If you believe much of the current media commentary, the traditional office environment is dead, killed by Covid 19. After reading the recent Economist article ‘Reimagining the office after Covid 19‘, I’m not so sure.
Right now, quite rightly, working practices have had to adjust to accommodate the fact that we have no vaccine. In London in particular this has meant the majority of non-furloughed office-based staff are currently working from home.
There have been obvious personal benefits for home-based workers…no commute, more time with family, more time to exercise etc. For employers, technology has meant a degree of ‘business-as-usual’ has been achievable – imagine if Covid 19 struck 20 years ago, pre the launch of home broadband.
The big question is whether the vast majority of recruitment companies will be able to innovate and grow significantly without the energy and passion that actually comes from being physically together with like-minded colleagues?
From a commercial point of view, Zoom has filled the gap for the last six months. However a VC is ultimately one-dimensional and very far removed from the reality and benefits of a physical meeting – Zoom meetings just do not stimulate discussion like a real meeting.
At the same time, what about our human needs? WeWorks and others were born to provide freelance workers the buzz of community over the solitude of home…Covid has not changed that underlying need. Physical interaction is crucial to our mental health as well as to our love life (research shows that over a fifth of the UK workforce meets their partner at work). Whilst video-conference is a great tool, it lacks the humanity of a face-to-face meeting, with all its non verbal signals.
I recently chaired a physical board meeting after four previous VC meetings pre-September. The energy and passion was so markedly different because of the three-dimensional nature of a physical meeting; the ability to speak over each other, interrupt, have side conversations, sometimes frustrating pre-Covid, but now a joy to behold and gave the meeting a charge that no VC meeting ever could.
Now consider the work/home bleed. This is a significant concern from a mental and physical health perspective. Pre-Covid the big story was how smart phones meant office workers were bringing the working day home with them and never mentally switching off (remember the Blackberry’s blinking red light?). The ability to decompress is crucial to our well-being. Most people are not lucky enough to have a separate office space in their home…for many the reality is rather than working from home they are sleeping in the office.
Finally, from an employee point of view, be careful of the law of unintended consequences. If you prove your role can be performed effectively 100% from home, then be prepared, in time, to lose your job to workers based in lower cost areas or take a significant pay cut. Why will employers pay a London premium if the employee does not need to be physically present at some point during the working week?
The genie is definitely out of the bottle. I believe that there will be changes to the way we work in the UK. Employers have had to refine their management processes and become more comfortable with managing what they cannot see, so some degree of locational flexibility will continue after the vaccine. However I also think that a recruitment company that spends a significant amount of time physically together will trump those that chose a predominantly homeworking strategy. There is a huge difference between maintaining business-as-usual and growing a business – and that, I believe, is the crux of it.
Justin Pearson
Managing Director
PS…For recruitment owners and exec teams currently going through the 2021 business planning process, I strongly recommend reading and discussing the Economist article ‘Reimagining the office after Covid 19‘. It is part of the Economist’s free Covid 19 offering (which in itself is well worth subscribing to).
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