Under normal circumstances, decisions relating to the workplace can be driven by a desire to cut office costs and maximise profits; however, the immediate post-COVID era is far from being the ideal scenario.

With concerns about potential future waves of the Coronavirus pandemic, office managers face a challenge to balance the need to cut office costs with an obligation to uphold levels of corporate social responsibility.

Factors like social distancing and employee hygiene affect the amount of space each workstation needs, the layout of desks, and the accessibility of important office amenities like bathrooms, kitchen areas and breakout rooms.

Writing in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Lee D Parker of RMIT University in Melbourne and the University of Glasgow explains: “COVID-19 has induced a transition to teleworking, impending office design and configuration reversals and office working protocol re-engineering.

“Management strategies reflect prioritisation choices between occupational health and safety versus financial returns.”

Office design as a way to cut office costs

The research paper notes that many innovative office designs of recent years have doubled as a way to cut office costs.

“This historic trend will be tested by a pandemic, which calls for control of its spread, including radical changes to the office at potentially significant cost,” the author adds.

For office managers, the challenge is to cater for any necessary changes, while minimising the costs associated with doing so.

Serviced offices are an excellent way to achieve this. By their nature, they are flexible spaces that can be reconfigured easily to suit different layouts of desks, workstations and seating positions.

Our open-plan serviced offices in London and Manchester allow you to do that, with different sizes of office available to meet your needs, while still giving you privacy from other occupants of the building.

We are ready to work with all our occupants on any necessary COVID-secure precautions, including changes that may become necessary as we move beyond the initial wave of COVID-19 in the UK.

Flexible serviced offices for changing needs

Our serviced offices in London and Manchester are in key locations, adjacent to Canary Wharf and MediaCityUK, and give your employees a choice of ways to commute, including by bicycle to avoid public transport if necessary.

We provide washrooms on-site for maximum hygiene and we welcome different ways to configure your office space, for example to avoid employees working face-to-face for extended periods.

In addition, we also offer virtual offices in Manchester and London, which mean you can use the same postal address and other geographic contact details for a workforce based at home or any other location of your choice.

For companies adopting a more remote approach to working, our virtual offices in Manchester and London are an ideal first step while still offering professional contact details.

To find out more or to discuss any of your organisation’s needs arising from COVID-19, or at any point in the future as things continue to return to more normality, please get in touch and we will be happy to accommodate you in one of our serviced offices in London or Manchester.

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