'Offices will play huge part in what we do' - SysGroup CEO on expanding into Manchester and rolling out back-to-office scheme
CEO Adam Binks says there has been a 'paradigm shift' among its staff with most now wanting to return to the office
SysGroup will launch a back-to-office scheme this May claiming that working from home has begun to lose its appeal among its workforce.
Speaking to CRN, SysGroup CEO Adam Binks said that there has been a "paradigm shift" among its workforce since the start of the year, with working from home losing its shine among its staff and many expressing a strong desire to return to the office.
As a result, SysGroup will roll out a back-to-office scheme that is pencilled in to begin on 24 May.
The move marks a change of tact for SysGroup. Binks has previously been an outspoken advocate of keeping offices shuttered while the Covid crisis rages on.
Last July Binks told CRN that 91 per cent of SysGroup's employees were happy to continue working from home for at least the next three months, and said there were no plans to reopen offices before October.
In a CRN panel debate last summer, Binks clashed with Cancom UK boss Martin Hess over reopening offices, with Hess strongly advocating for reopening offices and the return of office-based working.
But the SysGroup CEO claims that multiple lockdowns and more than a year of working from home has stirred a change of attitude towards remote working, with the majority of its staff now keen to get back to offices.
Binks told CRN that SysGroup will initially return to 50 per cent capacity in its offices, with staff split into "team A" and "team B" groups and working from the office on alternating days.
But the plan is to return to close to 100 per cent office capacity for its 125 staff as and when government guidance allows it, claims Binks.
The CEO said that getting everyone back to the office is an important first step "to find its feet" before SysGroup can begin thinking about what hybrid working model will work best in the long-term.
"I think that needs to happen again before we can slip into that hybrid arrangement," he said.
"Let's go back to the office, get to know each other again, and then collectively as a team find out what works for us. And you know what? If home working doesn't work for us at all, or a split environment doesn't work, then we're going to have to say ‘no we can't do it'.
"If it works perfectly, then why not do more of it? But we've got to find that out along the way."
Binks said that returning to the office has many positives and will help drive the SysGroup culture. This will play an especially important role as the MSP opens up a new location in Manchester and brings its 2019 acquisition of Newport-based Certus into the fold.
Along with planning to open up its Manchester office in line with its back-to-office scheme this May, Binks said that SysGroup has invested £250,000 in revamping Certus' Newport office to help the acquired business feel part of the SysGroup culture.
"We are a dynamic, diverse, fast-paced tech company and we've got the culture you'd expect that goes with that - we're all about work hard and play hard. If you don't love what you do then there's really no point in doing it, and that's driven to the absolute core of our values and culture.
"Coming back to the office is really going to help drive that forward."
The Manchester office marks a big step for SysGroup. Binks said he has purposefully stayed away from the Manchester area because some of SysGroup's largest competitors - including UKFast and ANS Group - are based there.
"Keeping away down the other end of the M62 and being different has worked well for us in the past. However, times are changing," said Binks.
"We need to start thinking outside of the box. Because if you're going to be successful on the other side of Covid you've got to do things differently, and I'm a strong advocate of change."
The office's location - "slap-bang" in the middle of Manchester - will help SysGroup attract the best possible talent over UKFast and ANS Group which are based on the outskirts of the city, claims Binks.
Meanwhile, big changes at UKFast, with the firm installing a new CEO last year, could prompt some of its staff to look to move on and join a new company like SysGroup.
SysGroup currently has 10 vacancies open for its Manchester office - eight of which will be filled "almost immediately". The plan is to treble that number over the next three years to take its Manchester presence up to 30 staff.
"But it's just a plan; we could be taking another 30 people in the next 12 months because it goes so well."
Binks said that acquisitions will play a "pivotal role" in SysGroup's' strategy. The firm acquired two businesses in 2019 - Certus and Hub Network Services - but did not announce any M&A deals last year.
The CEO said he was "disappointed" by the lack of decent acquisition opportunities during last year, but he expects some quality MSPs to start putting themselves up for sale and SysGroup is well placed to take advantage.
"We've got our own cash, undrawn debt facilities from our principal bank Santander and we've got an institutional shareholder register which is extremely supportive of our M&A strategy," he said.
"We've seen lots of opportunity during Covid, but not great opportunity, and we only buy great companies. But now we're starting to settle down, the vaccine programme has ramped up and the situation around capital gains tax has been kicked down the road for another six months or so, so I think we'll see some good quality assets come back to market and absolutely we're well placed to make acquisitions"