The Intermediary – September 2026 - Flipbook - Page 93
B RO K E R B U S I N E S S
Opinion
The office should
still matter
S
ir Gareth Southgate has
recently said something
business leaders have
been thinking for years:
working from home is
not necessarily good for
young people.
Recently, the former England
manager said avoiding the office can
damage younger workers because they
miss out on learning from colleagues
and geing support when things
go wrong.
He made a football comparison that
struck me. Southgate talked about
having a coach every day of his life,
but also the support network around
him: physios, kit men, managers and
teammates. You do not just learn from
the person coaching you. You learn
from everyone around you.
The same applies in broking,
in commercial mortgages and in
bridging finance.
Sticking together
I am a believer in the office. TAB is
office-first. I think you’d struggle
to deliver commercial mortgages at
bridging speed with everyone working
from home.
You need people together, learning
from each other and feeding off each
other’s energy. That’s how we bring
momentum to lending.
Some of the most valuable things
you learn at work never appear in
a training manual. You hear how
an experienced colleague handles
a difficult conversation. You see
how they solve a problem. You ask
a question because you happen to be
siing next to them. You learn how to
read a room.
Those things maer, particularly
when you are young and starting your
career in broking or lending.
Southgate was speaking in the
context of the UK’s youth worklessness
crisis. His point is relevant.
If we want young people to build
careers, we need to give them regular
access to people who can help them
build those careers.
That does not mean everyone needs
to be in an office five days a week.
People have different circumstances.
Flexibility is an important job factor
for 80% of UK workers, according to
Randstad UK. Ignore that and you
will struggle to aract and retain the
right talent.
At TAB, we accommodate flexibility
where it makes sense. Our head of
investor relations lives in the Isle of
Man and comes into the office for
a week every month. Our senior
BDM for Scotland, Kris Day, lives
in Glasgow. Other colleagues start
later and finish later, or vice versa.
That works.
Nevertheless, flexibility should
not become an excuse to abandon
the office.
Rethinking the office
If you want people to work office-first,
you have to give them an office worth
coming to.
You cannot tell people collaboration
maers and then put them in a grey
room with bad lighting and no space
for a private conversation.
If you want people back at HQ, you
need to pull them towards the office.
The office needs to be light and airy.
It needs to stay cool in hot weather.
They need somewhere decent to eat.
They need a workplace designed for
people, not rows of desks.
Only 3% of workers say they
do not care about workplace
comfort, according to the latest
round of Employer Brand Research
from Randstad. The physical
environment maers.
There is another question we should
ask about working from home: what
does the home workplace actually
look like?
Our head of comms started out in
a multinational professional services
firm. When he set up his home office,
he had to undergo a full workstation
DUNCAN KREEGER
is founder and CEO at TAB
assessment. He needed a dedicated
room with natural light and suitable
ergonomic furniture. He had to
comply with fire safety requirements,
pass electrical safety checks and
provide secure storage for sensitive
documents.
How many people working from
home today have anything like that?
We have normalised remote
working quickly and forgoen that
it should involve being... a proper
workplace.
Right place, right person
I should stress that this doesn’t mean
I think remote working is inherently
bad. For some people, it is the right
answer. That includes people with epic
commutes or caring responsibilities.
Businesses can also operate
successfully with distributed teams.
But for younger employees in
particular, there is huge value in being
physically present with experienced
colleagues. You need mentors. You
need people who can answer the
question you are embarrassed to
ask. You need to watch how good
people operate.
Employers have a responsibility to
make that experience worthwhile.
Give people the work-life balance
they value. Give them flexibility
where it makes sense. Give them a
workplace they want to use. Then hold
everyone to the same standard.
Southgate had coaches and
teammates around him throughout
his football career. Businesses need to
ask themselves what the equivalent
support network looks like for
their people.
Sometimes, it is siing on the other
side of the desk. ●
September 2026 | The Intermediary
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