The major changes to working practices that Covid-19 has brought into practice will have lasting impacts on workplace design, business performance and culture. People are the most valuable asset in any business, and this period has taught organisations, managers, and individuals more than we could have deemed imaginable in years - about the physical, social, and mental needs that contribute to performance and productivity - in just a few months.
 
For over a decade now, I have experienced unanimous resistance to agile working, from companies in London, but also globally; largely due to management styles and IT issues such as staff visibility, firewalls and security protocols, to name a few. This has led to the entrenched one-desk-per-person model, and occupancy rates as low as 45-55% - readily accepted by companies, due to the perceived risk of trialling alternative systems.
 
Almost all of us have witnessed, to some extent, the extreme fast tracking of IT and HR solutions that cut through these red-tape issues in the face of Covid-19. Debates about working remotely that have been around for the last decade have been resolved in days, and the speed of consensus and implementation of IT systems has proved certain obstacles to be irrelevant.
 
As we look forward, companies prepared to embrace agile working, to work smarter, and more efficiently in the long-term, have the potential to reduce their office space square footage by anywhere up to a third; a move that may help organisations to position themselves in a stronger position to survive the recession, that we all now must face.
 
As the Covid-19 crisis has hit every single office worker, and technology means that everyone, theoretically, can work at home, this isn’t just about introducing flexible working for blue chip companies and middle class employees – but creating a positive shift away from the Big Brother mentality prevalent in work environments such as call centres, and more conservative sectors such as legal and financial - where it has been proven that confidential work can be carried as easily, or more easily, remotely.
 
Although the virus is a long cry from being a ‘great equaliser’; due to strong links between worker autonomy and mental health, there is the potential that a positive outcome to come from the crisis could be a far-reaching uplift in wellbeing in the workplace, in the sectors it is needed most.
 
Sticking to the positives, the pandemic also has the potential to expedite the globalisation of working practices, for example: the relaxing of stringent working practices in Asian countries; greater prevalence of the flexible working day to accommodate daytime outdoor activities, seen in Australia; and a wider uptake of the enshrined work-life balance seen in many European cities.’