Our approach to flexible working: pt 1 - The Office

When Fifth Dimension decided to move offices at the end of 2011, the goal was not simply about finding an alternative office but to implement a genuinely more flexible working environment that would benefit the individuals while still being no less effective for the company and our clients. There was also talk about the impact of the Olympics on business in London and with the experience of various transport interruptions and security alerts in the Capital, then it also made sense to have better contingency plans.

Many people in different organisations already work from home in some sort of arrangement. At Fifth Dimension we started doing so around 10 years, though arising out of circumstances rather than a planned strategy. As individuals within the company got older their circumstances changed, and location or family life meant that commuting to our office everyday was not so easy.

But this has largely been applied to the software developers, who invariably have longer defined tasks to work on and notably less interaction with clients.

Our goal was to consider how to apply this to the whole organisation, and the move of office provided the perfect opportunity to initiate a new era.

The first step was to give notice on our existing serviced offices which gave us a timetable and commitment that something had to be done.

We considered that we should really commit to do things differently, rather than just tinkering which led to the question: “Do we actually need an office?”

Clients like to know you have an address, but this can easily be solved with a virtual office service where post can be addressed. Many provide meeting rooms, so that client visits can also be accommodated as required.

Employees also need a place to congregate – even if not on a daily basis, physical interaction is important in a business. A new alterative to the serviced office, which can be expensive, is a shared workspace (such as Club Workspace). Provided on an individual membership basis, this is a large serviced office where individuals from different companies pitch up and work. This is not dissimilar from the members club approach, though without the usual bar and restaurant attached it is aimed more at start-ups, and small companies who require a more formal working area.

Currently though, neither the shared workspaces or members clubs provide suitable storage for ancillary office equipment such as scanners or printers, or to keep the physical items that we need to store such as card or packaging samples.

So, we looked for a suitable self storage unit close-by, and the result was a fortunate encounter with SafeStore – we now have an office in their building and access to cheap self-storage as we need. We have a physical office to meet and work – meetings tend to be held in much the same way as before – for partners, it tends to be coffee shops and business hotels, and clients tend to be at their premises.

Next time: how do we cope with communication, networking and the post.

What we are learning from an armed siege

At 11:55am yesterday, I left the Fifth Dimension offices to go and buy a card for a friend’s birthday. It’s not unusual to hear police sirens as you walk down Tottenham Court Road, but it was soon apparent something more serious was kicking off when a second and third wave of emergency vehicles followed in quick succession.

It was soon apparent something more serious was kicking off.

As we now know, it was a siege by a 49 year old, disgruntled man on the 5^th floor of Shropshire House above Starbucks. Rumours that he was unhappy with is frothy chocca mocca have been strongly denied.

What the event does highlight is that of business disruption – how to deal with and mitigate the effects of it. 

Working in the West End, we regularly experience disruptions ranging from fire alarms, bomb scares, tube disruption and even riots – some are a personal inconvenience, such as extending the length of the commute, whereas others like yesterday’s siege are more disruptive.

But in contrast to Friday, where our office was out of action for 5 hours, the potential impact of the Olympics this summer is, depending on who you listen to, likely to being considerably more serious. 

TFL could have saved a bunch of money
with a poster saying "Closed for Olympics"

You only need to look at TFL’s interactive tube map of the London Underground which highlights how busy the stations will be. 

Big business is able to commit resource to develop business contingency plans, but what about us smaller SME’s who are hard pressed for time and cash at the best of times?

Most business insurance policies will include “business interruption” but I would be reluctant to rely on this. If you have to wait for cash from the insurers, you may not have a business to return to.

Personally, we have dealt with this matter by chance rather than by design; in considering how to make our business more efficient and enjoyable I have realised that we are better equipped to cope with events that might otherwise interrupt our daily business.

So when yesterday’s evacuation happened, I was relatively unconcerned as the majority of our team could continue working - either they were not in the office, or could return home to carry on. Which of the members were affected? Well it turns out yours truly – because having left prior to the evacuation, my house keys and laptop were still in the office, so was unable to continue my own work from home!

A slight blip  ...but a useful exercise in ironing out a plan that i think will bring both security to the business, as well as a more enjoyable working situation for everyone at Fifth Dimension.

We’ll be publishing a more detailed account of how we are changing our business operations, in a a series of separate blogs over the coming weeks.