Why creating a lively community is the key to a busy office

For some companies, this means spreading the office days of their teams over different days of the week to ensure the office remains occupied during the whole week.

Other companies have accepted the reluctance of employees to come into the office on Monday or Friday and have decided to close down on those days.

Then there are those businesses who are incentivising employees with canteen discounts on certain days and providing extra-curricular activities to create a community feel.

This is a big growth area for guest services firm Portico.

“We talk about the return to the office. My view is that we’re there,” said the firm’s operations director Oliver Hiner. “We’re now the best part of two years out of the pandemic. We need to live with what is the new reality.”

The company was founded in 2005 as a front-of-house manager, providing reception services for high-end office buildings.

These days, as well as welcoming and guiding guests through to their meetings, Portico’s teams also work with clients as an extension of the facilities management teams, checking for maintenance and equipment issues.

Since the pandemic, community building has been an increasing part of the business, with its staff now tasked with making the office more fun.

"Some businesses have really struggled to get people back into the office after working from home so there’s a real energy around making the office a fun place to be,” Mr Hiner said.

"Having a clean office is a given,” he added. “But what our teams are doing on top of that is organising activities over lunchtimes and networking events in the evenings.

"We’re making it somewhere you’ll leave at the end of the day and think ‘I’m glad I went into the office today’.”

In Yorkshire, Portico employs about 20 people across nine office buildings in Leeds, Sheffield and Rotherham, for companies including Channel 4, NatWest and PwC.

The London-based firm plans to significantly grow its Yorkshire presence along with other key regions, including the North West and Midlands.

“The demand for our services continues to grow and we’ve definitely seen a growth in our hubs outside of London as companies have moved out of the capital and opened up other offices around the country,” Mr Hiner said.

Portico works with two types of clients: businesses that own and occupy a property themselves and large landlords like JLL, CBRE and Savills, who manage multi-occupancy office buildings.

Looking ahead, Mr Hiner said Portico’s plan is to grow its regional business to equal its presence in London, including the creation of large regional hubs with support teams, replicating its set-up in the capital.

He added: “Face-to-face interaction is more important than ever, particularly with hybrid working. When people come in, they generally want a friendly face to greet them and I don’t see that changing.”