TALK
PE O PLE
REIMAGINING
THE OFFICE
COVID-19
With the successful rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, businesses across the UK are currently making plans to gradually reopen their office premises as we emerge from lockdown. However, with the five-day working week in the office set to become a thing of the past for many UK businesses, the days when a company would own or rent an office with a desk in it for each and every member of staff look likely to be coming to an end. Neil Mackey, Account Executive at insurance broker Gallagher, discusses what the ‘new normal’ is likely to look like for UK offices, as well as highlighting the importance of businesses ensuring they have appropriate insurance in place for any changes they make to their office space. The COVID-19 pandemic has upended normal life in countless ways, but the switch from commuting to the office each day to working from home has proved to be one of the most significant changes for millions of UK workers – with video conferencing calls replacing formal meetings and informal catch-ups overnight. This sudden and dramatic shift looks set to bring significant long-term changes to the future of office design and activity within workspaces – with recent research we conducted among 1000 business leaders indicating that long-term, many UK companies are rethinking the space they need post-pandemic.
THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE OFFICE
Everything in life... has to have balance.
- DONNA KARAN
According to our research findings, almost half (45%) of businesses with office space intend to downsize by the end of 2025 – and are planning to decrease floor space by 40 per cent on average - while a further one in seven (18%) have already reduced their office space since the start of the pandemic.
