Someone at the Sunday Times has a sense of humour. This weekend’s promotional four-pager calling for entries to the paper’s Best Places to Work awards was intriguingly wrapped around the ‘Homes’ section.
For many people, home is definitely the best place to work. Working-from-home shows no signs of disappearing - and although the office is back, it’s just not for the whole working week.
New research suggests that three days in the office is now the optimal working arrangement for company culture and performance for both employees and employers. A study of 1,400 full-time desk-based workers, by employee engagement agency Ipsos Karian and Box, found that at least three days a week in the office is accepted as being good for decision-making, career development and generating new ideas.
But the office versus home argument is still not clear cut, apart from a widespread recognition that some sort of hybrid balance is here to stay. The positives of working from home, like a better work-life balance, avoiding the daily commute, having a more flexible schedule and less stress are strong drivers. On the other hand loneliness is an issue among younger workers who spend more time at home.
Two-thirds of those surveyed are now spending three or more days in the office, but less than half of those are going in full-time. Yes, that’s why commuter station car parks are busier but yet to be full again.
The world of the office has changed and the knock-on effects on other parts of the economy, like hospitality, are becoming increasingly evident - including in the expectations of their own staff.
Researchers at CGA by NIQ are now talking about ‘rural Fridays’ or at least suburban Fridays - the day most people, especially the middle classes, do work from their own home. Despite growth elsewhere in the market, CGA reports drink sales on Fridays down 2.2% in city centres compared to three years ago, while those in out-of-town venues are up.
But Saturday is the time people are going back into town and city centres in numbers, with drink sales in growth. However, it seems it’s not necessarily for a big night out, rather a leisurely afternoon of socializing.
How much shifts in consumer habits like this have anything to do with the fall-out from the pandemic or working from home is not always easy to gauge. But behaviours have changed, and are still changing, which means that operators really do need to keep a close eye on wider trends and in particular their own customer data.
And to underline that very point, another phenomenon that is not just affecting the eating and drinking-out market here in the UK is people seem going out earlier to enjoy themselves. As legendary New York restaurateur Danny Meyer, the brains behind Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality Group, tweeted this month, in what seemed mild astonishment: “When did a six o’clock dinner reservation become the new eight?“
New York City has always been a late-night scene, even more so than London. But it turns out people really are eating earlier. This year, the amount of diners making reservations in the 2pm to 5pm window is double what it was for the same time period in 2019, according to Yelp data. And about 10% more reservations are now made between 4pm and 6pm, with 10% fewer between 6pm and midnight.
We’ve all heard about Thursday being the new Friday, but it looks like it’s not quite that straightforward.
No time to park the green bus
Rishi Sunak’s decision to backtrack on a range of environmental commitments has left large parts of the business community, including hospitality companies, disappointed and in some cases downright angry.
The Zero Carbon Forum, which works with companies right across hospitality to help them implement their net zero roadmaps, said in a social media post: “It is irresponsible to row back on important action on climate and we will be closely monitoring for more detailed plans from the government as they emerge.”
But it is not the specific policies on new diesel cars and domestic heaters that most rile some operators, but the impression it gives about the Government’s commitment and how it seems happy to give up its leader status to allow other nations to catch up, not to mention the potential knock-on effect on investment and support.
As Moto CEO Ken McMeikan said on Radio 4 a few weeks back, what his company needs is an acceleration in Government investment, in particular in grid infrastructure so he can hook up more EV chargers on his motorway service areas.
All the feedback shows that customers want the hospitality sector to do more on sustainability and the climate change - and that’s an even stronger view among frontline teams, who tend to be younger. Having a credible sustainability policy is becoming a crucial prerequisite for many choosing a place to work.
It’s a bit of a cliche, but what business wants is certainty. The government insists that’s what it is giving people, but the fact that it has changed its mind suggests otherwise.
