It’s more than three years removed from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and those prognosticating the death of the office have proven false, although that does not mean the workplace landscape isn’t different than it was in early spring 2020.
“There is no one-size-fits-all (approach to the office) more so now than any other time in history, likely,” said David Pudlosky, managing director of JLL’s Milwaukee office.
Industry experts and office users who spoke with BizTimes had a similar refrain. Organizations are making decisions about their offices based on individual interests and needs, not based on some sweeping “next big thing.”
“You shouldn’t jump on the ‘trend’ bandwagon, you should do what’s best for business and what’s best for the culture or the future culture we (the office user) are trying to evolve to for our organization,” said Heather Turner Loth, business development practice leader with Milwaukee-based architecture and design firm Eppstein Uhen Architects.
“The office environment is not going away,” said Pudlosky, whose job it is to help tenants find and secure office space. “There will be a different version of it, but it’s not going away.”
Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin and Metropolitan Chicago took significant steps in recent years when it shifted from predominantly in-office to hybrid work policies for its office employees.
The organization moved out of and later sold its former headquarters building in Greendale, establishing a new headquarters operation at its James O. Wright Center for Work & Training in Milwaukee. It houses some departments at the Summit Place office complex in West Allis and has hoteling space at its retail operations center in Sturtevant and community access center in Waukesha, where employees can come in and occupy open, unassigned workstations.
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Goodwill’s shift to hybrid started out of necessity during the pandemic, said Skip Dexter, chief operating officer. He clarified the hybrid policy applies to only about 5% of Goodwill’s workforce, as many others in retail and operations work on-site daily due to the nature of their roles. Those who work hybrid include support staff, such as IT.
The American Heart Association’s Wisconsin chapter recently relocated from Schlitz Park to The Avenue in downtown Milwaukee. The decision was not due to the pandemic, but because its existing lease expired, which provided the group an opportunity to reimagine its workplace, said Katie Connolly, executive director of AHA Wisconsin. Like Goodwill, AHA Wisconsin also has a hybrid approach.
The organization’s new offices at The Avenue are drastically different than its old space.
AHA Wisconsin shrank its office square footage by approximately one third. But the new space comes with windows, new furniture, upgraded technology and a new layout designed for collaboration rather than a standard cubicle farm. Upgraded technology in the conference rooms makes it easier to conduct virtual one-on-ones or have teams gather in the same room for national AHA calls. A work cafe has tables where people can work or gather.
“My team is there every Tuesday, and that’s when we do team meetings and people get that opportunity to collaborate, work one-on-one and then certainly come and go as they need to be in there,” Connolly said. Her team consists of 11 people, though AHA Wisconsin has additional employees using the office who are part of different groups.
Like AHA Wisconsin, many users are dedicating more space for collaboration, said EUA’s Turner Loth. She challenges clients whose workforce is at least partly remote or hybrid to think about workers’ individual needs. Some users still opt for an assigned desk for every employee out of an abundance of caution because they are not sure what the correct course of action is for their work environment.
“You’ve got to look at the way in which people work,” she said. “If you have a hybrid population, what are they doing then when they come to the office? And if it’s for a collaboration, do they truly need a desk or do they need a place to touch down and plug in their technology? That could be in the form of a work cafe, maybe it’s departmentalized on a floor, and you have a zone … and that’s your touch-down space as a hybrid employee versus someone who comes in every day.”
For companies like Goodwill, a flexible work arrangement is an asset for organizations wishing to be nimble and remain competitive.
“Whereas historically our offices had dedicated spaces for the individual, now they have dedicated spaces for teams,” Dexter said. “I think being flexible as an employer is important, and a flexible work environment helps keep you competitive.”
Pudlosky said companies are flocking to higher-end, amenity-rich “Class A” office buildings to entice employees back into the office as well as recruit new talent. This is true for both the suburban and downtown markets. Landlords of older, “Class B” office properties are pouring millions into upgrades and new amenities. He pointed to the Chase Tower in downtown Milwaukee as an example.
“The flight to quality is a very real thing right now, where the decision makers are upgrading their real estate in an attempt to drive people back to the office,” he said. “I think the proactive, well-capitalized landlords are putting investments into their real estate. … If (the landlords) believe the corporate office space is dead, then why are they doing that?”
Turner Loth said clients are asking her firm to add all sorts of amenities to their offices. However, employers can’t rely on amenities alone to create employee buy-in for a return to the office.
“If you don’t have policies in place, or strong leadership at the top saying, ‘This is what we expect,’ amenities are not necessarily going to draw those employees in. It’s the policies, and then the amenities help support the activities once they get there,” she said.
With myriad workplace policies now in place following the COVID-19 pandemic, industry experts see a rather simple explanation behind what some may view as arbitrary, random decision making. Company leaders are not following what they see as trendy, but crafting policies based on what’s best for their organization. Some major local companies, like Milwaukee Tool, are expanding their office footprint while others are opting for a hybrid or remote approach.
Turner Loth sees a pattern among those organizations who are doubling down on their office footprints.
“For those companies that have to innovate and stay ahead of competition, I do see more of an uptick in bringing their employees back,” she said. “It’s a way of face-to-face interactions with employees, trust building and teamwork.”
