BACK TO WORK, OR WORK FROM HOME?

Companies from across the region explain their post-Covid approach to o ce space

Employees want a destination workplace

Interior design consultancy Office Principals, which has offices in Reading, Coleshill near Birmingham, London and Manchester, hopes to bring staff back into its offices in June.

You can’t take the workshops home at Prodrive

Most of Banbury-based motorsport company Prodrive’s workforce are workshop-based.

Skilled technicians manufacture components, build race engines and assemble race and rally cars, and have been working fulltime in Banbury since soon after the first lockdown ended.

Ben Sayer, Prodrive’s spokesman, said: “Before they returned, we ensured our facility was Covid secure. This included introducing temperature checks for all staff; one-way systems, ensuring social distancing while working, face masks and Perspex screens between workstations when necessary.

“Around a third of our workforce is officebased: our engineering teams and support functions like finance, HR and IT. These groups split their time between working from home (where it is practical for them to do so) and the office. Under Covid regulations we have had to shut every other desk to maintain social distancing, so at any one time, at least 50 per cent of staff have been working at home.

“Government guidelines for creating a Covid secure workplace have been clear and relatively simple to implement. It meant limiting staff numbers using confined areas like kitchens; spacing out tables in the restaurant, reducing capacity and limiting the number of people in meeting rooms, holding meetings online where possible.

“As we hopefully return to normal later this year, we will introduce a phased return for office staff in Banbury. If social distancing rules allow, we would like to have everyone working in the office. While most staff have been able to work effectively from home, one aspect you cannot replicate is the exchange of ideas and creative thinking that occurs when teams are together in the same real space rather than virtually.”