Home Working, Hybrid Plans and Office Life

After such a long period of working from home, from it being a necessity to it being a more productive way of working, while knocking time of travel to zero, many offices now have workers coming in just like the old days! Many other businesses have adopted hybrid work week schedules. Having employees only coming in for half of the work week or two days in the office and three days working from home for an example.

Many businesses have been able to stay afloat and thrive during these times, without the ability of working from home many companies would have gone bust… Thank God for Zoom, huh? Not to say that many companies didn’t have their struggles with integrating working from home into the everyday.

Difficulty enticing staff back to the office

In more recent times with covid rules being a lot more relaxed a new problem has arisen. The problem simply is that offices are having to attract their staff to come back as working from home is rather desirable and does contain a fair few perks! With hybrid working schemes being a middle ground for employees who are used to working from home, there is an opportunity to reinvent the office that everyone knows and loves. Well, love is a bit of a strong word. A strong effort from companies is needed to convince workers to make an effort and come to the office. Having your office located in the city centre has become essential for some companies who have adopted the hybrid work week and who also want to convince their workers to come back to the office.

Making offices more attractive

It does make sense wanting to continue working from home if you aren’t much of a people’s person but of course with business face-to-face communication is key. In a recent BBC article Cristina Nestares, who has been Admiral’s UK CEO since 2017 said:

“We are going to ask our staff, a lot of whom are very comfortable working from home, we are going to say: ‘Make an effort, commute, come to the office’.”

A part of Admiral’s approach has been to re-design floors, have bookable desks, and break-out areas for people to work in the company’s headquarters in Cardiff city centre. Admiral gets regularly ranked among some of the best employers for staff wellbeing and satisfaction working so they must be stepping in the right direction. They have even organised events in parks when the covid rules allowed for employees who were missing the social interaction to meet up. They have gone on to say that as well as continuing to develop their hybrid model they are going to take on-board feedback from their staff.

Working while working out

I know it sounds mad but gyms are now incorporating ‘hot desks’ for people such as personal trainers to catch-up on work and keep on top of to-do-lists for example. Of course it does make a lot of sense as going to and from work wouldn't be very beneficial and it is most certainly a refreshing working strategy. Personal trainer Rebekah Windsor who uses ‘One Gym’ in Newport does her admin at the gym using a hot-desk. She has gone on to say that she thinks other gyms should invest in work spaces too. There are definitely benefits for people who work within that sector.

Ms Windsor said in a BBC article that:

 “More people are working at home now, a lot of my clients are working from home and they are struggling a lot with motivation. So I think coming here to train and then knowing you can get an extra hour of work in, get your to-does done, I think it’s definitely something that they should start introducing.”

I personally don’t spend a lot of time in gyms but I’m sure many people who do would agree with this option of work space.

To conclude, there are of course many different strategies a company could implement to attract workers to come back into the office. But the option of the hybrid work week is definitely one of the greater options as it is the best of both worlds. It is curious comparing the world of business pre-pandemic to now, as a lot of things have changed and will most likely continue to change and become somewhat more gentrified.

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