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Year: 2021

Prepare for growth with serviced offices in MediaCity

Posted on by aleks

Serviced offices in MediaCity put your company at the heart of not only one of the fastest growing business districts in the UK, but also the country’s largest regional economy, which continues to attract significant further investment.

In November, the real estate group Landsec announced the acquisition of a 75% stake in MediaCity at a cost of over £425 million, with the development currently spanning almost 1.5 million square feet of media, digital and tech space.

Phase One of MediaCity was completed a decade ago and is 96% let, with outline planning consent already in place for a further 1.6 million square feet to be added to the already underway second phase, taking Phase Two alone to a total of 2.3 million square feet.

‘Significant scale’ in regional cities

The investment highlights how the north-west and Manchester in particular is perceived as a destination with significant value for commercial development and real estate investment.

Landsec’s announcement explained why Greater Manchester is a good match for its current investment strategy:

– Greater Manchester is the UK’s largest regional economy
– Offices in Greater Manchester are also the largest regional market
– MediaCity offers large-scale development with “a clear sense of place”

This last point is clear if you spend any time in and around the MediaCity estate, with its outlook across the open water of Salford Quays, its mixed-use developments, and its nearby leisure and retail destinations.

However, the next stage of development will take some time; Landsec CEO Mark Allan said he sees “the opportunity to invest and further develop the estate, with the potential to be on-site from the first half of 2023”.

No need to wait

If you are a small business looking for offices in Salford Quays, our serviced offices in MediaCity could put you at the heart of the action in no time at all.

We have serviced offices on Clippers Quay in the MediaCity M50 postcode district, as well as serviced offices on Exchange Quay, just a short distance away in the Manchester M5 postcode.

Both locations give you turn-key business premises in Greater Manchester’s most desirable districts, with easy access into the city centre via Metrolink and immediate links with the city’s ring road network via the M602.

Find out more

If your plan for the new year is to find professional premises for your growing business, or even just to rent a small office in Greater Manchester so you no longer have to work from home as a sole trader, get in touch with the Serviced Office Company immediately.

Our serviced offices in Manchester and Salford Quays have meeting rooms for hire on-site, so if you need to meet face-to-face with potential clients, investors or candidates, you can do so in professional surroundings with refreshments, audiovisual equipment and so on.

We also offer virtual offices in Manchester, allowing you to use the contact details of our physical locations in M5 and M50, while continuing to work remotely from wherever you want.

The rooms are ready and waiting – so rent your serviced office space today and put your business at the centre of the UK’s largest regional economy as we move into a new year of growth.

Find top talent in Telford serviced offices

Posted on by aleks

Give your business the gift it deserves this Christmas by moving into Telford serviced offices, and unlocking the door to some of the top talent in the West Midlands.

The Serviced Office Company’s biggest-ever development offers 52,000 square feet of serviced offices in Telford’s Central Park, across four floors of St James’ House.

It’s been under development throughout much of 2021, with Modus Workspace refurbishing the interiors to the highest of standards – so get in touch if you’d like to enquire about occupying some of our brand-new Telford serviced offices.

For growing businesses, there’s no better time to be located in Telford, at a time when the West Midlands has better availability of local workforce than many other parts of the country.

Attracting talent during short supply

In mid-November, the ONS published its latest employment data, showing a record high number of job vacancies – 1.172 million nationwide – against a low and falling rate of unemployment, just 4.3% in the three months to September.

Manchester-based investment firm AJ Bell noted the increasing competition for top talent, as well as the 4.9% increase in average earnings (excluding bonuses) over the previous year.

AJ Bell’s head of investment analysis, Laith Khalaf, said: “As we approach Christmas, it’s extremely positive news that unemployment is so low.

“It’s less good news for employers that vacancies remain at record highs, which shows that many businesses are still struggling to attract staff as we approach the busy festive period.”

Why move to the West Midlands?

Employment in the UK – defined by the ONS as the proportion of the working-age population who are neither unemployed nor inactive – is now at 75.4%, with unemployment at 4.3%.

In the West Midlands, employment is 74.3% and unemployment is 4.8%, indicating that more local residents are seeking work.

As we open our serviced offices in Telford, we are looking to cater for this demand by providing high-quality serviced office space for new start-ups, growing SMEs and big businesses alike.

By doing this, we hope to also support the local employment market, enabling the creation of hundreds more jobs from entry-level to highly skilled positions, for the benefit of the West Midlands regional economy as a whole.

Contact Serviced Office Company

To find out more about our new Telford serviced offices and meeting rooms, or our other locations in London, Manchester and Salford Quays, please contact the Serviced Office Company today – we’re always very happy to discuss our new developments with interested parties.

St James’ House is an excellent location in the scenic surroundings of Central Park, and we’re delighted to have spent this year bringing it back to its best, ready to be occupied by local businesses.

As we look ahead to 2022, we can’t wait to get started, whether that’s giving Telford businesses room to grow, allowing new satellite offices to open in the area, or generating new employment opportunities for the local talent pool.

To join us, call 0800 319 6600 or email info@servicedofficecompany.co.uk and a member of our team will be happy to help with your enquiry.

The visible presence of serviced offices

Posted on by aleks

A report published by the University College of Estate Management has predicted that serviced offices could become an even more visible style of workplace in cities of the future.

The report, titled City 2040: The Pressures on UK Cities – An Opportunity for Change, addresses a number of key themes including the aim to achieve cleaner air, access to public and private land, equity and exchange, and clustering and proximity.

Under the section on clustering and proximity, the study predicts an increase in ‘dispersion’ as more people work remotely or from home, potentially accompanied by a rise in people working in home-based self-employed roles.

However, alongside this, the paper adds: “There is likely to be an increased demand for locally based workspaces, either divided into single company domains or shared between multiple workers running, or employed in, different businesses.”

The future of local serviced offices

This potential future trend is one we have already seen in recent years, as serviced offices in CBDs and on the edges of city centres have gained importance as locations for smaller branch offices, allowing companies to operate in a more geographically dispersed way.

In the City 2040 report, the researchers add: “Serviced office spaces are common already, but they may well become standard and more visible presences in local centres.”

As this takes shape over the coming 20 years, it is important to note that this does not decrease larger businesses’ ability to function, but unlocks benefits for big firms that many SMEs in serviced offices are already well aware of.

“Conventional business premises will continue but may be better able to operate from local centres, as an increased range of other businesses around them provides a supportive network of services and companies,” the study explains.

Unlocking access to serviced offices

These workplaces are already available – our serviced offices in London and Manchester have been operating for many years and our biggest ever facility, the newly refurbished Serviced Office Company Telford, offers 52,000 square feet of contemporary office space.

According to City 2040, more and more businesses are finding it possible to migrate to shared and serviced offices and away from monolithic CBD workplaces, thanks to a combination of:

  • Technology that ‘liberates’ them from a city centre location
  • Specialised services increasingly available online
  • Reduced reliance on central workspaces for commuting employees
  • Less need to be in close geographical proximity to competitors

Serviced offices have many of the facilities already in place to support a move towards this style of working, such as on-site kitchen facilities and washrooms, for entrepreneurs who want to blend their work and home lives in order to strike the right balance.

Find out more about our serviced offices

If you’re keen to get a head start on this trend, which is already gathering pace, please contact us today to ask about our serviced offices in London, Manchester and our new premises in Telford’s Central Park.

We welcome all enquiries, and with nearly 50 brand new offices at Serviced Office Company Telford, we currently have plenty of capacity available if you are seeking business premises as an individual, an SME or even a larger firm looking to create a branch office.

Why Serviced Offices should be part of your Leased Portfolio

Posted on by aleks

Serviced offices are increasingly being seen as a standard part of companies’ leased premises portfolios, according to research published earlier this year.

An article in the March 2021 edition of the journal Buildings looked at six co-working strategies under the heading ‘Searching for Flexibility in Corporate Real Estate Portfolio‘.

Based on real-world examples, the research identified six strategies companies are using to improve their flexibility and shift towards more co-working environments:

  1. Swing space
  2. Expansion space
  3. Core and flex
  4. Touchdown space
  5. Testing market
  6. Temporary projects and staff

Together these strategies enable flexibility during times of change, such as:

  1. While headquarters are being renovated
  2. Periods of growth
  3. Diversification of mature businesses
  4. Meeting rooms for satellite workers
  5. New startups
  6. Short-term increases in staff levels

For all of the above, serviced offices are a good option, providing flexible levels of office space for as long as organisations need it, along with on-site meeting rooms for hire and informal spaces for collaboration and conversation.

Serviced offices in their own words

The article includes several interviews with real-world business operators who have found serviced offices the answer to some of the challenges their organisation was facing.

One took up serviced office space as a way to adapt to fluctuating employee numbers and said: “Flexibility is really important in the company at the moment, and that’s one of the things that you get with serviced offices that you cannot get with a traditional office.”

Another explained that, in recent years, their organisation has moved from viewing serviced offices as a solution only for new projects or entering new markets, to a core part of their leased portfolio of business premises.

They said: “One or two years ago we saw serviced offices really like a flexible layer for where we would enter a new country, for example, or we had a project which was very temporary.

“But now, especially what we proved with some offices globally, is that it can also be seen as part of your leased portfolio.”

Make serviced offices a permanent solution

While the flexibility of serviced office leases is still an important factor for many tenants, it is also clear that a growing number of businesses worldwide consider serviced office space to be a long-term part of their business premises rental portfolio.

This is apparent in the UK, where the increasing proportion of serviced offices in London and Manchester, compared with other types of office space in the cities, is an indication that more businesses are using serviced offices, and are choosing to stay for longer.

After an extended period of economic turbulence due to political upheavals, successive economic crises and the lockdown of many businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s no surprise that companies are looking to the flexibility of serviced offices as a long-term solution for the years ahead.

With our recently opened Millharbour Court Business Centre in London’s Millennium Quarter and our biggest ever development of serviced offices in Telford, the Serviced Office Company continues to provide more of the spaces you need, in the places where you need them.

The Wrong Trousers? How clothing affects ergonomics for office workers

Posted on by aleks

Our serviced offices in Manchester and London are designed to be as comfortable as possible, with ergonomic furniture, relaxation rooms and plenty of different areas for informal conversation and collaboration.

So we’re always interested to learn of possible causes of discomfort in office environments, and ways to overcome them.

One potential pitfall for office workers is the problem of wearing the wrong trousers, which was the focus of research published in the academic journal Procedia Manufacturing 3 and carried out by a team from the University of Minho in Portugal and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

What’s the problem?

The researchers posed a problem for office attire: “A growing number of jobs require workers to sit. Most clothes, except those intended for wheelchair users, were designed for walking or the standing position.

“Clothing designs should be user-oriented and meet users’ needs. Garment design should conform to body position and posture, not just shape and size.”

They proposed that because trousers are designed for standing and walking, they can cause multiple problems once the wearer sits down:

  • Overlapping fabric
  • Uncomfortable seams
  • Pressure exerted by accessories

All of these combine to create compression forces, poor circulation and may lead to thermal discomfort as well.

What’s the solution?

The team suggested trousers designed for the seated position, allowing for a rise at the back and a decrease at the front, adapting to the change in leg length and avoiding seams across the buttocks and lower back.

In the study, they tested regular jeans against FYT jeans, which have four adaptations in a seated position:

  • Less bunched-up fabric behind the knees
  • Hidden elastic in the waistband
  • No patch pockets on the back (to reduce uncomfortable seams)
  • Hidden zipper to increase inseam length in crotch area

The study found significant reductions in compression forces in each area, including over 75% on the back of the knee and 65% on the front of the knee, 55% less compression on the crotch and nearly 90% less on the waist.

What does this mean?

Whether you wear formal office attire or more casual clothes to work, it’s worth considering the seated position when trying on new clothes to see how well they fit.

There are plenty of ways to get a more comfortable fit, ranging from stretch denim jeans, to hidden elastic in the waistbands of smart trousers – there’s something for every dress code.

Even on a very basic level, this research helps to validate the decision to loosen your belt a notch after a particularly large lunch.

Ultimately it’s all about feeling comfortable at work, which in turn can naturally help you to be more productive over the course of a long day sat at your desk.

With the ergonomic furniture in our serviced offices in London and Manchester, you’re off to a good start – and if you ever need to stretch your legs, our kitchen areas, relaxation rooms and scenic surroundings all give you somewhere to go when you need to stand up for a while.

Caveman Comforts: Modern serviced offices meet ancient instincts

Posted on by aleks

When you walk into our modern serviced offices in London and Manchester, our recently opened Millharbour Court Business Centre in Canary Wharf, or our upcoming serviced offices in Telford’s Central Park, you probably won’t see much that reminds you of a Stone Age cave.

However, contemporary office spaces have more in common with cave dwellers’ first work spaces than you might imagine – and certainly much more than the cubicle offices of the late 20th century.

This is the conclusion drawn in a study published in Architecture, Civil Engineering, Environment (Volume 14, Issue 2) which looks at office buildings throughout the centuries and into the 21st century.

The earliest offices

In the article, the authors suggest that the earliest designated workplaces would have been areas of caves that were reserved for “productive action”.

They explain: “There must have been areas in the prehistoric caves and alcoves where man instinctively situated his tools and craft bench and proceeded to craft his tools and weapons, making that part of his living space a workplace.”

Once the first languages were created, they suggest that this early ‘workshop’ would have evolved to become the first ‘office’.

Evolution of open-plan

Open-plan offices might seem like a modern invention too, but they date back to the Mediaeval guildhalls, when guildsmen realised it was more efficient to share their workspaces.

Common rooms for 10-20 workers made better use of space, time and cost, as well as accommodating workbenches and tools more effectively.

Over time, this led to the creation of ‘Uffizi’, workplaces defined by linear corridors flanked by rooms, which would have been occupied by bankers and entrepreneurs.

All of this took place in the first half of the 2nd millennium, with Uffizi from the 1500s having a floor plan very similar to modern serviced offices.

Offices in the UK

It was not until the 1700s that the first custom-built offices in London opened, at the Old Admiralty (Ripley Building) constructed in 1726.

Meanwhile in the USA, the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871 raised questions about fireproof construction – which paved the way for concrete and steel construction.

This enabled even more open-plan offices with glass facades, creating uninterrupted outward views from the interior, something the Renaissance Uffizi had aimed to achieve.

Despite the cubicle-based office layouts of the late 20th century, over the centuries open-plan has always been the ultimate goal, and modern serviced offices deliver on that ambition.

Back to the cave

All of this means that when you rent open-plan office space, you are giving yourself and your workforce an area that caters to some of our earliest instincts as a ‘working’ species.

Prehistoric man recognised the value of having a separate, designated workplace, sensibly arranged and organised for peak productivity and maximum efficiency.

Many centuries later, our serviced offices in Manchester and London continue that trend with contemporary interiors and intuitive layouts.

As we look to the future with our new serviced offices in Telford at St James’ House, our biggest development yet, we can only wonder what the workplace will look like in the years, decades and centuries ahead.

Serviced offices in London support COVID-19 recovery

Posted on by aleks

Serviced offices in London are likely to play a crucial role as the capital continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Greater London Authority report from early 2021 predicted that serviced offices in London would be “an attractive substitute” to conventional long leases for businesses based in the city.

“With businesses wanting greater flexibility in lease terms, serviced offices may offer – at least in the short term – an attractive substitute for companies that are reluctant to sign long leases in the current environment,” the report stated.

“Carefully managed, good quality serviced office space may see an uptick in demand to accommodate such occupiers, most likely in the outskirts of central London.”

A flexible future

In September 2020, the GLA commissioned a study that found in the city’s Central Activity Zone, businesses expected 72% of their workforce would continue to work at least partially from home in 2021-22.

“The extent to which employers are comfortable with workers contributing from home will be a significant factor in future demand,” the report added.

Combined with the more flexible leases available on serviced offices in London’s CAZ and surrounding areas, we could be looking at this hybrid model continuing for quite some time, as predicted in other recent articles.

Meeting in person

At the same time however, it remains important to see stakeholders and customers face-to-face in some circumstances, making physical meeting rooms in London a valuable asset too.

“Studies show that in-person communication leads to higher compliance to arrangements, suggesting that meetings with high importance may stay physical for the foreseeable future,” the GLA report suggested.

It added three other reasons why in-person working is advantageous over full-time working from home:

  • To facilitate employee learning and to ‘be there’ to see economic outcomes
  • To experience the shared environment of an office and company culture
  • To develop interpersonal relationships more strongly than by remote contact alone

Serviced offices in London support all of these outcomes, by providing informal areas like kitchens and relaxation rooms, as well as meeting rooms for hire for more formal interactions.

A beating heart

The report called the Central Activity Zone “the beating heart of London’s global city” and noted the link between human networks and the infrastructure that enables them.

In Central London this includes elements like public transport, light rail, the Underground and roads; the supply of food and other goods; and long-distance travel links such as airports.

We are unlikely to see a significant shift away from the UK’s largest cities in this sense, even as employee preferences move towards more flexible, hybrid and home-based models.

That’s why serviced offices in London and other major city economies like Manchester are so important to the upcoming recovery, to bridge the gap between the infrastructure we have and the ways we want to work.

Get in touch

If you would like to ride the tide of economic recovery that is already underway, the Serviced Office Company can help by providing access to versatile business premises and support services in Central London and Manchester.

Call us today to find out more and together, we can get London back to work.

Accelerate your human organisation with serviced office space

Posted on by aleks

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend towards ‘human organisations’ that put the comfort and interests of people first, according to a recent report.

In March, the Corporate Culture Group published the Human Organisation Report, which noted the impact of the pandemic a year after the first lockdowns began.

“While the pandemic has challenged the ways we work, the bigger question is about the purpose of work. What is it for? And how does a shift to home working affect traditional hierarchies?” the report asks.

“A more fully human world of work is emerging. It’s a world that is dramatically different to today’s model. But what is it and how do you bring it to life in your organisation?”

What is a human organisation?

The human organisation trend is driven not only by the response to the pandemic. The report identifies three completely separate threads pushing this shift:

  • COVID-19
  • Climate crisis
  • Credit crunch

These three C’s have combined over the past decade to demand three R’s from organisations: Resilience, Relationships and Recovery.

All of this came to a head during lockdown, when the nature of work itself shifted seismically overnight.

Work stopped being about going to a central location every day, and instead became about the people who were able to be productive while staying at home.

The post-pandemic human organisation

As we move beyond the strictest lockdowns, it is no longer necessary for entire workforces to stay home and work in isolation.

But there may never be a complete bounce back to monolithic workplaces with many hundreds or thousands of people on-site at once.

Instead, the report notes that 90% of employees want to spend some time at home, but 2-3 days a week in the office.

Flexible workplaces have taken on new significance as a way to cater for this varying demand over short periods such as a typical working week.

How serviced office space can help

Serviced offices, meeting rooms and virtual office services all combine to cater to this emerging hybrid home/office model of working.

In serviced office space, organisations gain access to modern, comfortable and open-plan areas that facilitate collaboration, innovation and productivity.

At the same time, employees can work seamlessly from home, making use of virtual office services where appropriate to forward correspondence.

Finally, the flexibility of meeting rooms for hire, breakout rooms and informal collaborative spaces like kitchen areas all adds to the opportunities to innovate in the way we all approach the working day.

Be more human

The global nature of the pandemic means this shift is happening everywhere, all at once, and organisations must keep pace with it to embrace the humanity of their workforce.

Even if you work as a sole trader, serviced offices and virtual office services give you more versatility to put out a professional image, while working the way you want to in the years ahead.

If you want to move away from crowded central locations and benefit from the flexibility of serviced offices in London and Manchester, to support your Relationships, Resilience and Recovery, contact the Serviced Office Company today.

How to handle high-traffic areas in COVID-safe offices

Posted on by aleks

One of the concepts that sprung up almost overnight during the pandemic was that of COVID-safe offices (or COVID-secure offices, to use the government’s original preferred term).

Like other indoor spaces, keeping offices COVID-safe is a combination of sensible hygiene by occupants, regular surface cleaning, interpersonal distance where possible, and plenty of good ventilation.

For the most part this is not very difficult to achieve:
• Avoid face-to-face seating plans
• Add physical barriers where distance is not possible
• Open windows and/or use air filtration

But what’s the answer to keeping offices COVID-secure in busy areas with poor ventilation, such as corridors, meeting rooms, lifts and stairwells?

Newly published research by the University of Cambridge has looked at answering this very question, with some practical conclusions that office managers can implement quickly and quite easily.

Redesigning open-plan offices

The research paper was written by Jiayu Pan, Tze Yeung Cho and Dr Ronita Bardhan, all of the University of Cambridge, and presented at the CIBSE Technical Symposium in the UK on July 13th-14th.

In the study, the authors looked at two open-plan floors of an office with quite dense seating, and about 180 desks on each floor.

As well as the open-plan desk areas, the floors had several features common to serviced offices:

• Meeting rooms and alternative working areas
• Kitchen areas with tea making facilities and seats
• Communal access to restrooms and printers

They modelled the movement of employees using planned ‘stops’ like stairs, lifts and desks, as well as ad hoc ‘interests’ like restrooms and kitchen areas.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the busiest areas proved to be the corridor, areas nearest the lift and stairs, and the nearest meeting rooms.

Sensible strategies to be COVID-safe

The researchers suggested a number of reasonable strategies to help make busy offices more COVID-secure, including:

• Separate flows of in and out traffic, especially where multiple lifts or stairways are available.
• Using more distant meeting rooms and multiple meeting rooms to spread out personnel.
• Back-to-back and side-by-side seating plans, rather than face-to-face across a desk with no barrier.

They especially highlighted corridors as a place where personnel are more likely to be densely packed at busy times.

Staggered arrival and departure times, reminders about social distancing, and hygiene precautions like hand-washing and alcohol gel could all help to alleviate this.

How serviced offices are COVID-secure

At The Serviced Office Company we are working hard to keep all our serviced offices COVID-secure, in line with changing guidance and best practice on hygiene and cleaning.

We give you the flexibility to lay out your seating plan the way you want it, whether that involves physical barriers between desks, or an unusual configuration to avoid employees facing each other directly.

Our on-site meeting rooms are cleaned regularly and we offer virtual office services so if you want to have more staff working remotely – or want to move to home-based working entirely – you can do so seamlessly while retaining a professional office address and contact details.

To find out more about any of our services, or if you would like to discuss any COVID-related concerns and how our serviced offices can help, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.