COVID-19 is accelerating change – Working from Home (Part 1)
The Corona Virus is accelerating change which was always coming to the property market, and we have had a glimpse of what the impacts could be due to Technology, changing work environment, and changing spending habits.
Working from home has been a huge issue that has arisen out of this crisis.
So is that the future of a changing work environment?
One thing that has become evident is how quickly most jobs could be converted to a work from home arrangement. Of course this does not relate to all jobs, and many issues have surfaced in terms of balancing children, work and accountability. However what the virus has done is to highlight these issues, and how they can all be quite easily fixed.
Imagine for a second that you’re a property business employing 25 staff in an office of 500m2. You’re located on the CBD fringe and rental is costing you $250,000pa.
It’s important you have an office location for various good reasons including –
Marketing, visual presentation of your company, perception of substance
You have clients who visit the office and need to be attended to in person
Requirement for meeting spaces that are private and provide an image that you want your company to present
These issues can be represented in 50m2 instead of 500m2 at an annual rental of maybe $50,000, with the same effect and no loss of reputation to your business.
You have a reception and front office staff to greet visitors and you have a roster system of staff who may be required to work from a hot desk in the office once a week. This rostering provides an essential personal service to clients who come through the door, but also provides an essential “break of routine” for home based staff (which I explain in my next blog about the problems of working from home). This, when combined with good online software and an education process for your customers, starts to strip away all the old arguments as to why it won’t work…and if nothing else, the saving in the fixed cost of office rental is a strong argument.
But what are the problems of working from home – Well that’s for next week’s Blog
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