire, allow us to feel creative and that are nice places to hang out and meet new people, form new bonds naturally and easily. 

We mean places that make it easy to move through the day, from transport infrastructure to scanning technology to get into our office buildings. We also mean environments that show support for businesses of all sizes by ensuring the city isn’t simply populated with chains of coffee shops, but independent stores that inspire collaboration between large conglomerates and smaller retailers.

Bloomberg, for example, is said to be opening meeting and eating spaces. The Leadenhall Building has shared cycling facilities. Business community Twentytwo has yoga spaces and a 25th floor climbing window. Some companies are incorporating business incubators, and large organisations like IBM use flexible workspaces like WeWork alongside startups, finding they encourage rapid project concept development and creativity.

Wonderfully, the environment provided by The City of London fits the brief perfectly for enabling us all to work together in enjoyable spaces, and we need to make sure we celebrate that, supporting everyone in the City to make the most of it. However, it’s also important not to be complacent. With the right planning and development, we can continue to nurture this unique environment for the benefit of everyone, ensuring its benefits continue into the foreseeable future.