Return to Normality
If you’d told most CEO’s last year that they’d pull an extensive remote working strategy out of a hat in a matter of days, with little warning, they’d have shaken their heads in disbelief. Yet when the government sent office workers home at the start of the UK’s coronavirus pandemic in March, they managed just that.
Throughout 2020 we worked both remotely and in our previous Soho office, where we managed not only to get through Waves 1&2 but also grow quite significantly. We took on more staff and then signed a lease on a new building on the 4th of December 2020 – the rest as they say is history!
In the last twelve months, I have heard various theories on returning to work at the office. Large corporates are shunning the office to go full-time remote working or allowing employees to choose working days at the office.
A number of firms – including Twitter and Facebook – have found working from home to be so successful that they have indicated it will be a more permanent fixture, announcing ‘work from anywhere’ policies that reach well into 2021 and beyond. Technology company Fujitsu was one such business, announcing a ‘work-life shift’ strategy that means 80,000 employees in its Japanese offices can now primarily work remotely.
That’s great and good for them! However, we operate in the media space. For the last 30 years, I have developed long-term relationships by meeting people, talking face to face, collaborating with amazing talent and supporting clients all from the office. We need to meet, share ideas, react as a team, and more importantly, understand the mood of the day.
The work we produce can be done remotely, however, the trend for current full-time “remote working” isn’t for us.
A major priority going forward is sustaining the company culture whilst offices are being used in a different way. As of May 17th, we are moving to three days a week in the office and see where it takes us until June 21st allows for normality to hopefully return.
We want to keep teams intact and ensure the culture we’ve built up over many years can be sustained and passed on to new hires. It’s really important to keep those relationships going and that our staff benefit from a thriving office environment. Being remote all the time is productive, but what about feeling part of something bigger and building the company together?
Zoom is here to stay, but Jam’s office culture and enthusiasm were here first. Long may it continue!
