The T.W.a.T revolution – what’s next?

The midweek working model (TWaT) is now firmly entrenched within a lot of businesses. Working in London throughout the pandemic we have been able to witness the gradual return to work, but also that London becomes a virtual ghost town in the business districts on Fridays.

The below graph demonstrates the mid-week ‘hump’ perfectly. This data is provided by Spaceology showing occupancy levels at an anonymous City-based firm who are currently in their 6th week of returning to the office. As you can observe, Tuesday followed by Wednesday and Thursday are the most popular days for office attendance. With Tuesday still below 50%.

Data provided by Spaceology March 2022

Thursday nights are standing room only in pubs, as employees can operate from home on Friday without facing the commute.

Many clients are now insisting on staff coming back 3 days per week, and without much thought are selecting Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday as their go to days. So basically the office is now used 3 days out of the traditional 5 but this approach maintains the real estate costs.

Now is the time to be more innovative and actually assess what you really need. Clients who understand when and why people should be in the office, and with whom, stand a much better chance of right sizing their office space. For Companies with 100 people or less, this is a major cost to the business.

Solutions are out there. Spacethreetwo offers an innovative solution where you rent an office for only 2 or 3 days per week. One business we advised on, now have offices that offer 50% desk space for their 100 employees, but book out additional space on their “Collaboration Wednesdays”.

Is there a move towards Serviced offices?

We have noticed that the serviced office market has picked up remarkably over the last 12 months. It does provide the flexibility that hybrid working offers, and given the lack of overheads associated with a contract, it can provide a large financial saving.

Cost benefit based on an 81-person office in London. This is showing the benefits of not only a move to Serviced office space but also a move away from 1:1 desk ratio.

There have been multiple offices repurposed to the serviced office market so there is now a variety of choice from the more established (WeWork, IWG) to new disruptors in the market. Indeed large multi-nationals signing global deals with serviced office providers are becoming commonplace as Companies look to reinvent their real estate strategy. Naturally serviced offices do not suit everyone and there is still some snobbery around their use. The evolution of this sector has some way to go, and as a user ourselves of this accommodation we have found its flexibility perfect for our ever-changing needs.

ClearSpace Group offers a perfect blend of workplace and property consultancy as part of their RightSpace service offering which supports Companies to make data driven and future-proof decisions whilst right-sizing their offices. Learn how ITM right-sized their offices and saved 40% on rental charges in our case study.