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Month: September 2021

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.