Some bosses want their employees to come back to the office more after working from home during the pandemic. Some employees prefer their home offices and being home with kids, family and pets than office chairs, cubicles and long commutes.
Employers and workers are sometimes battling over return to work policies after remote work allowed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Some bosses want their employees to come back to the office more after working from home during the pandemic. Some employees prefer their home offices and being home with kids, family and pets than office chairs, cubicles and long commutes.
Employers and workers are sometimes battling over return to work policies after remote work allowed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Jeanine Jerkovic said employers have always chased skilled workers and labor pools. It’s just now in the pandemic-impacted world those pursuits are taking businesses away from expensive downtowns and congested urban centers.
The work-at-home wave that boomed during pandemic’s social distancing and shutdown orders continues to impact workplaces across the country despite some employers efforts to reverse the tide.
The remote work trend also continues to impact companies’ economic development decisions offering suburban bedroom communities, small towns and rural regions more opportunities to land jobs and business investments in a changed workplace landscape.
“Businesses have always gone where they can find talent, and the remote work trend has given a higher degree of clarity to this for suburban communities,” said Jerkovic , economic development director for the city of Surprise, a suburb of Phoenix about 50 minutes from Sky Harbor International Airport.
She said professional, creative and other office workers are reticent to go back to office parks and towers — especially in congested big cities.
“There is reason to believe that the primary roadblock to a more meaningful return to the office for many is a long commute,” said Jerkovic, a veteran economic development executive. “The high-rise urban office jobs that were previously tied to lengthy commutes from the suburbs are most likely to remain remote or at least hybrid; for example, computer engineering, financial services, and data technician and analytics-type jobs tied to desks.”
One-third of U.S. employers increased telework and remote work options for employers during the pandemic, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That benefitted office and professional workers who could meet via Zoom and connect through online chats while their blue-collar and service counterparts either saw lost jobs and hours or were required to come into their frontline workplaces.
Sharon Beaudry, a business management professor with the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls and a longtime human resources executive, said the pandemic forced managers’ reluctant hands on telework — and proved to workers that is a viable, longer-time options.
“During my prior HR experience in implementing remote work policies, it was always the management that pushed back. They had a hard time understanding how they could manage employees that were ‘out-of-sight’, said Sharon Beaudry “The pandemic was a major game-changer that opened everyone’s eyes regarding the possibility of remote work. It proved that employees can be productive in all sorts of positions when working from home.”
Some employers continue to allow wide swaths of employees to work at home while others are looking for more at smaller office footprints in the suburbs and smaller markets. Others employers and bosses are pushing for workers to return to the office — or at least come into the office two or three times a week.
Beaudry, herself is moving to a remote faculty position in the fall and said one-third of Oregon Tech’s students are fully online.
She said the pandemic prompted employers to reexamine their overhead costs — including real estate footprints. “Many employers who decided to opt for a smaller office, reimagined the workspace,” she said. That includes investment in technology and equipment for remote work and creating more collaborating and flexible workspaces rather than 9 to 5 cubicles and desks.
Beaudry said workers are pushing back hard against employers who are looking for rigid returns to pre-pandemic workplace policies. Many have grown fond of working at home with kids and pets and in elder care situations. That resistance is magnified by high gas prices and high costs for auto repairs and other costs of commuting.
Bosses that push too hard to get employees back in the office run the risk of losing key workers an already tough labor market. “In order to attract and retain talent, employers are having to consider remote work in order to be competitive,” Beaudry said. “The traditional nine-to-five model seems to be a downward trend.”
Conversely, some employers are looking to inflation and the current economic situation as propelling more workers back into more traditional workforce modes.
Remote work can also help employers in smaller and more outlying markets recruit and retain workers, according to Chris Kaselemis, economic development for St. Mary’s County in southern Maryland — more than two hours from Washington D.C and Baltimore.
“Remote work is allowing our existing companies to recruit employees from other area who are not interested in relocating to St. Mary’s. This is an advantage in a tight labor market,” said Kaselemis.
There were 11.2 million jobs openings in the U.S. in May as employers struggle to fill jobs, according to the BLS. That includes 1.1 million in retail, 2 million in professional services and more than 1 million in government jobs. But the number of opening improved from April data when there were 11.7 million job openings nationwide
Kaselemis said remote operations and work-from-home policies can broaden the talent pool for employers challenged by recruitment and retention. “Really any company that has work that can be performed remotely will benefit in terms of having a larger pool of workers to employ,” he said.
The key for suburbs and outlying areas is to be able to grow their workforce and talent bases.
Contemporary and pandemic migration trends have also seen some entrepreneurs, professionals, including creative and technology workers, as well as companies exit higher cost markets such as New York, Chicago and California for lower tax and less expensive states such as Florida, Texas, Idaho, Arizona and Nevada. Civil unrest, increased crime and homelessness have also propelled some migrations out of expensive coastal cities such as San Francisco, Seattle and Philadelphia.
Jerkovic said the pandemic trend lines are prompting economic development groups to shift their focus from real estate focused, business site selections to fostering and retaining skilled and creative workers in order to build tax and economic bases.
“We’re now working to incentivize the local workforce to attain certifications – which we know will appeal to the best companies. The ideas behind creative class theory, which emphasizes the importance of talent as a local economic driver, are very much what’s motivating our community and many others like us,” Jerkovic said. “We’re betting that if we can retain and attract the talent – many of which already comprise the white-collar remote or hybrid workforce – we can build upon this foundation to bring more retail, health care, infrastructure, and overall more community amenities, such as parks, pools, and libraries.”
The future of remote work and workers preference for at-home and flexible arrangements is playing out across a number of industries — including the U.S. defense industry.
The sector is fueled by the Pentagon’s $750 billion annual budget and is a key economic driver across the country — including states such as Florida, Arizona, California, Texas, Maryland and Virginia.
“Businesses that have work that can be performed off-site from a computer are benefitting the most from this (work-at-home) trend. Many of our defense contractors are in this situation,” said Kaselemis, whose region is home a Patuxent Naval Air Station and a number of defenses firms and is stone’s throw from the Pentagon and D.C..
“Some contractors, however, have fabrication and advanced manufacturing operations that must be performed on site,” he said
That is creating some challenges with manufacturing and production workers needing to be on-site while office and professional workers prefer to work at home.
Charlotte-based Honeywell International, which has major operations in Florida, Arizona, Puerto Rico and Minnesota, is requiring many workers who had been working at home to return to work up to two days per week. That hybrid model is being adopted by a number of other employers, both Kaselemis and Beaudry said
In a statement, a Honeywell spokesperson said the hybrid model looks to “meet personal obligations while balancing business needs.”
Honeywell, which also manufacturers thermostats and aerospace components in addition to weapons systems, is also among the companies offering job sharing and part-time arrangements for some workers.
Still, that is not stopping other defense firms from trying to poach employees dangling full-time remote work options to prospects.
A number of other companies declined or did not respond to request for comment — including some defense firms that compete with Honeywell for talent.
Jerkovic said the work-at-home trend also appeals to so-called gig workers — which includes creatives, techies and entrepreneurs — who might not be keen on traditional workplace and hours and those dreaded commutes into big urban cores.
She said suburbs and other less traditional locations would be wise to foster those innovative and creative communities.
“The other lasting remote-work category is the gig economy worker, which was really important over the last few years and inspired a high degree of small business and entrepreneurship starts,” Jerkovic said. “We have always prioritized the fostering of innovation in our local community, but the last few years have really affirmed just how important it is to support our small businesses and entrepreneurs.”
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