Bespoke renews lease hailing hybrid success

Digital agency Bespoke has renewed its lease at Strawberry Fields Digital Hub, Chorley, hailing its hybrid working programme a success twelve months after returning to the office post-Covid.

Commencing its hybrid working programme after the final lockdown in September last year, the digital lead generation specialist listed team wellbeing as central to the decision to adopt a hybrid approach, which also enabled the recommencement of its face-to-face digital strategy workshops, which had been running online during the pandemic.

The team currently work at the office twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Bespoke provided all team members a £500 budget to improve their home office space for working from home during the rest of the week.

The agency also invested in coaching from Leslie Calland of MyOnlineCoach, using psychometrics to help the team understand each other’s personality types and how to work best together. The company says the tests also helped them to map out the balance of the team, enabling them to identify and then fill any gaps in skill sets or natural aptitudes.

Bespoke CEO Steve Brennan said: “Back in February 2020, we were all cued up to move from our old head office in Bamber Bridge to the new offices in Strawberry Fields. But then Covid arrived.

“A few weeks before the official first lockdown was announced, we made the decision to hold the move and transfer the entire company into working from home. Like many people, we were actually pleased, and admittedly a little surprised, at how well that transition went. As early as April, we were proudly announcing our first significant project completed entirely over Zoom.

“As the months went on though, feedback from the team about the realities of working from home went through something of a curve.

“At first there was a distinct sense of, ‘why haven’t we done this before?’ But after a while, the general consensus was we were starting to miss some elements of the office. Over time, there was majority agreement, across the team and clients, that for collaborative working, the office provides that extra level of solidity and stability that helps underpin, and even enhance, creative processes.

“Also, for many the office can actually provide a haven, where work is the sole focus and where there is a fixed cut off at the end of the day, which actually improves overall work-life balance.

“After deciding to move back to the office on a hybrid model, we’ve ensured the new office is built to function in a post-Covid environment, with desk and working spaces compartmentalised and everyone having the right level of individual space.

“Thinking beyond Covid though, we took a real blank canvas approach to looking at how the office is set up, with wellbeing at the heart of our thinking. The aim is to ensure that the office is, in fact, an attractive place to come; somewhere that our team will want to work, because of the working advantages it provides and by simply being a nice place to be.

“Moving forwards, we see the office now as somewhere newly vibrant and rich with new opportunities and increased productivity benefits, where work is a happy place to be, which I think bodes well for the future.”

Established over 20 years and employing 12 staff in both Lancashire and London, Bespoke is a lead generation specialist agency. As well as designing and building websites, the agency also delivers strategy workshops to help inhouse marketing managers achieve the best results from digital strategies.

For more information, go to www.bespokedigital.agency.