April 6, 2020
Among the many changes that COVID-19 has brought into the way we live; it has brought the need to adapt the way we work.
All of the things that we originally deemed important about our workplace; square footage, a great location and strong transport links, have now been abandoned for the comfort (or not) of our own kitchen table. Suddenly, we needed to put all of our efforts into ensuring a very quick but smooth transition to remote working, without disrupting the service to our clients and customers.
Once the UK returns to normal, we can certainly expect an increase in the availability of flexible working. The current situation has proved that for the majority of office-based workers, productivity does not reduce when workers aren’t in the office. It could even be argued that productivity will increase when staff are trusted to work from home, as the need to prove yourself is at the forefront of your mind. Working from home also limits the usual distractions of a work environment (a tub full of free biscuits, for example).
Another change we can expect to see in a post-pandemic Britain is a higher emphasis on ensuring the real estate sector becomes a greener work environment. Currently, the real estate market accounts for c.30% of all emissions. Since Brits have started to work from home, UK greenhouse gas emissions have fallen dramatically. Now is the opportune time to put in place the actions required to try to maintain the lower emission levels when businesses return to normal. ESG principles need to be embedded into every company’s culture, which is why we’re keeping ESG at the forefront of Fiera Real Estate’s strategy.
Change isn’t always wanted, but it is always an opportunity to move your business forward. The change in lifestyle that we are living now will help to shape the way we exist after the virus has been contained, and will hopefully make businesses, particularly in the real estate sector, more aware of the changes needed to reduce the impact we’re having on the planet.
This article covers some of the topics that Peter Cuthbert, President of Fiera Real Estate and Alex Price, CEO of Fiera Real Estate UK, discussed with Damian Wild at Estates Gazette in a recent podcast on The Future of Real Estate. Click here to listen.