For years employees in the Commercial Real Estate Industry have served as a trusted partner for their clients as their clients seek the perfect office space for their business. For months in 2020, this same passion and effort for assisting clients wasn’t stopped. Instead, it adapted to a new way of working – virtual.
In the short-term, working from home and meeting online has proven to be the right solution in a time of crisis. But to maintain the level of hands-on and in-person care that the CRE industry is known for, it cannot be the permanent option.
As employers continue to monitor and look for answers on the “right” way to bring their valued employees back into the workplace, one thing is coming across clearly – there is no “one size fits all” solution.
To gain a better understanding and help inform on the matter, we surveyed over 300 respondents across the commercial real estate industry (results below). We also surveyed 800 respondents across 12 different industries -those results are available here– to give insights on what businesses are focusing on in preparation for returning their teams to work.
What we found was that while many would believe the response between an occupier and landlord to be different, their concerns and methods for making business changes to bring teams back into the physical workplace were similar.
While reading the results of the two surveys, you’ll notice that as everyone hopes to return “back to normal” as soon as possible, there’s still a great deal of concern around properly ensuring the health and safety of employees. Commercial Real Estate is looking into ways the physical space can be enhanced to support a healthy workplace such as social distancing, space utilization sensor technology, barriers, dividers, and much more.
One thing that is certain: businesses must remain flexible in their planning while diligent with their solutions before bringing everyone back to work.
We hope that these results will inform and encourage you with your ongoing workplace re-entry strategy.
