Office working in Yorkshire is very far from finished - here's why: Eamon Fox

The rippling effect of the Covid 19 pandemic is still being keenly felt. The daily revelations of Covid inquiry make uneasy reading and watching, while online platforms of Zoom and Teams, which flourished during the pandemic, are now often the go-to means of day-to-day communication, rather than office meeting rooms, board rooms and water coolers.

But, like the death of Mark Twain, has the demise of the office been greatly exaggerated? The anecdotal evidence over the past couple of months suggests it has.

Employers are beginning to realise that their control over the working hours and practices of their staff is being steadily eroded and whilst dedicated staff will continue to give their all, less committed and scrupulous employees will use working from home as a free pass to do the bare minimum, if that.

It is very significant that Amazon has issued a warning to staff who are not spending at least three days a week in the office. Meta, formerly Facebook, has told its workers to do the same.

And if further proof were needed that working from home has officially been replaced by return to office, it was provided by Zoom. The firm, whose revenues jumped 300 per cent during the first year of the pandemic, has asked employees to come in for at least two days a week. The city centre retail market is consequently picking up.

Crucially, big tech firms are not the only ones insisting on more office time for white-collar workers than they would like. Osborne Clarke, the international law firm, has told its staff that they must be in the office three days a week if they want to get a performance bonus, although it later clarified that some staff might have “valid reasons” for not doing so.

Chief executives are very keen to get workers back more often, according to Mark Freebairn, a partner at Odgers Berndtson, an executive search firm.

“The genuine problem presented by the shift to remote working is that pipeline of talent is drying up. I could probably teach someone bright the technical aspects of a recruitment job in an hour. But could they understand how to influence and persuade and navigate a situation to their advantage in a subtle and nuanced way? No.”

Civil servants will be ordered back to the office for at least three days a week in the first official Whitehall guidance on working from home. Top officials and those heading big teams will be told they must provide “strong, visible leadership” by coming in most of the time, while young staff will be expected to work face-to-face with colleagues in order to develop their professional skills and become “more effective more quickly”.

Meanwhile Nationwide, once the champion of home-working, have now told their staff to come into the office for at least two days a week.

Over the long term there’s no doubt that all the UK office markets are going to be impacted by obsolescence. That is why companies are choosing smaller, more attractive spaces.

Cubicles are out and meeting spaces are in. Meanwhile, the trend towards enticing workers back into offices that began with providing an office barista or a pool table has turned into a torrent of perks.

In Leeds, there has been a swift reaction to this demand by creating brand-new bespoke or imaginatively renovated office space, which has stimulated occupier demand. There is currently 400,000 sq ft of Grade A office space in the pipeline between 2023 and 2026, with quality space now available at CEG’s Globe Point on the South Bank, Kinrise’s 34 Boar Lane and Opus North’s 12 King Street.

These buildings are a shining example of how to attract staff back to the workplace and how to banish working from home as the go-to working practice.

The Covid pandemic has hastened the demise of the old-fashioned office; now we must embrace the challenge of creating new office space which puts the wellbeing and comfort of staff first. That way, working from home will become a much less attractive option – and town and city centres across the UK will become vibrant again.

As 2024 approaches, now is the time to stop using Covid-19 as a reference point and to move forward with ambition, vigour, ever cautious, but more excited than ever by the potential of the region.

Eamon Fox is a partner and head of office agency and development at the Leeds office of global property consultancy Knight Frank