Home vs. office: a look at back-to-work strategies

With over 153 million Americans receiving at least 1 vaccine dose, Fortune 500 companies are rolling out and touting their back-to-work strategies.

Spotify and Twitter have cemented “Work from Anywhere” policies while other tech behemoths like Apple and Amazon continue to gobble up office space and envision a more office-centric culture.

With conflicting approaches, it’s daunting for Colorado executives and decision makers to chart their path forward. What is the best strategy that accounts for safety, productivity, culture, retention and recruitment?

To help illustrate this conundrum, let’s meet Tom, Dick and Jane.

Tom

Tom is 24 and just landed his first job out of college. He’s eager to prove himself and chip away at his mountain of student loan debt, but onboarding and training have been challenging remotely.

It’s also difficult for Tom to focus in his tiny apartment with roommates bogging down the Wi-Fi. Tom is eager to return to the office for a sense of belonging and to find a mentor to guide his career. The occasional happy hour wouldn’t hurt either.

Dick

Dick is 53 and well established in his career. He has an ideal setup working from home with a dedicated office and ample outdoor space for answering emails while savoring his coffee al fresco. Life has never been better for Dick who waves adios to long commutes forever.

Jane

Jane is 36 and has 2 kids under the age of 4. Jane’s husband stays home with the kids, which makes Zoom meetings a little awkward with her little ones photobombing in the background. While Jane enjoys the extra family time, she craves a quiet space to work. She also misses adult interactions over impromptu Starbucks runs.

Now what?

Given that Tom, Dick and Jane face vastly different circumstances, what are business leaders to do to ensure everyone is happy?

The answer is simple: freedom and flexibility. Most agree that a degree of remote work is here to stay, but people also want to come to the office to collaborate, innovate, learn, and connect.

The most successful organizations will be those that create a unique workplace environment with perks that draw people back to the office via motivation, not mandates.

It’s imperative to listen and respect your employees’ unique situations if you want to avoid Tom, Dick and Jane jumping ship for the competition.

Cushwake 07 15 2019 111 Rob Bain Cropped Rob Bain is a Director at Cushman & Wakefield and has been advising countless clients on how to reimagine their office after the COVID-19 disruption. Whether a client requires a new workplace strategy, additional space for social distancing, or needs to rightsize due to employees working from home, Rob has successfully aligned their real estate with their business, financial, and operational objectives. Using propriety tools like Saltmine (a customized office space planning tool) and Experience per Square Foot (a data-driven approach to measuring and benchmarking employee experience), Rob helps his clients create an inspiring space that strengthens creativity, productivity, connection and innovation.

Economic lessons learned at halftime of this pandemic

I try not to write about the same topic in this column and, given my professional role as a professor and applied economist, I am committed to presenting in a non-partisan manner.

With this column I am breaking both rules by discussing some lessons learned or insights gained to this point in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unfortunately, the experience is not over as we move into the vaccine phase with the virus on a renewed rampage. It’s only halftime.

According to Google’s mobility trends, visitation to parks increased as much as 60% during the summer compared to prior periods. This desire for the outdoors was certainly noticeable in Colorado’s mountain communities last summer. The biggest decreases were travel to transit stations and workplaces–down 40%. This insight, combined with other research I’ve done in recent years, suggest parks, greenways, trails and open space are growing in importance to our perceived wellbeing.

The development of approved vaccines around the world in less than 10 months is phenomenal. Just like in war times, governments, working with the private sector and scientists, were able to impressively marshal and focus resources in order to innovate and problem-solve in the face of grave threats.

When the pandemic is over, the rate of death will be much lower than in 1918, although the total number may be comparable or greater in the U.S. This should remind us how much can be achieved in shortened time frames if we collectively have the will. Now we just need to diligently perform our individual duty to one another and get vaccinated.

As the new year began we were surpassing 80% of ICU bed capacity nationally, and 20% of hospitals were at more than 95% of capacity. I’m surprised it took so long to hit capacity during this once-in-a-century emergency. These numbers suggest there is a lot of capacity for crisis management in the system.

Based upon Colorado Gov. Jared Polis suggesting the need to possibly triple the number of ICU beds in Colorado after Thanksgiving and the scenes from around the world of temporary facilities being constructed in weeks, it’s apparent the biggest constraint to our health-care system is staffing. This triggers two thoughts.

First, as I’ve stated before, we need a medical staffing reserve similar to our military reserves. Second, if ICU space is that flexible, do we really need to spend well in excess of $1 million per new hospital bed during normal times to expand capacity?

Where are all the small business failures? This story has not been followed since the first COVID-19 wave. Anecdotally we know small businesses, especially in the restaurant and travel sectors, are hurting badly from substantial declines in tourism and workers not going to offices. But finding ongoing metrics like we see with unemployment statistics is difficult.

The number of small businesses closed (temporarily or permanently) improved before the second wave (from 44% to 29%) according to Economic Insights at Harvard University.

However, going into the pandemic, the average small business had cash less than one month’s worth of expenses, and one would assume they could not hold on this long. It will take a couple of years to know for sure, but if high-end “guestimates” by some national economists are close to accurate at a 20% permanent closure rate, 33,000 Colorado small businesses employing 207,000 people (6% of total private sector employment in the state) will be gone. Recovery could take three to five years.

The most important insight or lesson learned was about true leadership. Good leaders empathize, but do not pander to those they lead. Being revered is not leadership. They pursue important visions with clarity and motivate followers to move in the same direction. Good leaders remain open minded to minimize making poor decisions–humbly remembering that if they are the smartest person in the room then they are in the wrong room. When times are tough, they lead by example and console the anxiety we face while imploring us to be strong and move forward.

Ex-President Trump had many ardent supporters in his hand. Had he taken COVID-19 seriously, then he would have donned a mask and encouraged his loyalists to overcome their vanity for the sake of humanity. He would have demanded social distancing and not forced 50 governors to compete for critical supplies and equipment. In short, he would have established national purpose and both inspired and commanded compliance. Had he effectively led during our most trying time, I submit he would still be president despite his serious personality flaws.

Let’s see how we do under new leadership in the second half. Unfortunately, President Biden will not have the support of the least compliant.