Title:
The Power of Presence
Subject: Being Present in a virtual world
By:
Steve Hargis, Executive Vice President, Jones Lang
LaSalle Americas & CoreNet Global Workplace
Community Knowledge Advisory Panel
Date:
October 25, 2013
Volume 1, Issue 1
Spurred by decisive action from the C-Suite, an increasing number of major corporations are
participating in an industry-wide conversation around the value of employees being PRESENT at
work.
“Epic failure” is one conclusion the media jumped to after an internal Yahoo email directive
restricting working from home was leaked to the press in February. Public debate over where
employees do their work rages on – but key shareholder value and business strategy concerns
are often left silent in the public debate.
Media responses have been generally accusatory, pitting executives against their employees.
But does this have to be the case? This perspective makes the dangerous assumption that
enforcing policies requiring employees to come to the office excludes other options,
telecommuting for instance. For many companies, valuing the time employees spend together
in the office does not negate the ability to provide a wide range of solutions and locations to
support employees as they go about their typical work routines.
Eight months into this debate, what are the real outcomes? Has any of this intense focus led to
new approaches in the way space is allocated, people are housed, policies are enforced?
CoreNet Global reached out to a variety of member organizations to ask how this recent focus
on ‘being present’ has affected their workplace strategies. Please read on for key insights on
the subject from your peers in the industry.
Connect. Learn. Grow. Belong.
CoreNet Global Workplace Community
Action Memo, Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 2
@ Microsoft – Brian Collins, Director, Global Workplace Strategies, notes
choice, flexibility, and autonomy as key components of a workplace
strategy. “We bring people to our corporate campus from all over the
world and we believe in the value of spending time ‘on-premises’ for some
functions.” As a complement, many also work flexibly and with autonomy
from home and other places, especially those in field locations. Brian adds
“research would suggest that balanced workplaces where employees have
a choice of work settings depending on their needs are much more
innovative and creative… also employers who grant autonomy to their
employees are higher performing!”
@ Pacific Gas &Electric – Helen Vu, Director, notes that although current
policies around who works in or out of the office have not changed, the
controversy had an almost opposite result as it did for Yahoo – it spurred
new discussion within the real estate team around “how to support the
company and adapt to changing work force needs through more virtually
oriented workplace strategies, with less reliance on being face-to-face.”
@ Oracle – Michelle Myer, Vice President, Americas Real Estate & Facilities,
notes that at Oracle, on-premise work requirements are driven by business
unit leaders. Corporate Real Estate has not adopted stricter protocols
around work location. On a related subject, Michelle notes “during the
past 12 months, we have seen higher utilization of both desktop and
conference room video conferencing. We have also embraced new designs
that provision more collaborative and small conference room
environments to attract and retain a younger generation of workers.”
These two facts are the result of an increasingly distributed workforce that
is focused on the quality of communicating with peers, both physically as
well as virtually.
@ Northern Trust – Jennifer Dryden, Vice President, Global Head of Real
Estate, notes a legacy culture that promotes face-to-face access to peers
and customers, yet at the same time, growing acceptance of the company’s
WorkSmart remote work program, albeit incremental. There is
“widespread support for flexible hours and remote working patterns, yet a
very small number participate 100% in the program.” As with many
companies, very few NT employees are willing to completely go mobile and
leverage a hoteling solution.
Connect. Learn. Grow. Belong.
CoreNet Global Workplace Community
Action Memo, Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 3
@ Yahoo – Julie Ford-Tempesta, Senior Director, Real Estate & Workplace,
notes that despite the predictions of “epic policy failure”, things are turning
out pretty well at Yahoo. “After all, employee engagement is up, product
launches have increased significantly, and Agile teams are thriving.” And as
proof, the company’s stock price is significantly up from the beginning of
the year. A tour of the Sunnyvale headquarters shows that the
transformation extends to the physical environment also. Julie notes that
“recent renovations have densified the work space, collocating teams in a
more intimate, transparent environment focused on collaboration and
innovation. The workplace has become a catalyst for energy and buzz”…
and this is what any high performing organization would be looking for.
It’s no surprise that change is in the air. Both CoreNet Global’s 2012 CRE 2020 research and the
2013 JLL Global Corporate Real Estate Survey (GCRES) show rapidly rising pressure from the CSuite to increase productivity – and to leverage workplace policies to do so. According to
GCRES, more than 72 percent of corporate real estate executives are under pressure to
increase workplace productivity, accomplished through both physical and virtual strategies.
This industry discussion around bringing employees back to the office began largely as a policy
issue around employee rights concerning degrees of flexibility in work location. In reality it
boils down to a referendum on the value of PLACE in our increasingly virtual world. What is
the right solution for your company?
CoreNet Global is the world’s leading association for corporate real estate (CRE) and workplace
professionals, service providers and economic developers. Over 7,000 members, who include
70% of the Fortune 100 and nearly half of the Forbes Global 2000, meet locally, globally and
virtually to develop networks, share knowledge, learn and thrive professionally.
Connect. Learn. Grow. Belong.