Return to offices ‘will not increase’

Britain’s places of work may not get a lot fuller than they’re now, with the variety of folks returning “showing to have plateaued” over the previous couple of months.

Occupancy ranges all through the UK fell to 29.1 per cent final week, having notched up a post-pandemic excessive of 33.1 per cent within the week earlier than.

Remit Consulting, which tracks card key fob utilization to compile its information, mentioned the newest figures in all probability had been affected by the practice and London Underground strikes, though the longer-term development nonetheless instructed that the return to the workplace was working out of steam.

Occupancy ranges breached 30 per cent in June earlier than dropping beneath 25 per cent as colleges started to complete for the summer time holidays. There was a noticeable pick-up in attendance as colleges went again in early September, since when places of work have been, on common, 30.1 per cent full.

“For the reason that finish of the summer time holidays, workplace occupancy has been fluctuating round 30 per cent,” Lorna Landells, a director at Remit Consulting, mentioned. “The nationwide figures appear to have plateaued. With the festive season simply not far away, it appears unlikely that there shall be a major leap within the common variety of workplace employees returning to their desks earlier than the flip of the yr.”

Even earlier than the pandemic, sickness, holidays and exterior conferences meant that places of work have been by no means 100 per cent full. Few within the business stored tabs on precisely what occupancy was like, however the consensus is that it was about 70 per cent.

Remit’s information reveals that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday stay, by far, the busiest days of week, which shall be no shock to common commuters. Fridays are the quietest, however that was the case earlier than the pandemic as effectively.

As Britain went into lockdown in March 2020, occupancy at places of work fell from about 70 per cent to nearly zero. It fell sharply once more within the run-up to final Christmas as folks fretted that the Omicron coronavirus variant would possibly hit their plans for a second successive yr.

In 2020, there was strain from some firms on their employees to get again into the workplace. Drinks trolleys, free lunches and yoga lessons have been used to tempt folks again.

That has eased this yr as bosses have accepted that, with the roles market so tight, if they aren’t seen to be versatile, expertise will transfer elsewhere.

Wage all the time was the primary driver for switching jobs, however recruiters say that flexibility — together with an organization’s specific goal — is now nearly as vital.