Wooing people back to the office.
Landlords need to do everything in their power to attract workers back into the office as soon as government regulation permits. A failure to do so could have a significant impact on demand for commercial office space.
At this point it looks like there will be an irreversible shift in employees’ attitude to going back to the office five days a week, and there are enough supportive employers to back their employees wishes. The question is less if and more how much of an impact it will have on medium-term demand for office space, because we can be sure that if space is not being used employers will not want to keep paying for it.
Propensity to return fulltime to the office is governed by wide range of factors, including industry type, the socio-demographic profile of employees and the position management adopts regarding work from home and decentralised teams. These factors are outside the control of the landlords.
Landlords need to deeply understand what is likely to happen. The below repeats some of the self-reassuring comments I have heard from landlord employees – none of which are indisputable truths.
“People are social and most will want interaction with their teams and managers” - but many have realised it is possible to get the work done remotely and enjoy the benefit of improved family connection and recreation.
“Many employees do not have suitable spaces in the homes to sustain remote working” – but many do, and more than ever as spaces have been converted into home offices.
“The pandemic has been very disruptive, and people are keen to get back to normal” – but what is normal? Establishing a ‘new normal’ takes on average 66 days and many are finding they can be very productive under these arrangements without the daily time and cost load of dressing up, commuting and buying lunch.
The above statements are passive, expressing hopeful belief. So what active steps can asset owners take to reassert their value proposition?
Wooing workers back to the office needs to be done in three stages
Working with employers to develop disease management protocols that will give comfort to the majority of employees to come back to work over the coming months.
Reward employees that do come back with initiatives and programming that cannot be replicated in the home environment.
Create truly compelling precincts that support employees’ well-being and productivity
Landlords and their advisors need to take a much more proactive approach to positioning.
