Like many businesses, the Reason Global team has been working from home or meeting outdoors for the best part over the last year. With lockdown finally easing, our team is steadily preparing to return to office working, but with a difference…
Like many businesses, the Reason Global team has been working from home or meeting outdoors for the best part over the last year. With lockdown finally easing, our team is steadily preparing to return to office working, but with a difference…
As a company, Reason Global was quick to adopt a new approach to working life when the pandemic started. We’d recently moved our IT into the cloud and creating ‘team bubbles’ allowed us to continue to provide the level of support our clients were accustomed to when everyone was working in the office together. “We put together bubbles of two with one account exec working with one dedicated broker,” explains Director Daniel Reynolds. “It was much easier for our account execs and brokers to have one person they worked with regularly over Zoom. Having to make the change to regular online contact also pushed the teams closer together, and everyone was meeting regularly to ensure regular contact.”
Being part of a team bubble was also a welcome feature for our new broker Emma Roberts who joined Reason Global in November 2020: “For me, being new to the company, it’s always useful to be within the office environment to get to know the people I’m working with, and to get to know more about the company and working processes. Having my Account Executive to help me all along the way has been absolutely wonderful!”
Although the majority of staff enjoyed the flexibility that remote working offered, everyone felt it was important to have an office space for people’s wellbeing, learning and development. When the time came to return to the office, the Directors were keen to provide a new environment where people would still have a space to work and maintain a work-life balance that didn’t require being in the office five days a week.
Next month will see our first step towards normality when we move to our new office space at Mocatta House in Trafalgar Place, Brighton. The smaller, more modern working space will provide hot-desking for a core of eight to 10 staff. An ample co-working space and a roof terrace bar/cafe will also be available for teams to meet and socialise when they are in the office.
From 1st June, our brokers will work from the new office for three days, with two days working from home. Our Account Executives will split their time working in the office once or twice a week and the rest of the week from home and meeting clients.
“We’ve armed everyone with laptops, and a new phone system which will run through their laptop or an app on their mobile, so they have total flexibility to do what they need to do,” explains Managing Director Malcolm Pearson. “We’ll only get together once every couple of weeks as a full team to make sure everyone’s doing okay. Other than that, we will come to our main office for meetings or continuing to use Zoom.”
Our teams have welcomed the flexibility to set work schedules around home life as one of the key benefits of working from home. However, everyone is excited to be going back to the office for a change of pace and lifestyle, and a chance to see colleagues. Here the team share their thoughts on working from home, their feelings on returning to the office and what they are most looking forward to about the return to the office:
“I’m looking forward to seeing the new office and different way of working in a shared space. It will be good to get into a new routine where some days are spent in the office every week.”
“I feel quite relaxed about it and see it as a sign that life is hopefully getting more back to normal.”
“Over the months, I’ve discovered that I actually enjoy working from home, but I’m looking forward to having a balance of working from home and in the office.”
“I loved the flexibility of it all, being here for my daughter when she comes home from school, saving money on the train has been a big plus, and being able to start early and work late when I’ve needed to”
“I’m really looking forward to seeing people and being in a different environment rather than working at home.”
The Reason Global team will be based at Spaces, Trafalgar Place, Mocatta House, Brighton BN1 4DU from 1st June 2021.