‘This is 100% the future’: Recruitment firms sign ‘office timeshare’ deal in sign home-working set to stay

The future of the office is one of the most frequently discussed topics of the Covid era.

The majority of desk-based workers have spent the last eight months working from their laptops at home - the lucky ones from a secluded home office, the less fortunate from the dining tables of their flatshares.

Should bosses just give up on the idea that their employees are ever going to commute in five days a week again? Is the future going to be an entirely remote workforce?  

Many are convinced the future of the office job will involve "hybrid working". This would see staff work part-time from the office, part-time from home.

The bosses of two London based recruitment firms believe this is the case.

The Hive, which was previously based in a in “very corporate” space opposite the Walkie Talkie in Fenchurch Street, has just completed on an "office timeshare" agreement on a space in Old Street with fellow recruitment firm, Pod Talent.

The arrangement will see The Hive's 20 staff occupy the office two days a week, before it is deep-cleaned overnight, and Pod Talent take up residence the other three working days.

The companies said the arrangement will allow them to reduce their office costs by 60% and 40% respectively. Energy consumption is also estimated to reduce by up to 40% between the two businesses.

Maria Vavoulas, chief operating officer at The Hive, told the Standard she believes this sort of arrangement "is 100% the future".

She said: "One of the major reasons we have done this is to keep our business alive and our people employed [through cost-saving]. 

“Historically you might have had businesses sharing a space together, like a co-working environment. This is different. This is like a time-sharing on a house. We wanted to reduce office costs, to have a nice space that was our own office, but a completely managed service.”

Vavoulas said this was her ideal option because she believes the pandemic has exposed the reality that both full-time home working and full-time office commuting are inadequate.

“On the two days that we have together in the office, this is our collaboration time - our 1:1s, time to listen, and then on the other days you go away and do your job,” she said. "I just think that five days a week working from home was miserable, and we lost a lot of that collaboration. Our performance dipped, we weren’t there to help each other.  

“But five days a week working in the office now just does not make sense. It’s proven now that we can do it and businesses can survive working remotely.

“I think this blended system will help everyone - local businesses will still get footfall from office workers. I think it’s the best of both worlds."