Increased flexibility and allowing working from home creates a more productive workforce – so says the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds. In response to Amazon insisting that workers return to working five days a week in the office, he says: “Workers should be judged by their output, not by whether they are sat at a desk”.
He said this while pressing ahead with plans to reveal the Government’s new Employment Rights Bill. While much of what has been trailed is positive; including the ‘right to disconnect’ and other measures to protect workers, the jury is very much out on whether flexible working does actually boost productivity for every business.
What I can see clearly in London Heritage Quarter, the Business Improvement District for Victoria and the area around Parliament, is that the absence of civil servants and reduction in office workers across Whitehall and Westminster on a Monday and Friday have reshaped how the city looks and functions.
That has in turn had an impact on the profitability and productivity of our hospitality and transport sectors. The sad collapse of TGI Fridays this week reflects that change, with most workers preferring to say Thank Goodness It’s Thursday and working from home rather than spend Friday in town.
While many large employers such as Amazon are reintroducing a default five day week, the removal of flexible working freedoms that are high on workers’ wish lists cannot and should not be the whole answer. Those freedoms are quite rightly enjoyed in different ways by different people.
One of the reasons for London’s workers being more likely to work from home is that it has long lacked the concentrated business districts that define Manhattan or Paris.
Instead, London has developed distinct business communities, from political and corporate HQs in Victoria through to the lively creative agencies of Camden and Shoreditch.
What’s clear is that given the freedom of choice, factors such as expense and inconvenience of the commute are too often overriding the appeal of working and socialising in these spaces. The appeal of the city means that traditionally Londoners have borne far longer commutes than the rest of the country or in competing capitals overseas.
For London to enjoy the benefits of thriving city centres, filled with bars, restaurants and leisure opportunities we need to make the choice to come into town even more appealing. That was the conclusion of the recent report from the Centre for Cities.
It had three recommendations - to cut the costs of commuting, reset attitudes amongst employers and employees, and to encourage a collective sense of city identity. None is especially radical, but each requires urgent action.
Nowhere is this more true, or easier for the Government to lead by example than across Whitehall. For centuries it has been home to our most powerful institutions and thousands of professional workers so is ripe for a Government-led return to the office. The Government has the chance to set an example by reintroducing the benefits both professional and personal or face to face contact. London has demonstrated that its built environment, linked by a world-class transport network and safe streets, make it one of the best places to work.
To socialise and make the most of the districts in which our offices are based, we must all feel the freedom to leave our desks to spend time with friends and colleagues over lunch-breaks and in evenings. By encouraging employees to come together in such informal settings, which were once traditional, we can help to break down the barriers between older and younger workers, and to support London’s appeal for all.
