The new Engagement Hub in Holborn, London. Image: Zoom
Situated in London’s Holborn district, the 15,000 sq ft engagement hub will provide space for more than 200 UK employees to work in-person at least twice a week.
Earlier this week, Zoom asked its staff to come into the office at least twice a week, in what is a blow to those who have become used to and wish to continue working fully remotely.
The video conferencing software company rose to global fame after it became the symbol of remote work during the pandemic. Now, as it pushes for a return to the office for all workers within 50 miles of a Zoom office, the company has also unveiled a new office in London.
Zoom says the new London Engagement Hub will spearhead the shift from traditional office spaces to experiential working hubs and mark a new era of modern work.
The 15,000 sq ft office space situated in central London’s Holborn district will provide space for more than 200 Zoom employees based in the UK to work collaboratively and in-person on designated team days.
Phil Perry, head of Zoom UK and Ireland, said that while the world of modern work has changed considerably, the organisations that best adapt to these changes and “maximise” the times that teams spend face to face will “succeed commercially in the race for the best talent”.
“That is why we have totally re-imagined our London office for the modern, digitally connected age,” Perry said.
“We are confident the state-of-the-art design, underpinned by the full suite of Zoom technologies, will make it the perfect place for our teams to come together to do their best work on some days, while being optimised for hybrid and remote interactions leveraging the full power of the Zoom platform on other days.”
Perry said that the new London office is also a sign of the company’s “commitment to and confidence in” the UK, a key market for Zoom that has seen strong adoption of its platform.
Each of the rooms is fitted with the latest Zoom technology to make what it calls a “structured hybrid approach” possible.
“Our company is centred around people which is why our London Engagement Hub has been intentionally designed with the employee experience at the heart of it all,” said Alana Collins, head of real estate and workplace at Zoom.
“It’s important to have a structure rooted at a team level to build value and purpose. This is why we’ve combined the best of in-person and virtual collaboration to inspire innovation and promote maximum productivity, satisfaction and creativity as we adapt to modern work.”
Earlier this week, Zoom faced a backlash over updates to its terms of service which detailed the company’s use of customer data to train its AI models without consent. On 7 August, the company responded by adding a line about consent for capturing customer content but will continue to capture aggregated service-generated data without consent.
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