Skip to main content Does your business need an office?
When Covid hit in 2020, office life as we knew it came to a shuddering halt. For many, it meant frantically adjusting to doing business remotely: computers were dragged home, dining tables and sofas commandeered, awkward video calls became the norm. It was a seismic shift in how we work. Downsides were quickly evident - social isolation, slow internet, lack of space and the distractions of home life were very real problems. But for others, it introduced a revolutionary new flexibility in hours and a better work-life balance.
Since then, hybrid working - a set number of days in-office and the rest working from home - has become routine for 74% of organisations, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. But what if you’re a small business starting to outgrow the home office, and you want to bring your team together to make things run more smoothly? Or a bigger business with an established office, wondering if you really need that extra expense? Do you need an office - and what might the alternatives be?
When is an office not an office?
The cost of having a traditional office is one of the biggest barriers, especially for smaller or growing businesses. Long leases, furniture, IT and all the other expenses of fitting out and maintaining an office are daunting.
“It’s expensive to kit out a studio or office space - you’ve paid your rent then you’ve got to buy chairs and desks and lights, you’ve got to get equipment and IT - it’s a really big investment up front,” acknowledges Lisa Henderson, co-founder and Managing Director of ethical design pioneers ilka studio.
For Lisa and her team, flexible workspaces - short-term office space or desk rentals by the hour, day or week - have proved a great solution. Since 2017, ilka has grown from two founders (Lisa and fellow designer Laura Service) to four full-time staff and six freelancers, based in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. They use co-working spaces at Jamaica Yard in Edinburgh and The Social Hub in Glasgow “once or twice a month” to come together in teams to work on specific projects.
“It tends to be quite focused,” explains Lisa. “Generally we do day-to-day stuff remotely, but come together for board meetings or project kick-offs, or if a project is particularly difficult for a few days. It tends to be short bursts for a few days at a time. Some months it’s a couple of days, other months a couple of weeks.”
Why it’s good to get together
“There are a huge number of benefits that come from bringing people together,” says Donald Lindsay, Chief People Officer at FreeAgent. At FreeAgent, our teams are a combination of fully in-office, fully remote and hybrid workers, with many staff coming together two days a week in our Edinburgh headquarters and then working three days from home.
“You can collaborate using digital tools very effectively, but what you don’t get - and what we noticed during lockdown - is that informal collaboration and networking was missing. You get an energy from having people in the same room,” says Donald.
“It’s so important to have the chance to work together in one space,” agrees Lisa. “I know a lot of staff moan about meeting up, but our staff is the opposite; they have been really keen to keep meeting up. Sometimes we don’t cross paths very often if we’re working on different projects. So it’s important to remember who you’re working with and remember we’re human and not just on Slack, and to foster relationships.”
A chance to learn from each other
Collaboration, chats over the coffee machine and a change of scenery can be great for boosting not just cohesiveness in a company, but also as an opportunity for individuals to learn from each other and grow together.
“It’s the small conversations you have in the office that you’ll never have online, because you don’t want to bother someone,” observes Lisa. “But they’re really important. You feed off the energy of people if you’re chatting through a particular project, if it went well or if it’s not going so well and you need a fresh perspective of someone removed from the day-to-day of what you’re working on.”
Donald adds that, no matter the size of your business, these informal interactions can be as valuable as formal training: “Working remotely, you don’t have anybody to observe, to see how they deal with colleagues, with different customers, to hear them on the phone, to attend meetings in person and see the preparation for that. You absorb these things when you’re working together in person. That’s much harder when you’re all remote.
“The whole employee experience - feeling connected to your employer, and the employer feeling connected to their teams - that’s much harder when people are fully remote. If you don’t have that connection, you could lose some of the sense of belonging.”
And, Lisa notes, “just getting away from a desk at home for a day, it’s really nice to have a fresh environment to go into that’s got all the best gear!”
Post-Covid, demand for flexible co-working spaces and short-term desk or office rentals has grown consistently. CoworkerCafe.com’s industry reports show the number of locations offering flexible workspaces in the UK and Ireland rose from 2,800 to 4,200 in the year to August 2025.
Making flexibility work
If you’re interested in introducing hybrid office-life, it’s important to bear in mind the impacts on your staff.
Dr Rochelle Haynes, CEO and Founder of Crowd Potential consultancy and co-author of OpenHR: The Human Capital Management Framework for a Blended Workforce, says it’s not enough to simply inform employees of what changes are to be made. “Companies should involve their people from the very beginning and allow them to help define the changes. By doing this, leaders empower their people and gain greater buy-in,” she explains.
“Having those initial conversations upfront to explore hybrid schedules, environments, commutes, and other related implications, could help to avoid complications and resistance later down the road. The big takeaway here is that employers should work hand-in-hand with their people to construct a hybrid work pattern that best suits their needs and the needs of their key stakeholders.”
And it’s important to keep listening, says Donald. “Listening, finding a pattern that works and taking an agile approach is helpful,” he explains. “Check in after a week, a month and after three months to review the new process, and if it’s not working, have a rethink. With a small team, when you have specific aims you want to achieve by being in the office, explaining why it’s important will help.”
Top tips for making a switch to office life
Dr Rochelle Haynes’ two most important tips for any small business considering a change in working location.
- “Consult your team first before attempting to create the type of environment that you think they want. Find out what environments they best thrive in, as not everyone is productive under the same circumstances. This will save you significant resources and allow you to provide an environment that is adaptable and leverages the strengths and talent of your workforce.”
- “Ensure that you maintain visibility and recognise the contributions of your entire team, regardless of where or how they work. For example, leveraging technology and celebrating small wins along the way is important, so it’s crucial that you utilise different and effective means of communication that highlights the efforts of both in-house and remote employees. Providing opportunities for both online and offline employees to engage in person should also be considered.”
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