1 in 3 Londoners still working from home as Brits demand flexible hours, casual clothing and in-house gyms
One in 3 Londoner’s are still working from home, the Office for National Statistics said this week. In fact, there has been a sizeable fall in commuters across the UK following the pandemic.
As a result, offices are forced to rethink how they serve their workers, with many feeling the need to resemble a home away from home worth leaving for, according to new research from office platform Kitt, shared with Morning Wire this morning.
So what are Londoners looking for in a post-pandemic office? The firm found this ranges from casual clothing (29 per cent) and in-house gyms (25 per cent) to sleep pods (13 per cent) and private areas for breastfeeding (10 per cent).
“Londoner’s are desperate to overhaul the outdated perception of the office,” the firm said in its report.
While it’s obvious why just under half (46 per cent) want more flexible hours now that hybrid working structures have anchored themselves into our everyday lives, it appears Londoner’s want to bring other work from home habits into the office as well.
One in four (24 per cent) want to be able to work from the sofa and one in five (19 per cent) want regular daytime naps and the option to have the TV on while working.
“The pandemic has completely transformed the world of work. With the line between home and the office blurring, people are looking for a company that provides them with a space that reflects the new ways of working and replicates the various comforts of their home,” the co-founder and COO of Kitt, Lucy Minton, told Morning Wire this morning.
“To stay ahead of the curve, businesses need to think creatively about fun and meaningful office benefits,” she stressed.
“A popular way we’ve seen companies encouraging employee engagement is by introducing breakout spaces with ‘living room style’ designs for collaborative sessions that bring teams closer together,” Minton said.
”Leaders may also want to consider creating child and pet friendly spaces so those who became lockdown parents or pet owners can have their children and pets in the office,” she continued.
”Ultimately, the key to improving the employee experience and engagement is for employers to recognise and understand that, what might not have been important to employees pre-pandemic, might be now and offices need to be able to accommodate this,” Minton concluded.