When will our empty offices be occupied? asks Peter French MBE, of specialist fire and security sector recruitment company SSR Personnel, pictured in Devonshire Row in the City of London.
Security providers are planning for the worse in London as the projected office occupation rates remain low with companies such as Schroders following NatWest, Twitter and others in telling their employees; it’s ok to work from home.
This is a mixed lot for service suppliers and corporate management. Many suppliers were able to pause contracts only due to the furlough scheme from physical to technology services. Demand in these sectors is hard to predict as London office occupation may not achieve 75 per cent occupation until mid-2021. This will have a great impact across the FM sectors with many in the hourly paid sectors from security, cleaning, catering and maintenance zero hours workers being sacked. Redundancies will not stop there.
Employers have been a weak counter-balancing force to stay at home employees. To ensure a Covid compliant office bringing your employees back all at the same time is not the preferred strategy. How do you prioritise staff in a shift system? Making the office safe is the first concern and our clients are worried about the dubious or incorrect diagnosis: “I have Covid symptoms.“
Overnight fogging, installation of UV light units, reconfiguring your air comfort systems and getting people up to their desks have to be factored in. London has more than 2,600 high-rise buildings, compared with less than 1,000 in Frankfurt and Paris, whilst Hong Kong has 150,001 tall buildings according to real-estate data provider, Emporis.
Employees themselves are reluctant to travel by the Underground in London. In the regions, with more integrated travel with walking, cycling, buses, trams or even private cars, we see a rise in office occupation. In staff reviews we have undertaken around the UK, there is support for the wearing of face coverings when not at your desk. Staff want to see a high degree of sanitising, that includes touch point cleaning, products available for personal use, and cleaning stations around the office. It will be millennial workers who will most gladly have taken the path back to the office, they can probably more easily run, walk or cycle – to hang out with their peers.
Further changes have been traditional management previously focused about having people on seats as an indication of productivity, rather than celebrating success and keeping the Team connected on regular conference calls. Having found that video conferencing is a game changer, and without management pressure to have people on seats, rather than a measurement of outputs. Tech companies, from start-ups to 25 year old businesses, such as Amazon, understand the need for instant communication. Many pamper to their young, well-educated diverse work forces, that want work to be a place to meet and make friends, when many have best friends only online.
We have moved to an insistence that we communicate in video calls, somehow that reassurance that we hear and see with home alone employees, has gone down well. Even in the rush to return to offices, we will see people’s inter-office communication being done at their desk via video link. In company management costs have been under pressure to reduce since June 2016, the pandemic is making it a business imperative to save costs even more. Convergence of functions will drive that further. It will be a test of a corporation’s values, that perhaps you will need to re-order your service providers contract, but hopefully not the wages of the person undertaking the work.
Many office-based businesses have traded well during lockdown. Fearful of losing their jobs, home workers have re-invested commuting time in work. The big investment banks still captured the revenue opportunity through widespread market volatility. Trade shows and conferences migrating online, who does not like being able to hear varied discussion, dip in and out. Certainly there will be a preference to keep meetings online, no travel, business agendas are brisk, and contentious items can still be debated.
On a professional level the security sector has been well served with a wave of quality webinars which has maintained CPD for many. At the same time we have seen an up-tick in applications to become a Chartered Security Professional (CSyP). The Security Institute membership continues to grow, and Worshipful Company of Security Professionals (WCoSP) applications are at pre-shutdown levels.
The UK workforce is varied. The number of UK workers over 50 had reached a record ten million and they make up over a third of the workforce. The number of workers over the age of 65 is increasing three times faster than the rate of younger workers. Women returning to work is a significant factor in the pre-pandemic workforce of 33 million. Our millennial employees are more interested in a good work-life balance, so holiday sacrifice schemes are popular, above money and other rewards, when choosing a job.
About Peter French MBE
Certified Security Professional (CSyP) and Fellow of The Security Institute; Principal Founding Member, Trustee and Past Master of The Worshipful Company of Security Professionals (WCoSP); and CEO of SSR Personnel, the provider of corporate security, fire engineering, contract staffing since 1986. Visit https://www.ssr-personnel.com/.
