State government lifts 'work from home' guidelines but workers keep moving to the countryside

With COVID-19 cases falling after last month's Omicron peak, Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said the time was right to scrap the recommendation and encourage more workers to return to the office.

However, with the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in many Melburnians relocating to regional Victoria for a better lifestyle during lockdowns, it seems there will still be a lot of empty office space back in the big smoke.

Matt Leonard, a director at Bendigo real estate business Tweed Sutherland, said the working landscape had now changed forever.

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"People have been working from home for the last two-plus years and in a lot of cases their work is as productive and in some cases more productive than it was in the office because they have been able to achieve that work/life balance," he said.

"They can start the day earlier, drop the kids off to school and be home in time for a meeting."

Mr Leonard said in a time of low unemployment, employers had to offer more flexible options to retain staff.

"What we are seeing is the lowest unemployment rate in the last 50 years," he said.

"It is so difficult to find good staff in so many industries.

"Employers are screaming out for good staff and they don't want to lose good staff."

Mr Leonard said the idea of metropolitan residents moving to regional areas to live while still working in the city was "not even on the radar before COVID".

"Now they're saying I can live in Ballarat, Bendigo or Geelong and commute one day a week to Melbourne," he said.

Mr Leonard said during the pandemic, Tweed Sutherland had sold - and was still selling - many properties to people from metropolitan areas.

"These are people who are moving to the region while retaining their jobs in Melbourne and I believe that is going to continue," he said.

And there were no signs of any of those people wanting to head back down the Calder Highway and into an office.

"I couldn't give you one example of anyone considering moving back to Melbourne," Mr Leonard said.

"We have all the amenities here in Bendigo and there is no way people could have the equivalent house they have here in Melbourne because they would be outpriced."

Mr Leonard said while some industries needed staff back at the work site, in many other industries it didn't matter whether the worker was in the office or at home.

He described the issue of affordability while retaining staff as a win-win situation for both employer and employee.

"Employers who have leased a large commercial space in Melbourne may now only need half that space which lowers their overheads," Mr Leonard said.

"It's great that restrictions have lifted but with so many lifestyle changes and agreements now in place, it's not going to have a dramatic impact for those who have already moved here and those considering a move here.

"It's still going on because employers are now more open to flexible arrangements."

Tree-changers - or VESPAs (Virus Escapees Seeking Provincial Australia) as they are known in real estate circles - had a mixed connection to Bendigo, whether it be they have a relative in the city, grew up in the region then moved to Melbourne or simply thought central Victoria would be a nice place to live.

"A good portion of buyers have moved here for the first time," Mr Leonard said.

In terms of reinvigorating the Bendigo CBD, Be.Bendigo chief executive Rob Herbert said the state government's decision was hard to quantify.

Mr Herbert said removing the 'work from home' recommendation would help in encouraging people back to the office.

"It all helps vibrancy around the CBD (the return of office workers) ... but the broader discussion would be about flexible work options and how working habits have changed," he said.

"The vast majority of people would be looking for that office interaction which has been absent the past two or three years, but it may be only two or three days a week in the office for those roles and professions that allow that to occur."

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Asking employees to work in the office provided a real challenge for employers in recruiting staff if other jobs allowed flexibility, Mr Herbert said.

"They don't want to leave themselves exposed to having staff look at other opportunities," he said.

It seems this latest state government move won't have any major impact at the City of Greater Bendigo offices.

Council's office-based staff started returning in March this year under flexible working arrangements, with the expectation that full-time staff spend the majority of their working week in the office.

Part-time staff are required to spend 50 per cent of their working week in the office.

City chief executive Craig Niemann said staff continued to attend the workplace throughout the pandemic due to their status as essential workers.

"The city believes it led the way on ensuring office-based staff made a timely return to the workplace," Mr Niemann said.

"However, we acknowledge the pandemic has changed the nature of work, particularly for office-based staff, and flexible working arrangements will be a feature of workplaces into the future."

With Bendigo Health considered a high-risk setting, office staff are still encouraged to work from home when they can.

During the peak periods of COVID-19 transmission in July and August, people worked from home when it was practical to do so.

Ms Thomas said the 'work from home' recommendations were in place to help reduce transmission and protect our health system when it was under significant pressure during winter.

"The advice from the Department of Health is that this pressure and transmission risk has reduced," she said.

"Employers and staff may still consider remote working arrangements that are most appropriate for their workplace and employees based on individual requirements."

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