CPA Global to make remote working the 'new normal'
Up to 3,300 employees at CPA Global will begin working remotely on a permanent basis, as part of the IP service provider’s drive towards becoming a “digital-first” workplace.
Group CEO Simon Webster said that the experience of staff working remotely during the COVID-19 lockdown has “challenged assumptions and sped up the process of digital transformation in the wider IP industry,” and that the company wants to “lock in the lessons and successes of the last few months”.
He said that the company’s offices will “transition from fixed workplaces into dynamic hubs based in our key geographies.”
When asked how many of the company’s 29 physical offices would continue to operate, a CPA spokesman said that was “still to be worked out”. The “dynamic hubs” would be physical spaces, the spokesperson added, but “not for coming in and staring at a screen”.
Webster presented the shift as part of a move to capture “the long term benefits for our people, customers and shareholders that we can see from fully embracing digital.”
While companies across the world have been forced to embrace remote working during the pandemic, commenting on CPA’s decision, Simon de Banke, CEO of rival service provider IP Centrum, said that while he thought it was a “bold move, I'd offer considerable caution”.
“Our entire team has been remote working for a few months now through lockdown, and it was a big relief that due to our online collaboration tools, inter-team communication didn't suffer, and in some ways improved," he added.
De Banke said he considered a similar transition to permanent remote working, but that it was “more complicated than it may seem”.
“It only works if everyone is working from home,” he said. De Banke added: “As soon as some people are working from home and others sharing a hot-desking office, the communication breaks down again as those in the same room don't need to use the collaboration tools to communicate with each other. If your value generation is about innovating, rather than just cutting costs, it's all about the communication between creative team members.”
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