FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
The number of desks within Whitehall departments are being reduced as a result of more people working from home.
Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from 14 of the biggest ministries show they had 27,004 desks between them in January 2020, just before Covid struck, but by November 2022 that figure had fallen to 21,641, a drop of 5,353.
Andrew Mawson, MD of global workplace consultancy, AWA commented: “Data indicating that Whitehall departments are using a fifth fewer desks because of civil servants increasingly working from home shows the potential savings Government – and indeed most employers – can achieve on their property costs with well thought through and intelligently applied hybrid working policies. Our latest research shows that employees are coming into the office just 1.5 days a week, which shows how much potential efficiency gains there could be and the threat to office block owners.”
Last month AWA published a global study of 220 offices in 33 countries, representing nearly 250,000 employees, which revealed that hybrid working is becoming established as the norm, with people now coming into the office an average of just 1.5 days a week, versus nearly four days a week before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The largest group studied was from the UK, with 79 offices representing nearly 107,000 people responding. It showed people came into the office an average of 28 per cent of the time (1.4 days), peak occupancy was just 36% on Wednesdays, dropping to just 18 per cent on a Friday.
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