Saving space in Gibraltar by working from home.

In respect of my own business, we have tried for some two years now to find larger premises for Chesterton in Ocean Village. Admitting failure, we have decided to stay put, refurbish and move to flexible working patterns for some staff. For us, this means encouraging a degree of home working in order to accommodate our increasing number of personnel in very limited office space. It’s a model increasingly common in the UK and it made me think about the benefit to Gibraltar if flexible working patterns were encouraged here as well.

Every time a new development is submitted to the Development and Planning Commission, there’s an eruption of negative views in respect of new buildings whether residential or commercial. The policy of both political parties is to continue growing the economy as it is economic growth that pays for Commonwealth Parks, free buses, low taxes, healthy pensions etc. Growth means more homes for employees and more quality commercial space.

However, before we build on the last few square inches of space, perhaps we should also be more efficient with the property stock we have.

It is apparent that leaving homes empty during the working day and workplaces empty during the night and at the weekend is an inefficient use of a scarce resource – real estate space.

Technology

Broadband providers are investing vast sums to deliver superfast fibre broadband to the whole of Gibraltar and there is good competition amongst the main providers ensuring affordability. These new speeds will enable employees to connect as fast at home as they do at work.

Software such as Dropbox and the Cloud render the traditional requirement of a workplace server with a hard wired connection unnecessary.

These technological advances in recent years are both a driver and facilitator of flexible working. Flexible working gives employees flexibility on how long, where and when they work.

UK

Working from home is encouraged in the UK. The Home Business Guide issued by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills states “Can your home accommodate the business without disrupting family life and neighbourly relationships? Do you have space, perhaps an attic, spare room or garden shed, or even part of an active living space which could be utilised for business purposes? If your house is pretty much going to remain a house, with your business quietly accommodated within it, then planning permission shouldn’t be required.”

We do not have such encouragement in Gibraltar to use our homes as our offices. Yet the beneficial evidence is compelling.

Higher productivity

British Telecom (BT), for example, regularly reviews the results of its BT Workstyle Project, the company’s own set of flexible working practices. This encompasses measures such as working from home and ‘hot-desking’. BT has found that its home-based call centre operators are able to handle 20% more calls per day than their office-based colleagues. (Source: The productive value of the untapped workforce: A study into the potential economic impacts of a flexible working culture. Undertaken in 2014 by the UK Centre for Economics and Business Research)

Cost savings

Additionally, BT found that its requirement for office space had been reduced by almost 40% during the BT Workstyle Project, through the freeing up of desk space. Using its own real estate costings, they estimate that this translates into savings of over £496 million per annum.

There are other cost savings of course. Commuting costs (time as well as transport costs) are eradicated by replacing a commute with a 30 second walk from the bedroom to the home desk. Commuting costs may not be significant within Gibraltar, yet they are to Gibraltar, as recent Government figures show that a new high of over 12,000 personnel are now considered ‘Frontier Workers’, commuting across the frontier to reach their Gibraltar workplace.

Staff retention and staff absenteeism

Colds and food poisoning make going into the office miserable, but working from home, perhaps, not so bad. Employees who are mildly sick can still get work done most of the time if it means not having to go into the office. And another bonus of home working, there’s no sharing of illnesses!

The literature suggests that flexible working leads to more motivated and job-satisfied employees. Remote working allows employees to manage their childcare or eldercare responsibilities, and attend health and other routine appointments without losing an entire day of work, thereby reducing absenteeism. Moreover, working remotely allows those recovering from illness, or new mothers, to return to work more quickly by working from home, thus improving staff retention. This higher retention translates into cost savings, through lower induction and recruitment costs.

After the introduction of the BT Workstyle Project, the absentee rate among BT’s flexible workers fell by 63%.

The economically inactive

Those citizens of Gibraltar who are currently unemployed or economically inactive (stay at home parents, newly retired etc) might consider joining the labour force if a suitable employment opportunity with flexible working practices was available. There’s a talent pool out there willing to pay taxes – must be worth tapping into?

Fair Trading Act 2015 (“FTA”)

The new Fair Trading Act (subsection 60(2)) may inadvertently be inhibiting entrepreneurs from running or establishing new start-ups from home. The FTA requires that all businesses in Gibraltar carry on their business from premises which are “appropriate for the intended use of the business”. Subsection 60(8) of the FTA stipulates that “a licence shall not be granted to any premises which are residential Government premises, nor to any non-Governmental premises under which the terms of the title deeds to such premises restrict commercial activities to be carried on from such premises”.

Businesses that do not need premises from which to operate may apply for a waiver from the requirement of having a premises. However, even where a waiver is granted, the business shall nevertheless be required to abide by the requirements of subsection 60 (8) in respect of the restrictions from carrying on business from residential premises.

Such restrictions, in my view, contribute to leaving homes empty during the working day and workplaces empty during the night and at the weekend. The scarce resource of work and residential space should be merged in many respects. Indeed, from a wider real estate perspective, mechanisms are needed to bring all of Gibraltar’s empty buildings, residential and commercial, back into economic use.

Space efficient

The benefits of flexible working are potentially wide-ranging, from increasing productivity to reducing real estate costs, whilst improving staff motivation and retention. I believe that the Gibraltar administrative infrastructure should encourage home working in the same manner as it is encouraged in the UK. We may find that we need less new construction if we use existing building space more efficiently.