Everything you wanted to know about part-time office sharing

Most businesses have prioritised the preferences of their staff when deciding on their current hybrid working patterns. If you have not already done so, we recommend a simple poll, asking each team member how many office days they would like each week. The poll should be anonymous and they should be able to choose from 0 to 5 days each week.

Once you have the results, it is important to prioritise the most popular result rather than the average.

Businesses require collaboration and togetherness to maximise productivity.

Collaboration ensures that people are working on the right things in the right way at the right time. Leaders need to decide how many office days are required to ensure their collaborative work is done highly effectively. Collaborative activities include training, 121s, PDPs, small team meetings, planning sessions and company wide get togethers.

Togetherness ensures the right culture which in turn maintains staff retention – with staff churn being the biggest negative impact on productivity. Leaders need to understand what is attractive about their culture to their people. If it is all about togetherness, more office days are needed to enable team members to bond, socialise and feel a connection to the cause. If personal flexibility is the greater attraction about their culture, less office days are required. If leaders are not sure, asking their teams is a great place to start, while the demographic of the workforce usually gives some clues. The younger the workforce, the more training, in person leadership and opportunities to socialise will be expected.

Some businesses need the office every day to function. Others need the office to be available on a certain number of days for activities such as client meetings and training so we recognise this isn’t for absolutely everyone. With inflation taking hold, many organisations should consider how they would be able to invest office cost savings back into the business.