_Lockdown Diary: Stephen Clifton

Exactly a year ago the Prime Minister announced the biggest overnight changes to all our lives with the introduction of the United Kingdom’s first ever lockdown. As the head of Knight Frank’s Commercial business in the UK employing 1,000 people it challenged me more than anything has done before.

Of course, the doctors, nurses, paramedics and others on the COVID front line faced far tougher problems and we will always be grateful to them for their bravery in the teeth of the crisis.

But as a property advisory group – and partnership – we had to dig deep, learn lessons and re-invent everything we did overnight.

Knight Frank’s status as a partnership has had a massive influence in how we have handled COVID-19: making our own decisions independent of external shareholders on when to put people on furlough and whether to continue to take government support.

In fact, we decided early on that other people need government money more than property advisers, so we paid that government money back.

We also decided as soon as we knew that we would make a profit in 2020/21 that we would reimburse the pay of all our people who took a salary cut during the pandemic. They will see that money paid back in April.

Now we are putting plans in place – through our strategy, Connect 55 named after our 55 Baker Street HQ, to build back better having learned lockdown lessons that have fast tracked the need for creating exceptional office spaces, enabling and encouraging people to collaborate, learn and thrive.

We want to make the office an experience, not a place to sit, and judging from the enthusiasm of our teams it will be a tremendous place to work. Bur first, a look back through my weekly emails to the Knight Frank team shows just what we did to cope and eventually thrive.

A key priority was to prioritise authentic, personal and reliable communication and to encourage our team at all levels to be open about their experiences – I wanted everyone to know that they would be safe as an employee of Knight Frank.

March 24, 2020: “It felt like a significant but timely shift in advice from the government last night with their effective lockdown. I seem to literally be in back to back “Teams video calls”.

“It is proving an absolutely brilliant system and I gather for the first time we had over 2,000 people across Knight Frank online and working remotely yesterday. That is quite extraordinary.”

March 27, 2020: “Well we reached the end of our first full week in home working mode. I am immensely heartened that not only are we getting through this but when we look back in better times, we will know we did the right thing and we did our best.

“To my heroes of this extraordinary week…our Property Asset Management business. The pressure surrounding the collection of rents and managing the most stressful landlord and tenant relationship any one has ever experienced, makes every one of you truly outstanding in my book.”

June 5, 2020: “My personal starting point…my ground zero…George Floyd is and must continue to be, the subject of our most important family conversations…about real life. My children are fully aware, I am fully aware. The footage is so disturbing. The message is so clear.

“Real change takes time, but this needs fast tracking and it needs to be permanent and we will collectively be the judge of our actions.”

November 13, 2020: “The light ahead is brighter, nearer and clearer. Markets have soared on news of a potentially effective vaccine being widely available soon, possibly even next month. The way ahead looks more assured.

“There is a quote which I really like which is along the lines of `there are decades when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen’. It’s rather extraordinary that we are absolutely in the midst of one of those rare stages in history.”

December 18, 2020: “The vaccine rollout has now started, and most economic commentators are talking about a powerful economic recovery next year. As a firm we are well ahead of where we thought we would be, with both residential and commercial performing well.”

February 26, 2021: “On Monday of this week, Boris laid out the national roadmap to recovery…at last we can see the final stages of our journey.”

Having made dedicated training and development resources available – often with an emphasis on mental health and wellbeing – we are hoping for the best of all worlds when we return in numbers to 55 Baker Street.

And as we head back to normality we are looking to grow in particular in data centres, capital advisory and corporate transactions, public sector consultancy, ESG and Energy and planning.

Being a partnership – and as we celebrate our 125th anniversary next month – will only reinforce that feelgood factor when we are back together again after the most remarkable 12 months of our lives.