The end of commercial property and the rise of collaboration...

Early last year I wrote an article on the downfall of WeWorks. It was before its proposed flotation (and its subsequent decision not to proceed) and I was convinced that the WeWorks model was flawed and that its downfall was not only possible but was inevitable. Just before Christmas, I smugly watched as the WeWorks model began to unravel.

My view on WeWorks was simple, the business of leasing large premises on long term deals only to sublet to a multitude of tenants on short terms deals does not work. Whilst WeWork tried to promote itself as a tech unicorn it is, in reality, nothing more than a big property landlord with too much space. Albeit admittedly, a trendier version. Businesses were starting to invest in work from home infrastructures and the drive for business premises was (in my humble opinion) going to reduce significantly and with it organisations such as WeWork were outdated and doomed.

And then Covid19 came along....

Putting to one side the absolute tragedy of Covid19, in the space of a month we have seen more of a transition in work place processes change than have occurred in the whole of the last 10 years. Gone is the procrastination to delay the inevitable, the excuses and the temptation to hold on to what we have historically known. Overnight we have moved from a legacy office based infrastructure to a flexible work from home environment. We have gone from seeing businesses reluctantly adopting restricted work from home policies (inevitably with long policies on what you can and cannot do when at home) to a full embrace of the concept. Admittedly we have been forced into the position and many businesses entire survival is predicated on them being able to continue from home but the change has been remarkable. Everything from Zoom, Slack, Teams etc have all suddenly moved from being a tool that it is useful to promote that you have (but don't really want to use it) to the life blood of the operation.

With the above in mind, the natural assumption is that my premonition (not to be to big-headed) was correct and that the demise of the business premises is now upon us. Everyone is going to be working from home going forward and we are all going to stop having to undertake that dull daily commute to work. However, it is with a heavy heart that I am going to retract my original view.....whilst the Covid19 pandemic has and will continue to change the way we do business, I believe that it could also turn out to be the saviour of the WeWorks model if it takes the opportunity that this disaster has unexpectedly provided.

There are various articles now in circulation predicting a revolution for the work from home concept. Whilst I understand the premise, I think it is wrong to assume that we are going to remain as a stay at home nation to conduct business once the dust has settled. We are not. No matter how good Zoom et al are, for a business to thrive it needs to encourage its workers to meet and work together, it (and indeed, we) need social interaction. Working in an office encourages innovation, it encourages good relations and it encourages understanding and collaboration. None of this is easily transferred over to a work from home environment and nor should it be. Like many things it is about balance. And it is this where the change occurs. At the moment businesses acquire space to accommodate for the number of staff employed rather than focusing on the roles and objectives of the relevant individuals.

Historically businesses have tried to reduce their space requirements by adopting a variety of methods from hiring expensive space planners, reducing desk sizes (as we generally tend to fill what space we are given) and, of course, hot-desking. Hot-desking has (again, my opinion) never worked. It was derived and driven not by good business practice but a wish to reduce space requirements and it fails to take into account that because we spend the majority of our working lives in the office, we need our own space, we want the same view out of the window, we want to put up pictures of loved ones and we want to sit next to the people we know.

However, we have now discovered that many of us can work from home. That the office is a nice to have but that the work levels and work quality are not necessarily driven by being in it. If the technology and structure is there then working from home is generally fine. It is here that the impact of Covid19 will result in a change and will give the likes of WeWorks the lifesaving environment it needs.

Businesses need to look at office space differently. Work space needs to be driven by three underlining objectives - collaboration, community spirit and client/business integration and interaction.

Collaboration: office space needs to be there for when groups need to work together. Transactions that require you to sit, talk and discuss or for the opportunities to innovate, share ideas and develop them. If I am doing a job that does not require me to be in the office then I should be able to work from home on the understanding that if I need to work with someone (for whatever reason) then I will come into the office for that purpose.

Community spirit: equally, coming into the office is often about getting to know the people you work with day in day out. Encouraging days when certain groups all attend an office so as to maintain the relationships and work place ethos is vital. Again, this does not mean that everyone has to be in the building at the same time. Groups can be matched, changed and required to meet at different times and days. There will also be people that simply cannot operate from home either because of their personal circumstances or simply because they prefer to separate their home and work environments.

Client/business integration: the client is king (or queen). Again, Zoom etc are great tools to maintain contact with your client but face to face is and always should be an important part of the client/business relationships. Having an office that encourages that is a vital part of the business infrastructure.

Whilst I think it is by accident rather than intention, WeWorks is ideally placed to maximise the above shift in the way we approach our office needs. Firstly, it is built on the concept of collaboration - it has created offices that are open and encourages multiple tenants to not only work together within their own business but also to work with and get to know other tenants. Secondly, to enable a business to build and focus on its office community spirit, it will want greater flexibility in terms of space. Again, the ability to scale up and scale down space requirements over short periods is part of the WeWorks attraction. Finally, when it comes to the client interaction and experience, WeWorks model has always encouraged and built an environment that is designed to be friendly and accommodating for visitors.

The world has and is changing. The business that emerges post Covid19 will not be the same as the business pre-pandemic. Whilst searching for any "good" in what is undoubtedly a tragedy is hard - the shift and embracing of work from home has shown businesses that it can work. Commercial space can (at long last) be driven by need rather than historic and archaic attitudes of assuming and requiring people to come in to work. What is needed is a shift on what space is required and how it is used and with this in mind, the likes of WeWorks may just emerge from the ashes and provide the solution that we need.