ZURICH’S new £40 million town centre office block will be key to the insurance giant’s future despite the rising popularity of working from home.

The six-storey HQ next to Fleming Way is nearly complete and up to 1,000 staff will be moving into the building during the second quarter of next year.

The pandemic has made working from home more of a popular choice for workers of big businesses around the country but Zurich’s chief operating officer Jon Keppel thinks there will always be a need for office-based work. 

In fact, the company had been offering flexible conditions for staff who want to work remotely on some days and in-office on others before the coronavirus started spreading around the world. 

He told BBC Wiltshire: “We operate hybrid working like a lot of other employers and we had a vision of that before the pandemic. 

“We embraced it during the pandemic because we’d seen its advantages. A lot of teams who had not fully embraced it before are now starting to see the benefits and experimented with different operating practices, it’s more universally accepted.

“It’s been enlightening over the last 18 months and a good learning experience as we have learned what works for people and what does not.

“There’s a huge attraction to more flexible working patterns suiting their lives, whether they have children or are caring for family members.

“A lot of people have realised just how much time and energy they spend travelling to and from work so finding a good balance where they can reduce some of that burden by working from home is useful.”

Flexible working is proving to play a big part in jobseekers deciding what company they want to work for, though Mr Keppel stressed the importance of office work, adding that providing training for employees had proven challenging when done remotely.

When asked whether Zurich could have saved a lot of time and money by not building a new office block at all and focusing on working from home, the COO explained why the big investment was needed.

He added: “In our industry, proximity to customers and industry partners is vital, there’s always going to be a need to be near them and they tend to be in town and city centres.

“We will always see the office element in our working life. The bulk of our employees need to be collaborating with team members and learning from more experienced staff – having an office is part of what that’s all about.

“Working in an office is really important, not just for young people but all new joiners. 

“We have a longstanding relationship with Swindon and we look forward to continuing that.”