The last two years have been very tricky for any business that typically works out of an office. When the first lockdown rolled around, you were led to believe that it would only be for a couple of weeks. Those weeks turned into months, and when restrictions were lifted and the work-from-home mandate was removed, you assumed this was the last of it.
However, you only stayed in your office for a few more months before you were forced out of it yet again. You had to work from home for another few weeks/months, then the rules were lifted. Midway through 2021, it felt like things were finally on the up again.
Vaccines were being rolled out and businesses were allowed to reopen as they were before the pandemic. Yet again, your plans were dealt a hammer blow as the end of 2021 saw more restrictions telling people to work from home. Now, at the beginning of 2022, the work-from-home mandate has been lifted, leaving you in a very precarious position.
Do you bother opening the office and bringing everyone back to work? Will it be another case of everyone starts working and returning to a good level of office productivity, only for a new mandate to come in and force you back to remove working?
The truth is, we don’t know what might happen in the future. In all honesty, nobody knows – not even the government! So, there is always going to be a chance that working from home will be enforced again. But, there’s also a chance that it won’t. Where does this leave your business, and what should you do as you look to move forwards?
Okay, let’s say you do choose to reopen your office. What are the benefits of this and why might this be the right decision for you?
To start, you might discover that your company is wildly more productive when everyone is in the office. This is simply the case for a lot of businesses and it depends on what you do.
Some companies fair perfectly well working from home, while others really struggle. The good news is that you’ve got a pretty large sample of evidence to suggest if this is the case or not. Over the last two years, you can look at the times you were in the office compared to when you weren’t.
When was your business at its most productive? For some of you, it will come as a surprise to learn that you were more productive than you’ve ever been when everyone was working from home. For others, the complete opposite will be true, meaning it makes sense for you to reopen your doors and get your employees back in the office.
Productivity isn’t the only thing that can be beneficial; some companies need their office to be open from a lead generation standpoint. As a basic example, estate agents offices depend on a good deal of foot traffic walking past every day. A lot of homebuyers will walk directly into an estate agent’s office after seeing it on the street.
Even if they don’t enter, the office itself acts as an advertisement for the business, possibly encouraging further online research. Again, there will be businesses that don’t depend on their office for lead generation, and that’s fine. For those that do, it’s vital that you get things opened up as soon as you can.
After reading the above, you’ve concluded that reopening your office is definitely the best approach for you. So, what should you do next?
It’s important to have a plan of action so you know the steps to take while reopening your doors. As eager as you might be to get everyone back, set a specific start time for when you will reopen. This gives you time to head into your office, check that things still work, do a deep clean of the place, etc.
Of course, you also need to take health and safety concerns into account. Right now, the government has pretty much said it is up to you to set your own safety rules for covid. You can enforce masks in the office, set up socially distanced desks, have hand sanitiser everywhere; it’s entirely up to you.
Having things like sanitiser stations will always be beneficial, and you can leave it up to your staff to decide if they want to wear a mask or not – whatever makes them feel safe!
Now, you should be ready to reopen your doors and hit the ground running with full productivity from the very first day.
Many businesses are considering the idea of not opening their office doors ever again. Why might this be a good idea for you?
For starters, you see almost no difference in productivity from working from home or being in the office. If anything, you might be more productive when everyone works remotely. As such, dealing with the stress of opening and reopening might cost you on the productivity scale.
Too much time is spent getting things ready, closing them down, then getting ready again. Instead, you would be far more productive if you just worked from home the entire time. Remember, you can easily check to see how well your business has performed over the last couple of years. If you are more productive at home, the patterns will show this!
Alongside this, you might discover that having an office provides no real benefits for you at all. It hasn’t helped you gain more customers/clients and it really only exists as a place to gather your employees under one roof. It’s proven to be extremely costly without generating any real rewards for your company.
All the time you’ve spent working from home has taught you that you haven’t really got any need to work in an office and you can save money by never going back again.
This is where things get interesting. If you don’t reopen your office, what should you do? Well, there are a couple of approaches that depend on the ownership of your office. If you rent it, are you allowed to sub-let it out to another company? Most of the time, you can’t. But, if you own the office space, you can rent it to someone else. This could be a great idea as it means your business can earn passive income from rent!
However, in most cases, you will be renting your office. So, if you don’t decide to reopen it, you’ll need to cancel your lease and start clearing everything out. This will be the hardest part as you’ll have loads of stuff to remove. Some of it can be sold – like new computing equipment – while a lot might have to be thrown out.
You will likely need a big skip to help you deal with all the waste, and it can take a long time. If you do need to do this, it’s recommended that you work with a skip hire company who can help you get the right permits if you need one. When your office is cleared out, you will leave it bare for the next company to move in and use it.
Of course, you should be mindful of your office lease terms and conditions. If you still have a long time left on your lease, you will have to pay the rest of your rent upfront. You might be put off by this, but the reality is you will pay the money anyway. You either pay it now and get it out of the way, or you keep paying rent for an office you won’t use and don’t need.
Now, all that’s left is to commit to working remotely full-time. All your employees should know the new structure of your company, and they have the freedom to work however and wherever they want. Some might go to communal office spaces, while others will work in their kitchen.
Clearly, the only person in a position to answer this question is yourself!
Which option is the best one for you? If you depend on an office for productivity levels and acquisitions, you will need to reopen it. Look at the data and figure out if this is the case. If it isn’t, question whether it’s worth spending money on an office that generates no benefits. Working from home could be more beneficial for your business.
There is an alternative to both ideas, and it’s that you close this office and downsize to a smaller one. You might discover that offering a flexible working pattern may be the best choice of all. Your smaller office is cheaper to run, but it gives certain employees a chance to come to work if they wish. This would allow people that work better from home to carry on doing so, while those that work well in an office can also continue doing that.
Ultimately, it all comes down to your business and what is best for you.
