UK 
United States
The world of work has vastly changed since the coronavirus pandemic hit. UK Government lockdown measures forced a large portion of employees to work from home with immediate effect. To begin with, workers took to social media platforms such as Twitter voicing their ‘WFH’ challenges, such as not having the correct desk set-up or space to facilitate comfortable working and aches and pains due to improper seating, while others cited the difficulties of juggling work and schooling their children.
While Brits may have struggled adapting to the ‘new norm’ to begin with, it seems that homeworking is an option that they want to see more of in future. This rings true with the stats from Gallup finding that a whopping 59% of American workers expect remote working to continue to be a fixture of their weekly schedule post-pandemic. With additional research from Valoir finding that working from home only has a small impact on productivity – largely determined by the employees home set-up – it has advantages for employees in terms of work-life balance, as well as the commercial benefits for employers.
And some employers are becoming savvy to the idea that working from home on a permanent basis has its benefits. Will Grashoff, Founder and Managing Director of recruitment firm, OX Seven Talent Partners, is one business leader who took the plunge and decided for his business to go “officeless”. He explained in a LinkedIn post: “OX Seven Talent Partners are officially officeless. Our lease came to an end and we decided not to renew (there are more factors than COVID-19).” Yet, Grashoff’s decision might not be a complete shock for staff members as he explained that, even before the pandemic, the firm has had flexible and remote working arrangements since day one, though most employees did opt to come into the office most of the time.
When deciding to go “officeless”, his LinkedIn post pointed towards some of the considerations he had such as the expense of office premises and overheads, where this money could be re-directed somewhere else and give staff the flexibility to work wherever they want. In addition, he thought about whether getting rid of a centralised base would “kill our culture”. All things that any leader should consider when making a decision like this.
