The number of UK workers returning to their desks continues to rise steadily, as the Government and leading businesses urge staff to head back to the traditional office space. Yet, after two years of remote working, and numerous delays to return-to-office plans, navigating a safe and healthy return requires a carefully orchestrated strategy, as SBFM explains in our latest eBook The workplace reconnect: How to safely navigate the return to office. The pandemic has irreversibly changed the way we work and left a lasting impression on employee attitudes towards operating in face-to-face working environments. With many companies still adapting to the new ways of working prompted by the pandemic, employers and their staff remain divided on the best way forward for modern working practices. Indeed, while 50% of leaders say their company already requires or is planning to require employees to return to in-person work full-time in the next year, according to new research from Microsoft, more than half of staff (57%) would choose a hybrid work model, splitting work between in-office and home. Despite record-high demand for remote work policies, all hope is not lost for traditional working spaces. With research indicating that 73% of UK workers would choose to work in the office most of the time, 38% preferring to work in-office full-time, and only 5% wishing to work remotely all the time, there remains desire and a need for physical office space. All this is to say that, if corporations are to safely re-integrate their teams into the office – whether that is full-time or in a hybrid capacity – the key to the future success will be ensuring workers feel safe and secure in the workplace, and able to work collaboratively without fear of compromising their health and wellbeing. Today’s employees will not only have to overcome a plethora of working models, but also new health and safety requirements that will be a fixture for the foreseeable future post-COVID. In our eBook, The workplace reconnect: How to safely navigate the return to office, SBFM explores: How addressing hygiene concerns could be central to increasing occupancy levels The importance of flexible cleaning strategies for fluctuating building occupancy Why cleaning operatives must be more visible in a post-lockdown working environment: visible cleaners would reassure 61% of office workers

1. The workplace
reconnect:
how to safely
navigate the
return to the
office
At a pivotal juncture for the future of
work, effectively reimagining facilities
management strategies for the hybrid
or in-office model can help businesses
and their employees thrive.

2. 2
78%
of employers
want to keep
working in an office
Introduction
Some workers may have returned to the
office last week, following the removal of
Plan B Covid measures in England, but the
business/corporate world’s response has
been decisively divided.
In the nation’s capital, industry traditionalists
such as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and
HSBC were among the firms determined
to see their employees return to the office
environment. And the 8% increase in journeys
recorded on the London underground
network, after work-from-home Covid
guidance ending in January, would suggest
The City’s population followed suit.
Yet other leading organisations from Intel to
Google and Microsoft remain firmly rooted
in the hybrid working corner, and look set to
embrace flexibility in the way they work and
the environment in which employees are
asked to perform their daily duties.
At the outset of the pandemic – when
its scale and impact was still to be truly
determined – the prospect of a return to the
traditional office environment seems almost
inevitable. Now, some three years down the
line, it seems increasingly implausible.
In the wake of numerous lockdowns,
flexibility and remote work have become so
deeply engrained in the mindset of leading
organisations and their staff that re-imposing
conventional working models appears a
distant prospect.
With research showing that the majority
want a hybrid setup, has the working world
changed for good? And what impact will the
new peaks and troughs of shifting working
patterns have on facilities management?
The SBFM Hybrid Work Report explores
those very questions, offering some unique
insights into the future of managing corporate
premises in the era of hybrid working.

3. 3
40%
of employees
want more
flexible working
practices
Flexible cleaning strategies for
fluctuating building occupancy
With the UK’s vaccination roll-out in full
flow, and COVID-19 restrictions largely lifted,
offices are slowly getting populated again,
with the IWG expecting occupancy rates
to get back to pre-pandemic levels by the
middle of 2022. SBFM explores what the
post-pandemic office may look like and the
impact on cleaning and hygiene practices.
Following prolonged periods of working from
home, and hybrid operations, the nation’s
corporations are expected to ramp-up the
return to the workplace. But with shifting
worker attitudes, and against a backdrop
of shifting COVID-19 constraints, economic
changes, and technological development,
the traditional office is unlikely to operate the
way it did before.
As a result, when businesses search for their
next commercial cleaning partner, they’ll
have a new set of demands.
Varying occupancy
The global pandemic has established new
ways of working. Research has found that,
globally, 40% of employees want more
flexible working practices, including options
for working from home and part-time
working. Similarly the CIPD’s Embedding
new ways of working post-pandemic report
revealed, while 65% of employers either did
not offer regular working from home at all
before the pandemic – or offered it to 10%
or less of their workforce – that figure is
expected to fall dramatically to 37% after the
crisis.
For most organisations, the introduction
of hybrid or flexible working will result in
fluctuating occupancies in their buildings.
This will require a significant shift in ways of
working, but also the need to establish new,
more flexible cleaning practices.
SBFM will use its extensive experience of
corporate cleaning to bring greater control
of services in critical areas. By creating a
detailed profile of office activity against
cleaning needs, we can deliver a highly
tailored solution for cleaning resource and
activity, closely mapped to the nuances
of your operational requirements at each
building.
This means that cleaning practices will be
shaped to your needs, and delivered based
upon need and level of use, occupancy rates,
and areas identified as requiring cleaning
due to high usage or levels of footfall, rather
than by simply following standard, routine
cleaning schedules.

4. 4
To better optimise staff scheduling and
cleaning operations, we use leading edge
footfall analytics and data insights to
determine building occupancy levels at
all times. With insight into your business’s
foot traffic trends, our cleaning teams can
be better equipped to match staff and
resource supply with customer and operation
demands.
Highly accurate footfall technologies count
people entering or exiting your office building
and track occupant behaviour while in work,
providing critical insights into how to improve
cleaning operations and schedules. Data
collected can be used to predict traffic flow,
the busiest periods, as well as high footfall
hotspots to establish effective cleaning
schedules at the most appropriate times.
Whether you require cleaning outside
opening hours, daytime cleaning and support
options, or specialised COVID-19 services, we
have you covered.
Safety first
Unsurprisingly given recent events, employee
safety will be a top priority for organisations
moving forward. Some 74% of UK businesses
said they would be placing a greater focus
on health and safety in the workplace.
Government regulations are going some way
to ensuring enterprises adopt caution when
it comes to employee wellbeing, but with
75% of UK businesses having implemented
their own procedures and controls beyond
government guidance, it seems many
organisations are going above and beyond to
protect staff.
Considering office cleanliness was listed as
a top concern for employees returning to
the office by a Bupa Health Clinics study,
effective cleaning regimes are imperative.
With a range of specialist cleaning and
disinfectant services available, SBFM are
here to ensure your premises meet the
cleanliness and hygiene standards required.
Our high-quality cleaning services are
designed to mitigate risk and safeguard
the welfare of building occupants. By
equipping our experienced cleaning teams
with the latest in specialist cleaning products
and technology, we effectively protect
against microbial infection and maintain a
heightened level of hygiene in your buildings.
Such an elevated level of protection is
delivered via anti-microbial disinfectant
fogging to disinfect large areas and rapidly
clean multiple surfaces, proven infection
control techniques that provide a 30-day
protective shield against COVID-19 and other
pathogens, and much more.
As an added layer of protection, we also
provide a full premise deep clean to BICSc
standards, with an increased focus on
touchpoints and areas with high volumes of
footfall and interaction.

5. 5
Early-Mid 20th Century
Open office floorplans
As more labour moved indoors,
systematic open plan layouts
became a polular strategy for
productivity and large scale
movement.
The 2000’s
The Coworking boom
As digital and automation technology
became more robust, the workforce
began to embrace a more mobile culture,
and a trend towards Coworking Spaces
Blossomed
The 1990’s
Optimised desk and offices
With computers becoming smaller,
more powerful and commercially
available, office design shifted to
incorporate more spacious, creative
and empowering environments.
The 2010’s
Flexible workspace industry flourishes
With the rise of social media,
globalisation and commercialism,
consumer and executive lifestyle attitudes
towards work shifted towards favouring
choice in workplace environment.
Early 19th Century
The start of dedicated
workspaces
Paperwork, logistics and the
start of globalisation introduced
the need for dedicated
workspaces.
Late 19th Century
The office is born
The introduction of
commercial telephones and
typewriters and, created a
shift from manual labour to
more desk based jobs.
HISTORY OF
THE MODERN
OFFICE
of UK
businesses
said they would
be placing a
greater focus
on health and
safety in the
workplace
74%
Consider collaboration
In what CBRE call the ‘hotelisation of office
space’, open plan, glass-walled offices
with social areas are already establishing
themselves as the norm. But as workers
and employers call for greater collaborative
space within offices – as individuals return
following prolonged periods of isolated home
working – places where colleagues can
interact and work closely together in teams
will likely grow in prominence.
As traditional desk layouts are replaced by
hot-desking, larger coworking activity-based
working spaces and more relaxed breakout
areas, cleaning practices must adapt
too. In the new collaborative landscape
organisations will need to be more diligent
with respect to the cleaning of high-touch
surfaces, the frequent sanitising of shared
work areas and centralised waste diversion.
This may require changes in cleaning
frequency including daytime shift patterns
and the adoption of high-tech equipment to
improve the hygiene, safety and appearance
of collaborative offices.
All of this can be achieved with the support of
an experienced commercial cleaning partner,
such as SBFM. To reduce your costs, improve
standards and offer greater transparency
we grade buildings and areas within them,
delivering appropriate standards and
targeted cleaning for critical areas. The result
is a seamless balance of quality, reliability,
cost-effectiveness and transparency.
To find out how SBFM can support and
guide you on your journey to reoccupying
your office space, contact our expert team
or visit our Corporate Cleaning page.

6. 6
81%
of employees
Want to keep
working in an
office.
Cleaning strategies for the
new hybrid office
To increase productivity and meet calls from
employees for greater flexibility, businesses
are expected to transition away from the
traditional way of working — necessitating a
fundamental rethink of cleaning strategies
and schedules to reflect the new hybrid
working model.
As lockdown restrictions slowly diminish,
modern enterprises across the UK are now
focused on a challenge never previously
experienced – bringing employees back
into the office after prolonged periods of
remote working.
It has become clear that initial predictions
that working from home would become the
new norm have been deeply overstated, as
many organisations seek to adopt a hybrid
working model or full return to the office in
the coming months.
A recent survey revealed that despite 75%
of organisations saying they have some
employees who are reluctant to return to
the office, almost all (97%) organisations
are implementing or planning to implement
hybrid working . While 78 per cent of
businesses and 81 per cent of employees
want to keep working in an office .
Despite such a drive for a return to the
physical workspace, employee fears and
concerns around the impact of Covid-19 on
their workplace welfare persist. Indeed, three
quarters of staff (78 percent) are worried
about the environment awaiting them, and
just 16 percent of those set to return are fully
confident about their health and safety back
at the office .
Given such reluctance, supporting
employees, alleviating fears around their
health and wellbeing, and ensuring they feel
comfortable returning to the office will remain
a major challenge for many enterprises.
Fundamental to this will be planning and
implementing tailored and effective cleaning
strategies throughout the corporate estate.

7. 7
of workers
are worried
about the
environment
awaiting them
78%
Addressing hygiene fears –
key considerations
As organisations move beyond the
constraints of the traditional working model,
so too much the cleaning strategies that
safeguard employees in the physical working
space. Flexibility, therefore, has become a
critical facet in any cleaning strategy, be that
for a single office space or across an entire
corporate estate.
Cleaning schedules need to align to the
new working practices being adopted –
whether that is a hybrid approach or one in
which employees are in the office full-
time. Depending on operational hours, this
could mean early morning cleaning before
your premises opens, evening cleans after
operational hours, or even increasing the
visibility of cleaners during working hours to
provide great reassurance to employees.
To better optimise staff scheduling and
cleaning operations today’s leading facilities
management providers are using advanced
footfall analytics and data insights to
determine building occupancy levels at all
times. With insight into a business’s foot traffic
trends, the cleaning team can be better
equipped to match staff and resource supply
with customer and operation demands.
Highly accurate footfall technologies count
people entering or exiting an office building
and track occupant behaviour while in work,
providing critical insights into how to improve
cleaning operations and schedules. Data
collected can be used to predict traffic flow,
the busiest periods, as well as high footfall
hotspots to establish effective cleaning
schedules at the most appropriate times.
For businesses that face an increasingly
economically challenging landscape,
this ability to find innovative and cost-
effective solutions to minimise spending
while maximising the efficiency of cleaning
schedules is invaluable.
Such agility must also extend to the services
being delivered. Businesses should seek a
cleaning specialist that is able to respond
to changing expectations. For instance,
increasingly the frequency of cleaning to
manage increased occupancy levels, or even
responding promptly to unexpected events,
such as secondary localised outbreaks within
working premises.
An optimised and dynamic strategy
combining traditional contract cleaning,
deep cleaning, specialist Covid-19 cleaning
& sanitisation and washroom services will
deliver a consistently high level of hygiene
across all areas of any building, while at
the same time effectively mitigating risk by
ensuring businesses are prepared for all
eventualities.
When a knowledgeable partner underpins
such a strategy, with unparalleled industry
experience, corporations can also be assured
of a balance of quality, reliability, cost-
effectiveness and transparency.

8. 8
61%
of surveyed
individuals
claim that seeing
cleaners in public
spaces makes
them feel that
safety measures
are being taken
seriously
Should cleaning operatives be
more visible in a post-lockdown
built environment?
Research suggests that for 75 per cent of
people the ability to check the hygiene
protocols of public and commercial
premises online and actively see stringent
hygiene and cleaning procedures taking
place, would make them more likely to visit .
SBFM asks; should cleaners be more visible
in a post-pandemic working environment?
Cleaning operatives have for some time
played an essential, yet largely unseen role
in maintaining cleanliness in a variety of
workplaces. Be that performing out-of-hours
routine cleaning or springing into action to
perform deep cleans and disinfecting
areas closed due to reported COVID-19
cases.The pandemic has served to highlight
not only the need for high quality cleaning
processes, and rigorous health protocols for
consistent cleaning and disinfecting, but also
greater visibility and frequency of cleaning.
And it would seem pandemic-induced
changes in public attitudes towards hygiene
have forever altered cleaning practices as
the world re-opens.
Cleaning for instilling confidence
With some 61% of surveyed individuals
claiming that seeing cleaners in public
spaces makes them feel that safety
measures are being taken seriously, a
quarter of people saying that visible cleaning
instilled a sense of trust in the environment,
and 27% agreeing it made them feel safe, it is
perhaps of little surprise that customers are
demanding higher frequency of cleans and
highly visible schedules.
The implication is that organisations that fail
to provide greater visibility of cleaning in their
buildings run the very real risk of damaging
consumer or employee confidence and will
likely be presented with more far-reaching
consequences. Failure to instil confidence
in retail customers, for instance, could result
in reduced footfall and, ultimately, revenue
for retailers.

9. 9
40%
of employees
want more
flexible working
practices
We are seeing that, in populated built
environments — corporate offices and
retail outlets, for example — the mindset
shift towards cleaning for confidence has
accelerated the frequency of cleans and the
desire for highly visible schedules.
From an FM and cleaning perspective the
place to start is to understand the operational
parameters of the building or buildings
themselves – including levels of occupancy,
activities being undertaken within and
general layout.
Having such a high-level knowledge can
be vital to proficiently planning, executing
and monitoring cleaning activities across
corporate estates. Even more so in the
era where cleaners must be visible, but
still adhere to strict and necessary social
distancing guidelines.
SBFM’s ability to deploy 3D scanning
technology to capture spatial data and
images from corporate offices, and create
fully immersive panoramas of indoor
spaces, can help our cleaning operatives
to safely navigate premises during daytime
operations.
By combining such visual data with our
innate capability to understand our clients
and deliver what they want, rather than
telling them what we offer, we can shape our
service around their needs.
Clearly each environment is unique,
particularly when it comes to cleaning
requirement. However, that said, in many
of the corporate environments in which
we operate, to reassure people of safety,
our operatives are now performing greater
volumes of daytime cleaning and periodic
programmes of sanitisation fogging cleans to
high footfall/high touch areas.
To facilitate the touchpoint cleaning we
deploy a suite of advanced COVID-19
fogging equipment to high-touch areas in
each of our clients’ sites and train a core
team of people, negating any need for call
outs and additional costs for any reactive
infection cleans. This allows our teams to
react responsively at a local level.
Total transparency
Of course, such visibility is not solely limited
to the built environment. At SBFM we are
working closely with clients to increase
transparency of our day-to-day operations,
including overall contract performance and
financial detail.
By delivering such data via a real time
client dashboard, we can provide increased
visibility of everything from attendance, audit
results, compliance reports, period work
schedules, management communication and
much more.
To find out more, visit: www.sb-fm.co.uk

10. 10
only
16%
of those set to
return are fully
confident about
their health and
safety back in
the office.
Is cleaning more important now
Plan B restrictions are lifted?
As England relaxes Plan B restrictions –
including ‘work from home’ guidance
and the mandatory use of masks in public
spaces – SBFM asks does the cleaning
industry need a strategy in place to ease
public fears? And could effective cleaning
regimes be fundamental to living with
the virus?
Despite a high proportion of the public
remaining sceptical, community perception
of the health risks of easing restrictions still
high, and backlash from high profile bodies
including the NHS Confederation and
teachers and nurses’ unions, the nation is
now returning to some sort of pre-pandemic
normality.
The latest changes will see large swathes
of workers ditch the spare room and head
back into the office on a full-time basis.
While nightclubs will reopen their doors, the
requirement for table service in hospitality is
to end and attendance limits on indoor events
are to be lifted.
Two years into the pandemic, any hope
of eradicating the virus seems out of the
question. If the Health Secretary Sajid Javid
is to be believed, despite the relaxation of
measures marking a “major milestone” for
England, it is not the end of the road, and we
must instead “learn to live with COVID in the
same way we have to live with flu.”
Although Government curbs have been
removed, this is certainly not the time for
complacency about the virus. The priority
now is to manage the reality that Covid-19
is here to stay. A whole new level of
preparedness is therefore crucial, particularly
as new waves of coronavirus (and indeed
other pathogens) arrive on our shores; we
need a system of effective hygiene protocols
in place to ensure everyone is protected to
the utmost.
The business community in particular – be
that retail stores encountering growing
footfall, corporates welcoming back high
volumes of employees, or schools, colleges
and universities inviting students back onto
campus – need to establish the best lines of
defence to give themselves the greatest level
of protection.
Even more so given growing public anxiety
around the return to normality. Some three
quarters of staff (78 percent) are worried
about the office environment awaiting them.
While 82% of UK shoppers said they won’t
spend money in a store if it doesn’t look clean
or hygienic.

11. 11
82%
of UK shoppers
said they won’t
spend money in a
store if it doesn’t
look clean or
hygienic
Vaccines undoubtedly will be central to our
fight against COVID, yet effective cleaning
practices provide one of our greatest
chances of slowing the spread. After
performing a largely unnoticed but essential
service in the background for many years,
the pandemic has only served to bring our
industry’s value into the spotlight. Since the
onset of the virus, but especially in 2021,
cleaning services have been recognised as
an essential strategy in the fight against the
virus in many industries.
The fact that the cleaning industry has
remained at the forefront of the fight against
the pandemic and played a pivotal role in
helping the UK and Europe’s businesses
re-open, and most crucially remain
open amidst lockdowns and nationwide
restrictions, speaks volumes for the
contribution it has made.
It is such adaptation that will undoubtedly
continue to prove central to ensuring business
continuity and protecting employee welfare.
We’ve already seen the advantages that
routine and thorough cleaning can have in
varying working environments, but it is the
initiative-taking approach to effective virus
sanitation practices that will aid businesses in
alleviating public concerns and anxieties.
Incorporating supplementary virus and
bacteria sanitisation programmes of this
nature into daily cleaning regimes will not
only provide an additional level of protection,
but also further reassurances to guarantee
businesses will be prepared should the
worse happen.
Such agility must also extend to the services
delivered. Commercial cleaning businesses
need to include in-built flexibility in all
contracts if they are to survive in a world
continuously reshaped by the virus.
Businesses will seek a cleaning partner that
is able to respond to changing expectations.
For instance, increasingly the frequency of
cleaning to manage increased occupancy
levels, or indeed reducing the number of days
on-site to accommodate the newly trialled
four day working week. While the capability
to respond promptly to unexpected events,
such as secondary localised outbreaks
within working premises will remain a key
requirement.
In today’s market, optimised and dynamic
strategies must combine traditional core
contract cleaning with deep cleaning, and
specialist Covid-19 cleaning & sanitisation if
they are to deliver a consistently high level of
hygiene across all areas of any building. Such
an approach will effectively be mitigating risk
by ensuring businesses are prepared for all
eventualities.

12. 12
Your trusted partner
for corporate spaces
SBFM has been delivering outstandingly clean and safe
environments in the corporate space since 2013.
We combine our extensive expertise, and UK-wide
coverage, to improve occupant satisfaction, foster enhanced
productivity, and help your business make a great first
impression as soon as people walk through the door.
Our experienced cleaning teams use specialist cleaning
products and leverage leading-edge technologies to
help protect against microbial infection and maintain a
consistently elevated level of hygiene in your buildings.
This offers greater reassurances for returning colleagues,
customers and visitors.
To find out how we can support your business,
contact us today.