Post-pandemic working patterns: is the office back in business?

Long before the last lockdown lifted in the UK, Goldman Sachs were keen to publicise the fact that staff were expected to return to their head office as soon as the government permitted it.

Meanwhile, companies like Unilever have been trialling a mix of remote and office-based work for many years. For them, the pandemic is merely an accelerator for moving to a more flexible working model.

Ultimately, what these examples reflect is how uncertain the future of how, and more specifically where, we work is.

Led by data, or culture?

A huge global survey by McKinsey found that around 25% of relevant workforces in advanced economies (that is, workforces that can perform their tasks without a loss in productivity) could work from home between three and five days a week.

This represents a huge increase from before the pandemic – and it continues to grow, with more companies building the infrastructure required to facilitate remote working.

Gartner, meanwhile, has found that nearly 50% of employees are now likely to work remotely at least part of the time, compared to 30% before COVID-19. The same study cites increased productivity and the ease of monitoring staff performance remotely as the main reasons.

In short, remote working works.

This begs the question: why do Goldman Sachs, Netflix and other outliers, who are well-placed to operate remotely, have such strong feelings about where their staff work?

The answer, perhaps, is more about culture than data. It’s quite difficult to find data that doesn’t paint a positive picture about remote working. It’s proven many doubters wrong, with productivity, cost and environmental benefits.

For some businesses, the office is simply a deep-rooted part of the company culture and identity – and one that can’t be ignored.

The office is a part of who the company is – and nothing can replace or replicate the daily convergence of staff.

Hybrid is probably the answer

The consensus among experts appears to be that a hybrid model is the future.

PwC’s ‘Deal’?appears to be the archetypal example of this, with staff expected to spend an average of 40-60% of their working time with colleagues, either in offices or at client sites.?

Many others are following suit and adapting office plans accordingly. Take-up of co-working spaces is rising dramatically, with demand growing by 37% in the UK in 2021.

And a hybrid model offers the very obvious benefit of being able to watch how everything plays out. It affords the flexibility of moving to more remote working if needed, or more time in the office if employee preferences shift in that direction.

It will also help businesses to meet their net zero targets, with travel continuing to account for a big proportion of a company’s carbon footprint.

For now at least, Goldman Sachs remains one of a minority of less flexible examples. But don’t be surprised if patterns change again. Like it or not, the office hasn’t disappeared just yet.