Less is More: How Do We Get People Back in the Office?

The Pandemic Transforms Behavior, Work and The Need for Office Space.

March 2020 created the largest experiment in how people live, work, and shop in well over a hundred years globally. Within three months, virtually all the major metropolitan areas and big cities globally shut down, forcing businesses and workers to reevaluate their lifestyle, work relationship, community, and where they live. Remote work that became mandatory changed how people thought about their lifestyle. It forced a behavioral change supported by technology that never happened on such a global scale before. And we’re not going back.

Now People Can Work Anywhere.

We adapted, connecting with teams meant firing up Zoom, Microsoft meetings, or Google Meet to get things done. This new reality had far-reaching effects. This has had a major impact on the demand for office space with some central business districts looking at 30% to 40% of their current office space going empty as businesses consolidated their space or gave up an office altogether.

When working from home becomes the norm three days a week you just don’t need all that office space.

Why commute and spend up to 10 hours a week just getting to the job? Zoom meetings also created payoffs for companies, enabling them to expand opportunities to use more distant talent in other regions or countries.

A Focus on Efficiency and Productivity Wherever You Work.

As business owners face a major shift in who works remotely and how they can keep their company together, a whole new world of work has evolved and for the most part is here to stay. Businesses do not need individual worker cubicles and private offices at the scale or size needed before, allowing them to repurpose or sublease unneeded space or move to a smaller office work environment. With their work teams coming in from 3 to 4 days a week why have all this space? But now a new problem: what kind of offices do companies need? How people work should be accommodated by a new kind of office but what will this be?

Even Google is trying to reinvent office spaces to cope with workplace sensibilities changed by the pandemic.

Office building owners now face increased vacancy rates as leases expire and businesses look to downsize to smaller offices as more people work remotely. Rents are dropping. With a permanent 20 to 30% drop in demand, what can office building owners do to meet changing market needs?

The Flight to Quality and Flexibility.

Businesses now recognize that to attract employees back into the office they have to create work environments that are desirable to work and interact within. This includes both the building location and the building amenities. Offices with Zoom-ready conference rooms, flexible work environments, collaboration areas, and other amenities create a new work experience for employees. For example, companies like Square and Dropbox have recently downsized to smaller, more stylish offices with features like wellness rooms, communal spaces, and high-end furnishings to create a more comfortable and inspiring workspace where collaboration and team connections build loyalty and foster effective and productive workflows.

Branding and Marketing The New Office – A Prebuilt, and Adaptable Environment.

This new work world will be much more flexible and inclusive of different uses. Landlords will be more actively focused on how to keep their tenants, employers will want their people engaged and happy, and workers will make the choices that give them the quality of life they want.

Landlords Need to Market A Work-Lifestyle Environment, Not Office Space Square Footage

This is a dramatic lifestyle shift. If anything, it will accelerate, forcing changes in space uses and amenities such as fitness centers within the building for all the tenants, large shared meeting areas, a rooftop bar, small retail, and other desired experiences that make being downtown worth it three to four days a week.

Now that Work is Everywhere Offices and Urban Centers Need to Compete for People.

Shifting how we view work and mixing the experiences will ultimately pay off for everyone in flexible models like WeWork and pre-built office environments that are adapted to tenant needs. Marketing this new office environment to businesses and recognizing these employee lifestyle behavioral changes is the key. Transforming the commercial office market, which has not adapted to anything new in years is going to happen rapidly, whether building owners recognize it or not.