Small businesses have been disproportionately impacted by the crisis. Whereas larger companies have significant buffers in terms of people and reserves, smaller businesses have the same duty of care without having the same in-house resources. As more than 95 per cent of UK businesses are SMEs with less than 250 employees, this is potentially a massive concern for the economy in general.
The UK government is encouraging businesses to get their people back to the office for the benefit of their own career and mental wellbeing. Working in isolation is no substitute for face-to-face contact and can be damaging to career prospects and professional development.
Some businesses can operate successfully remotely. But I think these are few and far between. For the majority, it is better to be physically together.
There is a totally different dimension to the relationships that form when you are working with people day in, day out; when you meet them to talk through issues, problems and find solutions in person. Not to mention the camaraderie and friendships that build up through the workplace, which you just cannot form over a screen.
It is a dangerous consequence of lockdown that people have grown used to working from home. And of course, many people, such as shop workers, public transport employees, hospital nurses and other NHS staff, taxi drivers, gig economy delivery drivers, do not have the option of working in splendid isolation. This is a middle-class luxury.
Businesses have an obligation to provide the best service for their clients and customers and, in my view, this is performed most effectively by working directly from the office and not from your front room. During lockdown, the service from the banks, where many of their branches were (and are still) closed, was abysmal.
Also, from personal experience, the same goes for the government departments such as HM Passport Office, which was virtually impossible to contact to get advice on renewals, and travellers were experiencing long delays in the processing of their applications. Even HM Customs & Excise had massive waiting times to answer urgent queries regarding tax payments.
All of this was a direct consequence of not working from the office. The service suffered.
We at Peninsula did everything possible to provide a near to normal service, maintaining our KPIs and service standards. We implemented the most up-to-date technology and focused on monitoring staff performance, but most importantly, we got the vast majority of our staff back to the office as soon as the guidance allowed.
