Technology plays a key role in creating seamless, modern experiences for occupants. By unifying systems and investing in cloud-based technology, businesses can create experiences that are more efficient at both the property management level and the user level.
First off, this seems to be what many workers want. Back during the height of the pandemic, many surveys came out polling employees on how they actually preferred to work. While there were some differences in the results, the overall picture that emerged was clear. People missed the office, but not every day -- and particularly not on Mondays and Fridays.
We are not going back to our pre-2020 norms, and now we have to focus on adapting to these changes.
Understandably, organizations are focused on the dollars and cents of real estate, given the current macroeconomic climate. But when measuring the ROI of a workplace, employee experience is an integral part of success.
To be successful going forward, organizations must rethink work processes and reposition the workplace as a destination that enhances how people work, enables them to reconnect, rebuild social capital and benefit from being together.
Office vacancy rates in America are at 18%, a figure last seen during the savings and loan crisis in the 1990s.
The workplace does not have to be synonymous with an office. The office is simply a vessel for working.
Office districts in nearly every U.S. city have been under great stress since the pandemic emptied workplaces and made working from home common. But in recent months, the crisis has entered a tense phase that could damage local economies and cause financial hits to real estate investors and scores of banks.
Robbins says his team coined the phrase “what’s your return on commute?”—a worthy question in a congested city like Atlanta. While there are not Cisco-wide mandates for employees to be in office, individual teams set guidelines for days teams are expected to work onsite together, Robbins says. “Seventy-plus percent of our first-line managers have at least one remote employee already,” he says. “It’s not as black and white or as cut and dry” as other companies. “We’re trying to be a little more flexible.”
One interesting development with the remote work movement is the impact on corporate office space in large cities and municipalities and the tax breaks they get to occupy high traffic space. With less traffic and reduced revenue from commuters, it will be interesting how these local governments tackle tax breaks for employers whose spaces are not occupied. Another initiative created in New Jersey during the pandemic, the Emerge Program, hints at what future incentives might look: Rather than commit to a certain percentage of time spent in office, applicants have to prove that 80% of eligible employees’ work time is spent in the state — and that they have enough space to accommodate at least half of their workforce on site, “without packing people in like a sardine can,” Sullivan said.
