The last 12 months have forced us to work differently and made everyone think about how they want to work in the future. The adoption of more remote working has increased flexibility for how we all work and set a path for changing the way we work forever.

What’s happening?
The first part of 2021 has seen major organisations share their plans for how and when they expect employees to return to the office. Last month we saw the CEO of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, label homeworking as an “aberration” and that he expects their staff to return to the office as soon as it is possible. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Revolut recently announced plans to adopt a highly flexible model allowing their c.2,000 employees to work how and where they wish. This was supported by plans to create a series of “Rev Labs” in which over 70% of the workspace is intended as collaboration space.

Many organisations, including HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group have announced plans to cut global office real estate by 20-40% and others are thinking about different ways to approach their office footprint, such as Standard Chartered’s recent deal which allows the bank’s 95,000 employees access to flexible office space provider IWG’s 3,500 locations around the world for a 12-month trial period.

The question on everyone’s minds is how to effectively blend home and office working to create an effective hybrid model. With 39% of businesses in the UK forecasting a reduction in office space (1) and 66% of business leaders expecting to redesign office space to better suit hybrid working (2), now is the time to be thinking about how to successfully design and adopt a hybrid working model.

How to tackle a move to a hybrid working model
FIDES Network members Nick Dennis, Nick McCalmont-Woods, Ian Griffiths and Jenny Lancaster have been considering what this means for your business and in particular:

• What are the trends in the UK and the USA?
• What opportunities does a hybrid working model present and how do they compare with a more radical shift to a fully remote model?
• What are the key considerations and actions you need to take as you plan new ways of working and seek to improve productivity?
• How do you take a holistic view of future ways of working that aligns business strategy and operational excellence with real estate and technology?

If you’d like to understand this more, please have a read of our views on: Where and How We Work Has Changed Forever

How can we help?
FIDES Network is a trusted independent network providing bespoke services and solutions for financial and professional services organisations, particularly during times of event-driven change. Our members are uniquely able to provide end-to-end services combining specialists in the fields of business strategy, operational excellence and transformation, technology solutions, commercial real estate, office fit-out project management, workplace wellbeing and environmental assessments.

FIDES Network Chairman Mike Symes said, “In a post pandemic environment, businesses are looking for new solutions to recover, re-size and reimagine. At FIDES, we bring together brilliant people to deliver the most creative solutions.”

References
(1) Grant Thornton – The Grant Thornton International Business Report (1 February 2021)
(2) McKinsey Global Institute – The future of work after COVID-19 (February 2021)