Get Ahead of the “New Normal”

Much of 2020 has seen Corporate Real Estate and Facilities departments grappling with reopening strategies for their office locations, a determination on work from home policies, and a longer- term view of what their real estate portfolio will look like as the future unfolds. While the planning is taking place, some companies seem to be making decisions on relatively poor- quality data. And it is this data that will drive future decision making.

Personally, for my corporate real estate clients, I have been focused more on the employees themselves than the office environment to which they will be returning. The emphasis for me has been on the employees’ emotional and mental state and ensuring my clients have considered factors such as health, wellness, safety, hygiene, and reporting. After all, Covid-19 has not gone away and employees’ fears, both rational and irrational, will be evident. These must be addressed by employers as part of their company’s reopening strategy. It is important to keep in mind employees will be bringing their emotional, irrational, and confirmation-biased selves back into the workplace and they will need to be provided data-based truth in order to feel comfortable.

However, that is not to say we should overlook the metrics that companies will need when planning for the workplace in 2021 and beyond. Those metrics will be the fundamental drivers of strategy for occupancy planning, demand forecasting and consolidation opportunities.

In fact, if you are a CRE leader and you have not been benchmarking your existing and future space needs against your competition, or even against your own historic occupancy benchmarks, this is a good time to start. First, benchmarking will help you plan better within the context of your company culture and your company’s capacity for change. It is much easier to rely on the data from your peers as well as your own workplace than to use guidelines from brokerage firms which sometimes tend to be generic and perfunctory. While they offer general guidance, the strategy that actually works for your firm will be specific to your firm. There’s no one- size-fits-all approach. The companies with reopening plans that best align with their own particular business will be the most successful. And the more your data can validate your plan, the greater the chances to avoid obstacles and achieve your desired workplace goals.

Discovering How You Measure Up

This is the perfect time to get the house in order for what’s coming in 2021.

Much of 2020 has seen Corporate Real Estate and Facilities departments grappling with reopening strategies for their office locations, a determination on work from home policies, and a longer- term view of what their real estate portfolio will look like as the future unfolds. While the planning is taking place, some companies seem to be making decisions on relatively poor- quality data. And it is this data that will drive future decision making. 

Personally, for my corporate real estate clients, I have been focused more on the employees themselves than the office environment to which they will be returning. The emphasis for me has been on the employees’ emotional and mental state and ensuring my clients have considered factors such as health, wellness, safety, hygiene, and reporting. After all, Covid-19 has not gone away and employees’ fears, both rational and irrational, will be evident. These must be addressed by employers as part of their company’s reopening strategy. It is important to keep in mind employees will be bringing their emotional, irrational, and confirmation-biased selves back into the workplace and they will need to be provided data-based truth in order to feel comfortable.

However, that is not to say we should overlook the metrics that companies will need when planning for the workplace in 2021 and beyond. Those metrics will be the fundamental drivers of strategy for occupancy planning, demand forecasting and consolidation opportunities.

In fact, if you are a CRE leader and you have not been benchmarking your existing and future space needs against your competition, or even against your own historic occupancy benchmarks, this is a good time to start. First, benchmarking will help you plan better within the context of your company culture and your company’s capacity for change. It is much easier to rely on the data from your peers as well as your own workplace than to use guidelines from brokerage firms which sometimes tend to be generic and perfunctory. While they offer general guidance, the strategy that actually works for your firm will be specific to your firm. There’s no one- size-fits-all approach. The companies with reopening plans that best align with their own particular business will be the most successful. And the more your data can validate your plan, the greater the chances to avoid obstacles and achieve your desired workplace goals.

MAKING DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS IN A DEAL-DRIVEN INDUSTRY

I had the opportunity, soon after RefineRE acquired BenchCore in June, to speak with Ryan Turner, RefineRE’s founder and CEO. You may aware that both RefineRE and BenchCore are members of Verum Consulting’s OutsourceUSA network, so I applauded the move and thought the acquisition made perfect sense. And it makes even more sense now that both companies are focused on the post- Covid “new normal” for their clients.

Ryan told me he believes BenchCore’s flex-space strategy dashboards and work-from-home scenario builders will allow corporate real estate leaders to better plan for the workplace in 2021. “This is the perfect time to get the house in order for what’s coming in 2021. Companies are realizing that they will undergo a significant shift to remote working, and they can use multi-variable reports from benchmarking platforms like BenchCore to find cost saving opportunities.”

He continued, “Some of the metrics that can support that decision include: BenchCore’s Cost Driver Tree report which compares three variables across companies: Cost per FTE, Cost per SF or SM, and SF or SM per FTE. The report indicates not only which companies are efficient from a Cost per FTE perspective, but why – whether through lower space cost or better space utilization, or both.”

Returning to the Workplace

The nature of work within the four walls of an office building will look vastly different when we return.

So, after talking with Ryan, my question for all of you is in two parts. Given that just over half of Fortune 100 US companies are considering giving employees the option to work remotely, it is obvious that there will be an excess of space. It is also obvious that the nature of work within the four walls of an office building will look vastly different when we return. New normal indeed…everything from entering the office, to wayfinding, to maintenance will change.

So, Question 1: What is your company’s strategy to leverage technology, and data, to arrive at better, more accurate decisions that align with your business strategy and corporate culture?

And Question 2: What are your return to work plans? Are you prepared? Are you incorporating Benchmarking for success?

I believe anyone responsible for their company’s corporate real estate and facilities management needs to work through their own specific checklist of priorities. Back up the truth about your business with data that allows your plan to be interpretive and predictive, so your employees feel safe. Verum Consulting can help you with the former, and the newly minted combination of RefineRE and BenchCore can help you with the latter. Learn more about both firms and other members of the OutsourceUSA.com network at Verum’s OutsourceUSA website: www.outsourceUSA.com.

Vik Bangia is CEO and Founder of Verum Consulting, a Minneapolis-based Corporate Real Estate Strategy and Operations consulting practice.