San Francisco, CA – The vast majority of employers want people back together at work once the coronavirus pandemic is brought under control. Will employees who’ve become used to a remote workplace comply?
CityLeaf in the San Francisco Bay Area is among the authors of a new 2021 white paper released today by the nationwide Silverado Roundtable, The Nature of the Post-Pandemic Workplace, advises U.S. employers to embrace workplace design focused on creating a collaborative culture to remain competitive and retain its top talent.
“The office will still play a strategic place in how companies build their businesses post pandemic,” said Jeff Fitterman, General Manager of CityLeaf.
Key findings from The Nature of the Post-Pandemic Workplace:
- Just one in five remote workers said they wanted to go back to an office full-time.
- One-third of office workers say the design of an office would affect their decision to accept a job offer.
- Top items desired in office space by employees: Natural light, live indoor plants, and quiet working space.
- Healthy workplaces are no longer negotiable. Access to fresh air, natural light, adequate personal space, and cleanliness affect the perception of safety.
- Creating a nature-based environment with plants and natural materials is essential to post-pandemic business survival.
- One month of workplace greenery maintenance costs less than buying lunch for employees once a month
According to the World Health Organization, 19% of factors affecting our health and wellbeing are directly related to the built environment, making architects and designers key to protecting public health.
Design professionals in San Francisco Bay Area have a once in a lifetime opportunity to advance current thinking about the optimal work environment. The Silverado Roundtable, composed of America’s top workplace greenery design and installation experts, examines these economic and design challenges, and explores the human behavior and response behind the issues in their white paper based on recently post-COVID-19 survey data and expert interviews.
It offers answers architects, interior designers, and human resources leaders can incorporate and implement to give their clients the ability to productively and profitably use their commercial space and push back the pandemic threat to their
livelihoods.
As valued talent returns, they will demand surroundings serving their needs at least as well as their home workspaces do. They want assurances they will be safe.
Competition will emerge for these top employees as unemployment rates rebound. Employers will need to make the case in large part through the working environment they create.
“We believe the disruption that COVID caused to the office is temporary; looking at recent surveys in national publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the overwhelming majority of CEOs see the office as a strategic place to collaborate with colleagues, talk strategy, and align among other reasons and plan on bringing back employees at some point and to some degree in 2021,” said Fitterman.
Workplaces built to maximize space efficiency are no longer desirable. The reconsidered workplace will foster collaboration and communication in environments with a focus on creativity and inspiration in a healthier way. Companies must cultivate their culture, creating a place where people want to gather and work together to contribute to a greater purpose.
For more information and interviews, contact:
Jeff Fitterman, General Manager, CityLeaf, Inc.
Office: 510-655-2062, [email protected]
Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, APR, Fellow PRSA, Falcon Valley Group – 619-997-2495 or [email protected]
