PRACTISING WHAT WE PREACH

While it is customary to cite the pandemic as the reason for all sorts of seismic changes in the way we work, in reality Covid simply accelerated a process which was well underway before those dark days of lockdown, writes Guy Gowing. 

Ever-advancing technology, the need to attract and retain the best talent, evolving attitudes to work/life balance: all of these were already changing the face of work, particularly for those of us who do that work in an office environment.

In Norwich particularly, the introduction of Permitted Development Rights (in 2015, so five years before the pandemic) removed many older office buildings from the market, improving the overall quality of the city’s office stock.

At the same time, work was changing.  As technology started taking over the more mundane process-driven tasks, employers recognised that collaborative working was the way to get the best value out of their human resources.  That meant providing an environment that was conducive to creative thinking and team working.

At the same time, a new generation of employees emerged, with markedly different expectations of what work should be, and its place in their life.  In a tight labour market, the brightest talent realised it was in a good position to negotiate against its priorities, and often those priorities were as much about the working environment as they were about salary.

The result has been something of a sea change in office accommodation.  Offices are still very much needed, but quality rather than quantity is the watchword now.  Today’s offices need to be well-designed, with collaborative workspaces, adaptable to the latest technology (and future-proof in that respect too).  They need to be located where people want to work, and they need to be accessible.

We have been advising our clients about these trends at Arnolds Keys over recent times, and now we are practising what we preach.  Last week we moved our Norwich head office to a much more modern, open-plan office suite.  It is all on one level, with attractive breakout areas and equipped with the latest communications technology.

A car park for visitors, full disabled accessibility, lots of daylight, a city centre shop window: these were all boxes we needed to tick.  We count ourselves very fortunate that we found this at 25 King Street, just across the road from our previous premises.

They say that the only constant is change, and that certainly applies to the world of work.  A workplace which is fully adaptable to the constantly evolving way of working is no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity if you want to attract and retain the best people, and get the best out of them.

Our new offices have a great coffee machine as well.  Do pop in and take a look for yourselves, and we’ll fire it up for you.