[ 2021-03-01 ]

Employers aim for hybrid working after Covid-19 pandemic

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Companies are launching root-and-branch reviews
of working practices, in moves that could have
far-reaching consequences for UK city centres,
after Boris Johnson outlined plans to fully reopen
the economy by this summer.

Some of the UK’s largest employers, including
several in the City of London, have kicked-off
projects that will determine when and how staff
return to the office following the coronavirus
pandemic.

The Financial Times contacted more than 20
companies, and most said they anticipated
introducing hybrid models of working in which
staff split their time between the office and
home.

Many office workers have been operating from home
since the government imposed the first coronavirus
lockdown in England in March last year.

There is currently a stay at home order in place,
but last week the prime minister published a road
map under which England could fully exit Covid-19
restrictions by June 21.


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People have been told to continue to work from
home if possible until a review of social
distancing rules is completed. It is due to report
by June 21.

PwC is carrying out a survey of its 22,000 UK
staff, with preliminary findings suggesting many
workers want a return to three or four days in the
office.

“This will necessitate a fully hybrid model of
working,” said Kevin Ellis, chair of the
professional services company’s UK business.

Lloyds Banking Group will carry out trials of
hybrid working in late spring, involving thousands
of its staff, and finance director William
Chalmers said 77 per cent of employees
“expressed a desire” to continue to work from
home.

Most of the roles at NatWest will have an element
of homeworking when staff return to the bank’s
offices later this year.

Deutsche Bank said plans were being developed
“towards the implementation of a hybrid future
working model, combining the benefits of flexible
working with the benefits of spending time
together in the office”.

Aon, the insurance broker, said it would undertake
“an in-depth analysis of what the ‘future of
work’ will look like?.?.?. which will involve a
hybrid of working from offices, from home and
other locations”.

Virgin Media said it was starting on a “future
ways of work” strategy, which was likely to
result in offices being adapted for hybrid
working.

Other companies have already concluded the future
will involve flexible working, with staff dividing
their time between the office and home.

Revolut, the online bank, will move most of its
2,000 staff to “permanent flexible working”,
and convert much of its office space into
“collaboration spaces”. 

Chris O’Shea, chief executive at Centrica, which
has 15,000 office-based staff, said: “We won’t
be back five days a week in the office and I
certainly won’t. I will keep a mix of flexible
working. It’s good for staff, it’s also good
for customers.”

Sarah Willett, chief people officer at the
Liverpool-based The Very Group, which
owns Littlewoods.com, also supported hybrid
working between home and the office.

“We want our colleagues to be hyper productive
at home and hyper collaborative in the office,”
she said.

The move to hybrid working means companies plan to
cut their office space.

HSBC said the bank expected to shrink its property
footprint by 40 per cent, while Lloyds said it
would reduce office space by 20 per cent.

BT is pressing ahead with cutting its UK offices
from 300 to just 30. This nevertheless showed its
commitment to offices, it said, but more as places
for “collaboration and knowledge sharing”. 

A permanent move to hybrid working, in which
office workers operate much of the time from home,
could lead to widespread failures of service
businesses in city centres, such as coffee shops
and newsagents.

The national average for city centre footfall
is about a fifth of the level before the first
lockdown, according to the Centre for Cities, a
think-tank.

Andrew Carter, chief executive, said: “I’d
expect that a permanently reduced city centre
footfall would lead to business failures and
lay-offs for them.”

Source - FT, UK

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