As we prepare to return to the office in Scotland, it’s clear Covid-19 has altered the way in which we work. Although offices will no doubt continue to play a key role, with 90 per cent of respondents to Savills Office FiT survey believing they will remain necessary, the office as we know it might look a little different.

The role of the office as a hub for in-person collaboration, innovation and the reinforcement of a company culture will carry more weight than before as people look to reaffirm it as a centralised social hub and a way to differentiate between the home environment.

Yet, simultaneously, there has been a huge corporate shift in attitudes towards working from home with a deeper trust of employees to manage their time and location appropriately. We were already seeing a move towards greater flexibility when it comes to when and where you work and Covid-19 has only accelerated this. Office design needs to support this shift. 

The focus going forward needs to be ensuring the office is designed and managed to best serve the needs of the workforce. Our What Workers Want 2019 survey took a closer look at exactly that, asking what the ideal workplace would include and how an individual’s current workplace compares.

In Glasgow 89 per cent of respondents valued the cleanliness of an office as high important, although only 47 per cent were satisfied with the cleanliness of their current workplace. This gap is likely to have increased following a global health pandemic.

Other factors relevant in a post-Covid-19 world are air quality, which 84 per cent of Glasgow workers valued as highly important but again only 45 per cent thought their current offices met expectations. With an evermore mobile workforce, offices will need to provide improved Wi-Fi technology to allow workers not based in the office five days a week to log on. Again 80 per cent of Glasgow workers believed access to Wi-Fi technology was important with only 43 per cent satisfied with the current provision.

Savills What Workers Want survey identified a significant gap between employees’ expectations and their reality pre-Covid-19 when it came to office design, which will have only been exacerbated in recent months. Landlords and developers are best served to future-proof their offices by ensuring their space is fit for purpose.

Personally, I’m looking forward to getting back to the office. I’ve largely enjoyed the time I’ve spent working from home, particularly the ability to have absolute quiet when I need to concentrate and also the bonus of seeing my children for longer in the absence of time otherwise spent commuting.

However, I’ve missed the interaction with colleagues that you can only truly get in the office and the ability to have sporadic ‘water-cooler’ moments. As head of office I am also conscious that junior members are missing out on learning from conversations they would be party to if they were sitting in the office. The future needs to harness the best of both worlds – office based work and flexibility – to allow our workforce to operate to the best of their ability.

Further information

Read more: Market in Minutes: Glasgow Offices