Most Office Tenants Expect Some Long-Term Telework, Survey Finds
Most office tenants in a new survey say the work-from-home policies popularized in the pandemic may lead to more telework in coming years, with more than a third expecting to need less space.
Commercial real estate brokerage NAI Partners, based in Houston, surveyed a sample in the past month of 50 of its top office clients, including several energy firms. Most respondents, 57%, said that while they prefer employees in the office, they recognize they may be required to implement long-term telework policies. Another 38% said they plan to allow some employees to telework regardless of external factors. Only 4.7% said they don't plan long-term telework because their teams work better in person.
When it comes to short-term office footprint changes, about 35% of survey respondents said they may need less office space; 33% said they are maintaining their current footprints; and 14% said they plan to move soon. Only 7% are looking for a long-term lease any time soon and 9% are planning to expand, the survey found.
“While technology has helped all of us function better working from home, it’s still not the same,” said Dan Boyles, partner at NAI Partners and office tenant representative in Houston, in an interview with CoStar News. “A key takeaway is that organizations will be more flexible, so if you have an employee that has a long commute maybe they’re given an option to work two to three days from home but not the entire time.”
Some of that added flexibility may mean setting up satellite offices with smaller footprints. Facebook, for example, is establishing smaller office hubs in cities such as Denver, Dallas and Atlanta to augment remote work.
Even with expanded work-from-home policies, some tenants may choose to maintain their current footprints to allow for social distancing and spacious layouts, the brokerage said. For example, NAI Partners moved into a new office in September in the Galleria area with enough room to grow its headcount significantly. The brokerage is only using about 80% of the space, but that extra room is now useful as employees try to maintain their physical distance, Boyles said.
NAI Partners’ employees have been working out of their offices now for more than a week. In practice, Boyles said there is a sort of “social-distancing dance” in common areas like break rooms and conference rooms as people try to stay apart.
In NAI’s survey, which was conducted in mid May, about 53% of tenants said they plan to send workers back in phases to the office in the next several weeks and months if they have not already. It should be noted that NAI Partners has a business interest in the survey results because it would benefit from tenants leasing more space.
Nearly 66% of respondents said they don’t have a plan to adjust layouts, space out desks or make other physical changes to their offices to allow employees to adhere to social distancing. Only 14.6% said they would space employees’ cubicles further apart, another 14.6% said they plan to have fewer common areas for groups to congregate, and only 4% said they plan to do considerably less “open-office” style floor plans.
Some architects say they’re already seeing clients request updated designs for less density and social distancing. But Boyles notes that tenants with existing space probably aren’t ready for a wholesale redesign of their office layouts.
“In my mind, anything that happens it will continue to be gradual. The major trend that I think will occur will be a reverse of the densification we’ve been seeing for years,” Boyles said. “What will be top of mind, and this goes whether or not we’re still dealing with the pandemic, is recreating the best work environment for employees, having flexible work schedules and less commute requirements.”
In a separate recent national survey of office workers conducted on behalf of CBRE’s coworking subsidiary Hana Inc., about 56% of respondents wanted more flexibility to work remotely. About 99% of respondents said they see benefits of working from home such as saving money, no commute and gaining more control over their work schedules. About 33% said they valued in-person meetings and collaborations, and 38% valued random in-person interactions with colleagues.
“Employees are looking to the office as a place to meaningfully connect with colleagues, yet desire more flexible work benefits,” said Andrew Kupiec, CEO of Hana, in a statement. “To satisfy this demand, organizations should consider enabling flexible working schedules while continuing to offer an office environment for collaboration and meetings with colleagues.”
