Business trends in north England and Scotland

Business Unmuted is a weekly podcast focusing on the things that matter to businesses Yorkshire and the northeast of England. Andy Crawford, director for Scotland and the Northern region at Business Moves Group, joined a recent episode to discuss relocation and workplace change management projects in the region.

Here’s a recap of the key topics that Andy discussed.

Hybrid work and the return to the office 

Andy began by talking about the ongoing challenge that businesses face of trying to encourage employees back to the office, noting that despite the rising energy costs in the winter, building occupancy levels among BMG clients were around 25 – 30 per cent.

He noted that “Rising energy bills may eventually be a catalyst that spark a return to the office, but it’s very superficial to tell employees to come back to the office so they don’t have to pay for heating” and that “work life balance is far more important than heating costs”.

Workplace experience

Andy stated that BMG clients are looking to create an office experience as the carrot is much more effective than the stick when it comes to encouraging people into the office.

“The common theme moving forwards for businesses that we work with, no matter the industry, is to create an environment that’s agile and responsive to their team’s needs, and simultaneously creates a belonging in the organisation. Having a brilliant workspace has its benefits, but only if its truly serving the needs of the employees who are working in it”.

Current businesses challenges in the north

Andy noted that business leaders are still operating with caution following the pandemic and not wanting to make any snap decisions regarding their workplaces. The current economic issues are also a factor as businesses do not want to spend money on a workplace change project without a proper strategy in place.

Resilience at Business Moves Group

On the subject of talent attraction and retention, Andy said that “We don’t have a high turnover of staff and have staff that have been here for a number of years, so we haven’t suffered as much as other industries”.

Andy went on to say that “We were quite active during the pandemic. We worked with a lot of the private sector, as well as the public sector…so we didn’t lose a lot of staff during the pandemic which allowed us to bounce out of it and still have that real solid skillset to allow us to carry on operating.”

You can listen to the podcast on Spotify. Andy’s segment starts at 12:30 and runs for about four minutes.

Business support in northern England and Scotland

If you’d like to find out more about how we can support your business, contact Andy on acrawford@businessmoves.com. You can also visit our Scotland and Northern England pages to find out more about the other services we offer in those regions.