The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the adoption of new ways of working. Businesses across the world are now reflecting on the role of offices, and whether these costs could be taken off the bottom line. On one hand, offices are expensive to rent/buy and run, but on the other hand they create safe, productive, enjoyable spaces with interaction, and can be where ideas thrive. It’s not just about your business, but also about the jobs and the lives of employees.
Prior to this pandemic, the normality was that offices were very important in the fabric of both company culture, and in the regard of the company. Companies competed fiercely for office space in large urban areas around the world, and many focused on solutions that seemed to promote collaboration. However, as technology improved and people were ever more accessible via the internet, the office space has slowly become less and less meaningful.
During this recent COVID-19 pandemic, many people have marvelled at how fast and efficient technology has been developed through video-conferencing and other forms of digital collaboration. Zoom for instance, where the BBC reports that the company has increased in sales by more than 40%, with the company worth more than £2.6 billion.
According to a recent survey by PeopleManagement, Forty-one percent of people surveyed said they are more productive than before, and 28 percent are as productive as working in the office.
Benefits of working without the constraints of an office include attracted a wider audience, reaching new talent pools, adopt new product development processes, create a stronger cultures, and significantly reduce property costs. Prior to COVID-19 pandemic, home-based work was growing as more and more employers identified the benefits it could bring to their business and improved health outcomes for their employees.
The future for ‘online businesses’ that are run without the constraints of an expensive office is looking more likely, and COVID-19 would have potentially accelerated this thought process. As businesses begin to return to the office as restrictions lift, it will be interesting to see how many people return to the ‘old ways’ of if a new hybrid form of working is born from this turbulent times.
