Page 11 - aruba-today-20220307

A11
BUSINESS Monday 7 March 2022
New offices for the hybrid era? Many companies are on board

By JOSH FUNK The roughly 100 headquar-
AP Business Writer ter workers at shoe and
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — If you apparel company Merrell
build a shiny new office moved into a new office in
building, will your employ- Rockford, Michigan, in Jan-
ees show up to work in it? uary. The project was in the
Many U.S. companies are works before the pandem-
banking on it because they ic began, but CEO Chris
believe working in person Hufnagel said the compa-
is better for collaboration ny reworked the plan after
and training young em- it became clear that many
ployees. So even though employees would still work
most employees are still from home, at least part
working from home offices of the time. Hufnagel said
and dining room tables he believes the office will
today, some companies be the “epicenter” for the
are willing to spend big on company’s work.
showplace headquarters. “I think everyone realizes
Businesses recognize there that there are parts of our
is a place for offices de- jobs that we do better
spite the fact that they when we are together,”
plan to give workers more Hufnagel said.
flexibility to work from home And then there are com-
and might see cost savings Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, left, and Mutual of Omaha CEO James Blackledge announce plans panies that plan to largely
from limiting their real es- for a new Mutual of Omaha headquarters skyscraper on the site of the current downtown library, do away with their offices
Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022.
tate holdings. Associated Press in favor of remote work. But
In a sign of how committed even those firms may keep
companies are to keeping “The only way that works is monitored by Kastle Sys- needs 60 desks for every a small office presence.
offices, some 57% of the by embracing remote and tems, which tracks building 100 employees because Intradiem CEO Matt Mc-
more than 2,300 office proj- hybrid work,” he said. access-card swipes. That they will be shared. But Connell said the software
ects that giant architecture The number of people number has been creep- he remains committed company had its most prof-
firm Gensler is now working working remotely is clearly ing up since early January to a new headquarters itable year ever in 2021 and
on were started last year, growing because so many when it fell as low as 23% for 12,000 to 14,000 of the didn’t miss a beat while its
in the middle of the pan- companies learned they during the omicron surge. bank’s employees be- 150 employees and 75 con-
demic. But as they’re build- could do it during the pan- Mutual of Omaha CEO cause many tasks will still tractors were all working re-
ing, companies are tweak- demic. The Society for Hu- James Blackledge said need to be done in person. motely. After checking with
ing designs to reflect that man Resource Manage- bringing people together Deluxe, the company once employees, the company
offices may become spots ment estimates the number in an office at least peri- known primarily for printing shifted to a remote-first
that workers visit primarily to of totally remote U.S. work- odically will boost produc- checks that now processes plan and will let its current
collaborate with others, in- ers will double to roughly tivity and creativity, and nearly $3 trillion in payments headquarters lease expire
stead of places where they 36 million people by 2025. having a gleaming new a year, invested $12.2 mil- at the end of 2022.
toil all day, every day. But the CEO of that trade $433 million office should lion during the pandemic in “It’s just this big, empty
Jordan Goldstein, the co- group, Johnny C. Taylor Jr., help the company attract a new 94,000-square-foot space that no one is using.
firm managing principal at said that will still only ac- new talent. Plus, the new Minneapolis headquarters It doesn’t make any sense
Gensler, said companies count for a little over 20% headquarters will likely be that opened last fall. When to maintain that,” McCon-
are placing a premium of the workforce. The other smaller overall than Mu- they return on a more regu- nell said.
on having more meeting nearly 80% will work in an tual’s current headquarters lar basis later this month, But Intradiem, which is
rooms with the technol- office at least part of the complex, but the exact size employees will be expect- based in Alpharetta, Geor-
ogy to accommodate re- time. Another survey done will be determined later in ed to be there more often gia, will likely still maintain a
mote and in-person par- last year by CBRE Group, the design process. than they work from home. smaller headquarters with
ticipants, as well as more the world’s largest com- Elsewhere, two high profile But the new headquarters space for its IT workers to
flexible space for people mercial real estate ser- projects already underway is less than one-third the put together equipment to
to choose where they work vices and investment firm, are Walmart’s new head- size of Deluxe’s old one. send out to home-based
within the office. showed that 87% of large quarters being built in Ben- The company cut its overall workers, and the company
Mutual of Omaha plans to companies planned to use tonville, Arkansas, and the real estate footprint in half will encourage teams to
build a glassy new head- a hybrid schedule after the new New York City home nationwide to better reflect occasionally get together
quarters in its namesake pandemic, with workers in for bank JP Morgan Chase. its current needs with more in person. They may also
Nebraska city that could the office part of the time. Walmart said it was over- people working remotely. rent some space at shared
wind up as Omaha’s tallest And separate worker due for a new headquar- “There are very, very few offices run by WeWork
building. surveys that SHRM and ters regardless of the pan- jobs that are just individual for employees across the
But the insurance compa- Gensler conducted last fall demic because it is cur- contributor jobs with little country to use.
ny says the plans for its new both showed that more rently spending tens of mil- or no interaction required Modular flooring manufac-
building reflect its com- than half of workers want- lions of dollars every year from others,” he said. turer Interface just opened
mitment to flexible work. ed to be back in the office to maintain an outdated McCarthy, like many CEOs, a new headquarters in
The company has 4,000 at least one day a week. patchwork of more than says he believes office work 2018, but the pandemic
employees in the Omaha But so far businesses have 20 offices in northwest Ar- is better for training and prompted the company to
metro area but is planning been slow to bring em- kansas for its administrative mentoring younger em- spend $400,000 remodeling
a building that can only ployees back. An average and support staff. ployees because they can the building and investing
accommodate between of 36.8% of the workforce JP Morgan CEO Jamie Di- watch and interact with in new technology and fur-
2,200 and 2,500 people was back in offices during mon has said that the rise their coworkers better and niture to adjust to workers
on any given day, Mutual the fourth week of Febru- of work-from-home might get more immediate feed- only being in the office part
spokesman Jim Nolan said. ary in 10 major U.S. cities mean the company only back on their work. of the time.q