Working from Home – what’s the future?

At home on our farm, we’ve recently opened up rentable office spaces – Wheatrig Business Hub – in a converted part of the steading. Of no use to modern-day farming, and yet lovely enough to deserve to be saved, we had to find a new and modern use for the buildings. The local council told us that office space was in short supply, we were successful in gaining LEADER funding, and off we went. However, we were just about to put the first spade in the ground when Covid 19 first reared its ugly head and were immediately sent into panic mode when we thought that nobody would ever want to work in an office again! Our project might have been entirely useless!

Thankfully, things change and now there are many people keen to return to an office environment and escape their spare room or dining room table, eager to reconnect with people and yet perhaps not keen to go back to a city centre working lifestyle. It’s been interesting to watch behaviour evolve and see how people’s attitude to work has changed since the pandemic, with many people now keen to work to a hybrid model of home and office working.

Certainly, I believe that we are losing a huge amount if we don’t get back to some level of face to face meetings because that’s where trust is built. Zoom is all very well but it can’t replace all in-person interaction.

Business guru Simon Sinek puts it very well in this short video, it’s worth a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK263xjkaFY

The same applies, I believe to PR and marketing. Social media can do a HUGE amount for your business, as can other forms of PR, but sometimes you just need to sit in front of someone in order for them to truly understand what you offer and why they want to work with you.

I’d love to know what you think – anna@sceneandherdpr.co.uk