Office building occupancy has declined to pre-September levels. Interviews with landlords and tenants suggest that compliance with public health guidance is the principal driver behind shutting down or slowing the pace of voluntary return and permitting access for essential workers.
SRRA’s research, however, has shown a change in approach by employers. Throughout the Fall, interviewees expressed an increasing desire for a return to work in the office. Adjusting to remote work has created an awareness that while some remote work could become permanent, determining how to arrive at a balance between personal choice and the value of in-office interaction and collaboration remains a critical human resource challenge. The resulting impact on employee density in office space and facilities planning is very much an open question.
New employee density metrics will initially focus on groups of employees with the greatest demonstrated need to return to the office. Employee densities will be measured in response to the functionality served rather than overall ratios of employees to the amount of leased space. Coordinating functionality through steps such as ensuring that specific teams are fully staffed will continue to be a work in progress.
Although COVID outbreaks have been linked to industrial workplaces and institutional care settings, we are not aware of any outbreaks associated with office-based environments. It is not known, however, whether this because office-based work represents a lower risk or if this is the result of effective risk management on the part of landlords and tenants to reduce or eliminate close physical contact.
As employers continue to heed public health guidance by delaying planned returns to working in-office, decision makers are focusing on specific actions and communications strategies regarding employee safety that can be implemented as soon as it is appropriate to do so. This mirrors steps being taken by the region’s major transit agencies the TTC and Metrolinx.
While announcements regarding potentially effective COVID-19 vaccines have stimulated discussions about returning to ‘normal life,’ the public conversation in Toronto rarely includes the benefits of a return to the office, as is occurring in peer jurisdictions like London and New York. For as long as office workers remain absent from downtown, small businesses such as retail and restaurants will continue to suffer, leading to more and more ‘for lease’ signs in shop windows.
Our interviews indicate that Toronto’s business leaders continue to catalogue unprecedented levels of COVID-related social and economic impacts on downtown, which has been disproportionately affected by the reduced economic activity caused by shut downs to address the virus. The best way to help downtown businesses survive and thrive is to encourage the earliest possible safe return of office workers. Figuring out how to do that remains our biggest challenge.
Links to Articles of Interest
Click to Read - How New York transit is approaching communications with the public
Click to Read - London businesses calling attention to impact on economic ecosystem of retail, restaurants, pubs etc.
Click to Read - New York mayor pushing employers to return to the office
Click to Read - Montreal’s mayor also focusing on a return to the office
Click to Read - Rare mentions from government regarding the role of office workers
Click to Read - Quebec green lights opening offices
Click to Read - What will happen to London’s talent pool if Brexit limits trading?
Click to Read - Important to look beyond the headlines: buried in the article, World Economic Forum foresees working remotely as a temporary fix
Click to Read - Public sentiment against return to the office is frustrating landlords, companies