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The Future of Work is Flexible: Reimagining Office Designs and Strategies to Thrive in Our New Reality

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The Future of Work is Flexible: Reimagining Office Designs and Strategies to Thrive in Our New Reality

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With the Covid-19 vaccine finally making its way through the country, bringing staff back into the workplace is at the forefront of companies’ minds. This has continued to push conversations from when staff will come back to the office, to how.

Archetypes of the workplace

As companies explore the future of the return to the workplace, it has challenged new ways of thinking – how the office will adapt and change, what will be its purpose, and how can it become better for staff.  However, how businesses approach the workplace evolution will be different. From conservative approaches to pushing the boundaries, three mindsets have emerged as we look at the future of the workplace.

Traditionalists – cultures grounded around in-person environments with low investment in virtual working and higher investment in physical work environments.

Progressives – cultures that are flexible and promote a hybrid work model with employees being comfortable working remotely or in offices. Investment for this model will equally be split in the virtual and built environments to support hybrid work models.

Visionaries – cultures encouraging autonomy and remote work with employees who come into the office as needed. This includes a significant spend in technology to enhance the virtual environment and to monitor productivity and performance.

Regardless of your future workplace strategy – scaling, adapting, or staying the same, the pandemic has altered the real estate landscape as we know it. Social distancing, sanitization processes, working from home, and virtual communication are here to stay, even if the vaccine turns out to be everything we’ve hoped for. While we’ve had no choice but to accept this new reality, many occupiers and landlords are struggling with “what’s the best next move” for their space.

As we navigate these unchartered workplace waters, flexibility has emerged as a key player. Office strategy and design will need to be flexible to support the changing needs of staff and companies both in the short and long-term. The question remains, what does flexibility look like in the future workplace?

Riding the Evolutionary Forces

As the saying goes, “change is the only constant,” and while inevitable, change gives us the opportunity to grow and evolve. How and where we work is different from a year ago, which has influenced changes from workplace strategies to business models and processes, to workforces. This has caused decision makers to pause on making long-term real estate commitments until we better understand the lasting effects of the pandemic.

Driving regional and industry trends

As real estate shifts and trends begin to emerge, many will play out differently depending on their location. By the end of 2021 it’s expected businesses will return to the office at a reduced capacity, however, how this will be done is the question.

The pandemic has accelerated an already growing migration of knowledge workers from cities like New York and California to less-expensive locales. Raleigh, N.C., and Austin, Texas, are among the boomtowns attracting young workers. These cool, vibrant cities offer culinary experiences, cultural and social scenes that appeal to young professionals who enjoy an urban lifestyle but find large metro areas too dense or expensive.

The recent growth of these midsize cities shows the pandemic and work-from-home policies aren’t undermining all of urban America. It illustrates a reshaping of what many companies, families and individuals are now looking for, a location that is more affordable, has more space, and access to job opportunities and talent.  Several recent high-profile corporate relocation announcements suggest companies are inclined to follow this migration.

Solutions for “the next best move”

What should be your next move? Research is saying space will be used differently and we still don’t fully know how Covid-19 will influence office use and behaviors in the future. Before making permanent, long-term decisions, companies are trialing office strategies to see how their people are working in a new environment.

Pilot spaces and employee surveys are a good way to learn what will work best for your people. Companies are starting to accelerate these programs, repurposing the workplace to align with work modes and conducting 60-day utilization studies to see if these new workplace designs are effective.  Some actions may include improvements to office décor, an increase in collaborative hubs, and bringing back some private offices or quiet areas, providing staff with a place to go to work and build relationships.

Occupiers with larger real estate portfolios may adopt strategies like maintaining the hub location but adding the spokes (hub & spoke model). This allows them to expand their footprint, keeping their CBD presence, while providing staff with much-craved collaboration, culture, and connection in spoke locations. We’re even seeing C-suite focused hubs emerging to support board related tasks, client meetings, and leadership-driven activities.

The impact of transformational technology on workplace design

With this fundamental shift to incorporate flexibility, transformational technology is going to play a critical role. Firms have already adopted this status quo- leveraging digital tools to improve business operations and communication. As technology continues to power collaboration in the workplace, from Microsoft Teams video meetings, to AI wearables and VR presentations to smart whiteboards, it’s likely work styles are going to shift into more team-oriented environments.

In turn, offices will need to be outfitted to support in-person and remote workers, providing them with the technology and space to seamlessly connect. Leadership communication and change management will play an essential role in navigating the return to the workplace. Outlining clear protocols and processes can guard against burnout, help manage meetings and communication expectations (in-person and virtual), and coordinate teams to make sure they are driving the right outcomes.

As digital innovations continue to emerge, virtual sharing and collaborating will increase, causing reimagined horizons, like a world without email, creating monumental changes in the workplace.

Meeting the pace of change

With the current real estate landscape and continued disruption, there is still uncertainty about what the future workplace will look like. Partnering with a company that has an agile and flexible end-to-end approach to workplace creation, can empower smarter and responsive decision making to meet the ever-changing needs of businesses and their people.

Propeller, a workplace framework, provides stability and a solution for companies’ next real estate move. Using data, the model can help outline what teams’ experiences should be in the office and at home, from purpose and work modes, to behaviors and culture. Whether it’s a long-term commitment to remote work, embracing a flexible model, or taking a wait-and-see approach, this workplace strategy can help outline the best next step.

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Ryan leads the Americas region, managing the United States and Latin America. With more than 20 years of experience in the industry, Ryan has led teams to execute complex workplace projects, driven global initiatives, and redefined Unispace standards. With a strong knowledge of local and global markets, he brings his strategic vision to drive growth and improve operational excellence across all aspects of the business.

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Did Your Employees Grow Apart In A Difficult 2020? 5 Tips For A Better Culture.

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Given the uncertainty businesses face in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, company leaders are looking at every phase of their operation to determine ways they can improve.

Company culture is one area commanding attention. As the virus caused business limitations and forced many companies to go fully remote in 2020, workplace culture was challenged in new ways. This was a reminder to company leaders to make this a priority, forcing them to find ways to strengthen it in the new year, says Mark McClain, CEO and co-founder of SailPoint and the ForbesBooks author of Joy and Success at Work: Building Organizations that Don’t Suck (the Life Out of People).

“More and more, companies are starting to understand that they need to show employees that they value them as whole people,” McClain says.

“If you respect them, value them and treat them as professionals, they will go through walls for you. If you don’t, if you create an environment where the very thought of coming to work creates anxiety, then they are going to look for employment elsewhere.”

Issues within the workplace culture can fester and eventually lead to toxic relationships, lower productivity, and higher turnover. McClain says that as companies try to balance remote working with a return to the office, it’s critical that culture problems be diagnosed and dealt with.

“But too often,” he says, “leaders don’t have the time to dig into the root problems or don’t know how to really reach their people and devise solutions.”

McClain offers these tips for management to build a better workplace culture in 2021:

Make the health and well-being of your employees the first priority. “Putting your employees first makes them far more likely to be good producers for your company,” McClain says. “With the ongoing pandemic and 2021 bringing much uncertainty, it’s the right time to review workplace safety, collect employees’ thoughts on working remotely vs. coming back to the office, look at internal communications, and analyze management practices to make sure you’re addressing employees’ needs and concerns. Circulate employee surveys to get helpful feedback.”

Hire people who are culture fits. “Some people are very capable, but they happen to be jerks,” McClain says. “No matter how smart such a person might be, the negatives will eventually outweigh the positives. At the same time, you don’t want to hire people who are really nice but not terribly competent.”

Beware of fake culture. Some companies create what McClain calls “pseudo cultures,” which he describes as “thinly veiled come-ons where companies offer massages, free beer or other perks to attract employees.” Eventually, people figure out that a cool employee lounge with a ping-pong table does not make for a successful company. “Real organizational cultures are reflections of how companies treat people and create useful products,” he says.

Increase employee engagement. McClain says leaders should go the extra steps to get to know their employees – a big help in keeping them engaged. “It can be tougher initially to spot people who are not fully engaged,” he says. “The gut feeling leaders need in that regard develops over time with the determination to know your people as individuals. Not all managers are willing to do that, and that’s a mistake. Showing genuine concern can uncover issues that can steer the employee to the help they need.”

Promote a work-life balance. “It’s nice to have ultra-motivated climbers, and it’s essential for a forward-moving company to demand a lot of its people,” McClain says. “But not at the expense of burning them out, messing up their health and hurting their family relationships. That’s going to hurt the company in the long run as well.”

“Nurturing your internal culture,” McClain says, “enables people and business to thrive. It’s never been more important than now after a year of chaos and with more uncertainty ahead.”

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Mark McClain (www.markmcclain.me), ForbesBooks author of Joy and Success at Work: Building Organizations that Don’t Suck (the Life Out of People), is CEO of SailPoint, a leader in the enterprise identity management market. McClain has led the company from its beginnings in 2005, when it started as a three-person team, to today where SailPoint has grown to more than 1,200 employees who serve customers in 35 countries.

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COVID-19, Remote Work, and Technology: Was 2020 just a blip?

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How did 2020 reshape your business?

While some organizations were better prepared for a shift to working from home, only 14% of businesses worldwide had fully remote workforces prior to the pandemic.

This means that, at some level, 86% of us had to make sudden, rapid changes to adjust to an entirely remote way of operating, communicating, and leading.

As Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella put it last April: “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months. From remote teamwork and learning to sales and customer service, to critical cloud infrastructure and security—we are working alongside customers every day to help them adapt and stay open for business in a world of remote everything.”

Now that vaccines are beginning to roll out and the prospect of returning to our offices becomes more tangible, the next question we face is this: Which elements of 2020 will stick, and which will we discard as soon as it’s safe to do so?

COVID-19 ushered in 6 primary changes to the way we work

The most obvious change to our work environments is that we made a quick shift to remote work—with varying levels of disruption and success. If we zoom in a bit closer, we can pull out six major changes:

1 – We embraced collaboration tools.

Microsoft Teams has seen a 160% increase in users from March to October, Slack sold for $27.7 billion, and Gartner predicts the worldwide market for social collaboration tools to reach $4.8 billion by 2023. While these tools were plenty popular pre-pandemic, many businesses found themselves without a way to communicate with a fully remote team and quickly implemented one package or another (or, in some cases, multiple packages).

2 – Live document coauthoring finally got our attention.

With “old school” collaboration methods off the table, we finally jumped head-first into tools that many of us already had access to, but weren’t really using—namely Microsoft SharePoint and Google Drive. Instead of emailing documents back and forth or trying to whiteboard over Zoom, we posted links in our new Slack or Teams channels and edited our project simultaneously.

3 – Video conferencing exploded.

Between Zoom (up to 300 million daily participants), Teams (up to 115 million daily users), and Google Meet (up to 100 million daily participants), we were on so many video calls last year. In fact, we spent so much time using these tools that “Zoom fatigue” became a thing we say in real life. The market for these tools is expected to hit $50 billion by 2026.

4 – Virtual events… happened.

All of our networking, fundraising, recruiting, team building, and client appreciation events went virtual. We tried webinars virtual conferences, virtual happy hours, virtual magic shows, and on and on and on. These, from anecdotal evidence, were better than nothing, but generally hit or miss.

5 – We stopped caring so much about where employees and new hires live.

If we’re all working from home, “home” can be anywhere. With 70% of company owners open to letting their employees work remotely after offices can safely reopen, we open the door to hiring the best talent regardless of their geographic location. There are a few hurdles to clear when it comes to expanding your company’s footprint (taxes and healthcare, for example), but we’ve quashed all concerns about effective remote work.

6 – We took less time off and burned out more.

Lastly, the combination of working from home and diving into applications that generate notifications 24/7 has further blurred the lines between “work” and “home.” A recent Monster survey found that 69% of workers are feeling burnout, 59% are (still) taking less time off than they normally would, and 42% don’t plan to take any time off.

So, which of these trends should we expect to stay for the long haul? Which will go? Here’s my take.

Trends that will stick through 2021 and beyond

When it comes to practices that boost efficiency and expand access to something as invaluable as top talent, few businesses will scrap them.

We’ll stick with video conferencing. In the first few months post-vaccine, many of us will have been so starved for in-person meetings that we’ll schedule as many as we can. Over time, however, I suspect we’ll find a happy medium and balance video conferencing with face-to-face meetings—perhaps opting to make new connections in person and maintain them over video. This balance will be of particular value to those of us in metropolitan areas, where one hour-long meeting chews up half a day with traffic!

Document collaboration won’t budge. Once your teammates (and your clients!) have gotten a taste of how much more efficient real-time collaboration is, there will be no going back. It won’t be a matter of whether we keep this solution, but how we bolster it with the right policies and security measures.

Slack and Teams won’t either. We’ll see a new trend of businesses getting smarter with how they use Slack and Teams—and in cases where employees jumped into multiple platforms as a stop-gap, there will (should!) be some consolidation. But overall, we won’t be turning down the tools that have such power to amplify productivity and engagement.

We’ll expand our recruiting efforts. As long as a particular role does not explicitly require feet on the ground at or our office or at client sites, most of us will be much more willing to let go of geographic restrictions on our job postings in an effort to find the absolute best fit.

Trends most businesses will abandon post-vaccine

In other cases, our businesses will be happy to revert back to traditional approaches:

We won’t ditch our offices (at least not yet). Few of us are going to follow in Twitter’s footsteps and go all virtual all the time; we have years left on our leases, and will get our money’s worth once we can do so safely. When that lease is set to expire we’ll have a big decision to make as far as remote work is concerned. Even then, the majority of larger businesses plan to perhaps downsize, but ultimately keep a brick-and-mortar office as we still see value in the happenstance interactions and energy generated by working together in person.

Goodbye, virtual happy hours! To the business community’s credit, we have been getting extremely creative with virtual events that are fun and engaging. But once we can opt for an in-person happy hour versus a virtual happy hour, or a live lunch-and-learn versus a webinar… the choice becomes a no-brainer.

Hello, vacations! Finally—and thankfully—we’ll resume traveling and being more protective of our time “off the clock” once our options open up. This will be a welcome chance for our folks to step back from the many hardships that we’ve faced over the past year, rest, and reenergize.

Final thought

While these are my predictions on how these trends will fare over time, now is the time to crystalize the vision of what the future of your business looks like. Work with your leadership team sooner rather than later to address the following:

1. What is your stance on remote work post-vaccine, and how will you communicate that to your team?

2. How will you make sure you’re getting the most out of your collaboration tools?

3. What is your policy on file sharing, and does it take backup and security into proper account?

4. What guidelines will you set for video conferencing as communication, sales, and engagement tool?

5. Will you change your approach to networking, events, and celebrations?

6. Will you set geographic limitations on your hiring efforts?

7. What message do you need to send regarding after-hours and weekend work? Vacation?

We’re fortunate to be in a place where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with regard to the pandemic. But even if we abandon some of our COVID-era trends in favor of more “normal” alternatives, the impact of 2020 on our businesses will not be undone.

We embraced new tools. We found new efficiencies. We know remote work works.

Why go backwards?

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The WFH Vs. Return-To-Office Debate: What Employees, Bosses Should Consider

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Many Americans have been working from home full-time for a year now since COVID-19 hit the U.S. And many prefer that arrangement to a traditional office. In a survey, 65% said they want to work remotely full-time after the pandemic.

That could pose a problem for them and their employers.

Given the availability of vaccines, many companies are planning to ask their employees to return to the office. But a sizable number of workers might balk – or even walk. In a survey by LiveCareer, 29% of working professionals said they would quit if they couldn’t continue working remotely.

“The reality is that some jobs just don’t work remotely and some people don’t work well remotely,” says Cynthia Spraggs (www.virtira.com), a veteran of working remotely, author of How To Work From Home And Actually Get SH*T Done, and CEO of Virtira, a completely virtual company that helps other businesses work virtually. “Companies have time to plan for both – and so do employees.

“Many employees now expect to be able to work flexibly. Some companies will use a hybrid approach, and others will go back to full-time in the office. But if employees are not given the choice to work from home, some will look for other employers that do offer that. Companies need to assess which jobs are best done remotely and assess their employees to understand which ones benefit the company most by either working from home or returning to the office.”

Spraggs offers these thoughts for workers, business owners, and managers to consider in the WFH vs. return-to-office debate:

The WFH type. “At this point, it should be relatively easy to assess who is thriving and who is miserable in a WFH setting,” Spraggs says. “What we’ve found is, regardless if you’re an introvert or an extrovert, the perfect WFH employee is someone who embraces life and who has passions and interests outside of work. They work efficiently and are strong performers because they see work as a means to fund their life.”

The traditional office type. Spraggs draws a stark contrast between people who thrive working from home and those who are much happier commuting to a traditional brick-and-mortar office environment. “These individuals have strong social relationships through work and require the camaraderie that an in-office environment provides,” she says. “For many, especially those focused on the corner office, work is their life. These are the ones who pull down 80-hour weeks to move up the ladder. They stay glued to their boss, and likely are the ones who just won’t function well at home. Sadly, they are also likely your VP.”

Weigh how your company thinks of you. “Although we all like to think that companies care about employees,” Spraggs says, “the harsh reality is that employees are a unit of production and companies will migrate to the setup that senior executives mandate. Do you really want to work for a company that isn’t prepared to accommodate what makes you most productive and happy? Better sharpen that CV and get ready. Plan now and work your networks.”

Management realities. For many companies, even with the environmental, health, and productivity advantages that remote work brings, Spraggs thinks some simply aren’t going to embrace WFH as an opportunity to streamline operations. “They are going to want to return to the ‘old normal,’” she says. “A good number of senior management people didn’t do well with the WFH environment because they view WFH through a lens of slacking-off employees, lower productivity, and lower ROI. So it’s likely these companies are not going to make the investments in training, home-based bandwidth, VPNs, and tools to make it work.”

“There’s coming tension in many companies between what will work best for management and what will work best for the employees,” Spraggs says. “We may see a big migration in workers going to fully virtual companies.”

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Cynthia Spraggs (www.virtira.com) is the author of How To Work From Home And Actually Get SH*T Done: 50 Tips for Leaders and Professionals to Work Remotely and Outperform the Office. She is CEO of Virtira, a completely virtual company that focuses on remote team performance. Before taking leadership of the company in 2011, Spraggs worked with large consulting and tech companies while completing her MBA and research into telecommuting.

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The Best Cities to Work From Home

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While the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for many businesses and workers, it has led to greater flexibility for workers in some industries. Employees at major tech companies, including Twitter and Google, for example, have been granted extended opportunities to work from home, sometimes permanently. These changes have afforded many people the ability to work and live where they want, rather than being bound to large cities where their employers have offices. Employees at major tech companies, including Twitter and Google, for example, have been granted extended opportunities to work from home, sometimes permanently.

This shift is leading many workers toward “Zoom towns”—cities that are booming as remote work becomes more popular. While much of the U.S. is experiencing rising home values during the pandemic as a result of low inventory, areas experiencing the largest booms are these Zoom towns, which are increasingly attracting well-educated laptop workers with lower living costs, access to outdoor recreation, and strong (albeit less dense) communities. Unfortunately for many workers, the opportunity for remote work and the ability to relocate to these cities are often only available to workers in tech, financial services, sales, and other similar roles that can be performed remotely.

To find the best locations to work from home, researchers at RetailMeNot ranked cities and states based on several metrics related to 1) community and safety, 2) housing and living costs, and 3) health and weather. In general, the researchers wanted to identify the most affordable locations with low crime rates, good weather for outdoor recreation, and well-educated, healthy populations, among other factors. Their researchers sourced data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Centers for Environment Information, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the U.S. Census Bureau to create a composite score for each city.

At the state level, Mountain and Midwest states like Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Minnesota offer inviting environments for remote workers, with those states earning some of the highest composite scores for working from home. For example, Wyoming has no income tax, which is appealing for high-income professionals. Idaho, like Utah, offers residents good weather, access to the outdoors, low crime rates, and a large proportion of single-family homes. On the other hand, Southern states like Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama provide less appealing settings for at-home work. Despite being affordable, these states tend to have higher poverty and crime rates, more variable weather, and less opportunities for physical activity.

In the city-level analysis, only cities with populations above 100,000 were considered. These areas are typically suburbs of major metropolitan areas, offer easier access to big-city amenities, and appeal to a wider range of workers. Residents in these locations could also theoretically commute to the urban center as needed in the future. For people looking for more rural towns with populations below 100,000 residents, RetailMeNot recommends seeking out locations in the best states for remote workers, especially Mountain states like Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado. Like the best states to work from home, the top cities tend to also have lower tax rates, ideal weather for outdoor recreation, healthy citizens, and several other beneficial characteristics for people working from home.

Here are the 15 best cities for remote workers.

City  Rank Overall work-from-home score Community & safety Housing & living costs Health & weather Metro area

 
Gilbert, AZ      1           91.04 95.24 85.14 92.74 Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ
Cary, NC      2           88.55 98.23 77.93 89.49 Raleigh-Cary, NC
Frisco, TX      3           87.73 97.11 76.88 89.19 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
Bellevue, WA      4           87.59 93.23 72.18 97.35 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
Fremont, CA      5           86.94 94.00 68.97 97.86 San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA
Carmel, IN      6           86.86 94.75 81.00 84.83 Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN
Thousand Oaks, CA      7           86.71 95.99 71.80 92.34 Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA
Centennial, CO      8            86.21 90.13 79.52 88.98 Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO
Torrance, CA      9            85.38 92.23 67.10 96.80 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
Olathe, KS     10            85.32 94.28 79.22 82.48 Kansas City, MO-KS
Henderson, NV     11            85.11 84.95 87.49 82.90 Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV
Carlsbad, CA     12           85.04 88.52 68.87 97.73 San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
Roseville, CA     13            84.99 90.48 72.06 92.41 Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA
League City, TX     14            84.97 93.05 79.81 82.04 Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX
Sandy Springs, GA     15           84.02 95.61 69.17 87.29 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA

 

For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on RetailMeNot’s website: https://www.retailmenot.com/blog/best-cities-to-work-from-home.html

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Do Workers Actually Enjoy Commuting?

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Ah, the coronavirus. Although it’s had a negative impact on many of us, for those who are still working it’s meant setting up a small space at home to work from. It’s also meant that many have saved time on their daily commute – instead of traveling to the office our commute now consists of grabbing a cup of coffee and our breakfast, or maybe even a morning workout.

Let’s face it, if you commute, especially on public transport, the thought of going back to packed trains and armpits in your face can seem pretty unappealing. But, even if we are encouraged by our employers to get back in the office, would we rather remain at home to avoid traveling?

Do Brits miss our daily commute?

According to a recent study by Devitt Insurance, before the outbreak, 37% of commuters said they actually enjoyed their journey into work, whereas roughly 17% didn’t enjoy it at all. Surprisingly, since restrictions have eased and many businesses are opening again, their research found that of those who have returned to commuting, 46% said they actually enjoy their journey now, up from 37%!

Could this leap in people enjoying their commute be thanks to less packed services or more opting to cycle and walk to their places of work?

Stressful or joyful? Do we actually enjoy commuting?

Despite the rise in people enjoying their commute being quite high, the stress of traveling is still a huge concern for many. What with new restrictions and things to think about such as face masks, hand sanitizer, and having as little contact with surfaces as possible, it’s easy to see why 33% of those who were surveyed said they felt stressed during their commute!

According to the data, the South East holds the most stressed commuters at 37%, with the North West coming in a close second at 35%. At the other end of the scale, you’ll find those in the Midlands (29%) and in Wales (28.6%). It seems that on average, the further away from the capital you are, the less stressful your journey generally is!

Have our habits changed due to the coronavirus?

With the tiered system and the threat of another lockdown very much in the back of our minds still, how will things shift in this new COVID-19 world? Will people stick with hopping on public transport, or will many look to change the way they commute?

According to Devitt Insurance, a whopping 76% of commuters who used public transport to get to work before the lockdowns happened, plan to change to a totally different mode of traveling in the future. They also discovered that journeys via a motorbike had become the number one option for those looking to make a switch from public transport.

When you start traveling to the office or other workplace again, what will your commute look like?

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U.S. Cities With the Highest Cost-of-Living Adjusted Salaries

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The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a surge in geographic mobility. According to Pew Research Center, 22 percent of adults in the U.S. have relocated during the pandemic or know someone who did. Interestingly, this reverses a longstanding trend in which Americans were staying put.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that prior to COVID-19, Americans were moving a lot less. In 1981, 3.4 percent of Americans moved to a different county within the same state while only 2.8 percent moved to a different state entirely. By 2019, those percentages dropped to 2.1 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. The share of Americans moving across county lines has remained at a relatively flat, low level since 2010.

As people think about where to move during COVID-19 and beyond, job prospects and earning potential will be top of mind. Median earnings for full-time workers in the U.S. was $50,078 in 2019, a 20.6 percent increase since 2010 in nominal dollars. However, the relative cost of living in a given area impacts purchasing power and should be an important factor when weighing employment opportunities. There is significant regional variation in cost-of-living adjusted earnings across the U.S., with residents in the Northeast and Midwest generally faring better than those in the South or West. For example, median adjusted earnings range from a low of $41,063 in Florida to a high of $58,029 in Massachusetts.

To find which metropolitan areas offer the greatest purchasing power, researchers at Smartest Dollar calculated cost-of-living adjusted earnings using data for full-time workers from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. To improve relevance, metros were grouped into the following categories based on population: small (100,000–349,999), midsize (350,000–999,999), and large (1,000,000 or more).

Similar to the statewide trends, the small and midsize metros offering the highest adjusted earnings are concentrated in the Midwest and Northeast. Unlike the state-level trends, the large metros with the best pay are scattered throughout the country, with similar levels of representation in the Northeast, West, and Midwest.

Here are the large metropolitan areas with the highest cost-of-living adjusted earnings.

Metro Rank      Median earnings for full-time workers (adjusted) Median earnings for full-time workers (unadjusted) Percentage change since 2010 (unadjusted) Cost of living (compared to national average)
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA     1        $63,727 $82,463 30.7% +29.4%
Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT     2        $60,357 $61,625 18.1% +2.1%
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV    3        $59,993 $70,672 17.0% +17.8%
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH    4        $59,046 $67,430 24.3% +14.2%
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA    5        $58,573 $66,129 28.2% +12.9%
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI    6        $58,512 $60,033 21.3% +2.6%
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA    7        $58,331 $76,764 31.5% +31.6%
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD     8        $57,575 $61,432 20.5% +6.7%
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN    9        $57,222 $51,500 19.8% -10.0%
Raleigh-Cary, NC   10        $56,934 $54,998 19.7% -3.4%
St. Louis, MO-IL   11        $56,624 $51,528 21.8% -9.0%
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO   12         $55,894 $58,633 23.6% +4.9%
Cleveland-Elyria, OH     13        $55,892 $50,359 18.8% -9.9%
Pittsburgh, PA   14        $55,798 $51,948 24.5% -6.9%
Columbus, OH   15        $55,530 $51,032 19.2% -8.1%
United States      –        $50,078 $50,078 20.6% N/A

 

For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on Smartest Dollar’s website: https://smartestdollar.com/research/cities-with-the-highest-cost-of-living-adjusted-salaries-2020

expense
Archives, Banking, Global Trade Daily, Software

New Survey Reveals Impact of COVID and Remote Work on Employees

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Organizations have made significant changes to enable working from home – but what has it meant for employees, and specifically their expense claims?

New data released by AppZen, the leading AI solution for modern finance teams, reveals how the pandemic and remote work have impacted company expense reports.

CEO Anant Kale provides insights into the findings and how companies should take note when it comes to how to handle employee expenses moving forward.

Why did AppZen do the survey and what were the primary findings?

We surveyed 1,000 workers of companies with at least 250 employees, to gain insight into how companies have adapted new expense policies and how those changes have impacted employees.

AppZen’s research shows the drastic shift from office to home working and the importance of clearly stated policies. 17% worked remotely prior to COVID, spiking to 83% during the pandemic.

We also found 75% of employees submitted work from home expenses during the pandemic versus 69% of employees who submitted expenses pre-COVID.

The findings also shed light on the importance of clear policies. 83% of employees who received an updated policy said their employer fairly compensates them for work from home-related expenses compared to only 29% of employees at companies where the policy was not updated due to COVID.

What are employees submitting expenses for?

Our findings show claims for internet usage at home rose 6% and 46% of companies are reimbursing their employees for internet during COVID.

While the pandemic has led to different kinds of expenses for workers, only 29% of employees feel they are fairly compensated for these new types of work from home expenses – such as childcare. And what’s more, only 26% say they feel uncomfortable about actually claiming these types of expenses.

How do gender and position play a role in expense reports and company reimbursements?

AppZen’s data shows differences among executives and non-executives in the expense report process and a gender divide.

Women are less likely (59%) than men (80%) to feel fairly reimbursed for work from home-related expenses.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the C-suite and company executives are more likely to have company credit cards and expense accounts while the majority of employees are reimbursed for work-related expenses paid for with their own money.

The COVID lockdown had a disproportionate effect on the shift to work from home on specific jobs and roles. 42% of business owners/business partners and 37% of sales managers worked from home prior to the COVID lockdown.

What can companies learn from this survey?

Our research has highlighted some of the challenges faced by organizations during the COVID pandemic. Most have resulted from a lack of action or, to be more precise, a lack of proactive steps to adapt to the changing situation. Here are 3 recommendations for organizations; to re-engage with their workforce, and to build a modern, repeatable structure for managing expenses and change moving forward.

Embrace work from home expenses

Expense types have changed. Employees are not claiming classic travel and entertainment (T&E) expenses – but are claiming new types of work from home-related expenses. These include one-off items such as office chairs, external monitors, and desks; subscription costs such as internet usage; and COVID-specific items like hand-sanitizer and face masks.

Organizations need to adapt their expense policies quickly to embrace this changing environment. The new policies need to be clear, fair and configured in a software system that can apply them the second they are activated.

Ongoing review and adaptation of policies 

Crises come and go but what we have learned from COVID is that the ability to adapt and roll out new policies quickly and dynamically is the cornerstone of resiliency.

Best practice organizations will utilize their AI-enabled expense management platforms to automatically identify trends and changes in expense behavior – but all enterprises should create adaptive policy frameworks to ensure policies receive regular reviews.

With new policies in place, the organization should proactively communicate the changes and why the changes have been made. The first time such as significant change is made, the communication should be as visible and personal as possible – webinars or video meetings are Ideal in this situation.

But communication should not stop after the initial flurry of activity. Reinforcement of the new policy rules and regulations is an essential tool for ensuring maximum understanding and compliance.

Listen to employee concerns

We see several unexpected nuances in the research. From a perception that senior executives are getting preferential treatment, to women feeling less well compensated for work from home expenses, these nuances can only be truly understood by talking to staff.

CFOs understand the cost of perpetuating harmful industry and societal practices. This can cost the company valuable employees and put the company at risk of blowback. Through analytics and rapid adaptability, finance leaders are equipped to change these practices and therefore the overall health of the business.

In addition, organizations should create a regular cadence for feedback from staff. This ongoing dialogue should be at least quarterly and involve both the finance team and leaders from within the business. By actively eliciting details of employee concerns, the organization can continually develop and refine policies that fairly compensate employees for out-of-pocket expenses.

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For more information, recommendations, and a look at the full report, visit: https://www.appzen.com/blog/four-ways-for-finance-teams-to-avoid-employee-disengagement-during-covid/

migration
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Will Remote Work Lead to Vast Migration in the United States?

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Whether we want to admit it or not, times are changing. The United States is going through a definite transformation on many levels. Political, economic, sociological, and cultural. These changes are in no small part due to COVID-19, and all its effects on the general economy and business practices. And one of the more notable changes is that more and more people are working remotely. So, will remote work lead to vast migration in the US, or will things go back to standard work practices once we have COVID-19 under control? Well, let’s find out.

The impact of COVID-19 on general job practices

To understand why remote work is changing the US, we first need to explore how COVID-19 has impacted it. After all, it is no coincidence that there is an astounding spike in the number of remote workers ever since COVID-19 forced us into lockdown. So, is remote work a temporary struggle that people wish to get out of as soon as possible? Or did COVID-19 open our eyes to new job opportunities?

The benefits of working from home

First and foremost, there is hardly a remote worker that won’t emphasize the benefits of working from home. To begin with, you don’t have to struggle with daily traffic. Next, you can wear pretty much whatever you want. Also, there is no need to socialize with coworkers that you don’t like. You have more freedom to organize your time. Finally, you can enjoy home-meals instead of eating fast food or at-work cafeteria.

Are there downsides to remote work? Sure. But, the benefits outweigh them so much that people wonder, “Why haven’t we done this sooner?”. Well, one of the reasons for this is that employers were worried about productivity. And this is precisely what they had to overcome during the COVID-19 pandemic. They had to learn how to manage their staff remotely, ensuring that everyone is doing their job.

Improved monitoring software

Another surprising spike came in the form of monitoring software. Once employers figured out that they need to have most, if not their entire workforce at home, they concluded that having monitoring software was a must. Apart from constant monitoring, you have daily reports, weekly meetings, and improved communication systems to ensure that workers are doing what they are supposed to when they are supposed to. Add to that increased data security and improved worker motivation and, hey presto. Remote work becomes not only functional but quite effective. So much so that most companies either saw no change or an increase in work performance. So, does this mean that remote work will lead to vast migration?

Reasons why remote work might lead to vast migration

As of now, the answer is definitely leaning towards yes. This, of course, depends on what you mean by “vast.” But, if 14 million US are vast enough for you, then yes. Whether this is a permanent migration or whether people will migrate back after coronavirus blows over is hard to tell. But, if we have to give an answer, we would put our money or permanent change. Here is why.

The coming of 5G

One of the main limitations of permanent remote work was that the internet was not good enough. Sure, you can have a stable connection if you live in a big city. But, the smaller towns in the US have been notorious for having slow, unstable internet. Well, if 5G delivers what they promise, we should experience faster, more stable internet, even in smaller cities. Mobile devices should have constant coverage, which will make reaching remote workers that much easier. On the other hand, remote workers won’t have to worry about installing expensive internet packages to have a stable connection, as it will be quite widespread.

Increase in freelance work

Of course, not all jobs can be done remotely. Some simply require you to be there in person to get anything done. But, over the past couple of years, there has been a definite increase in online freelance work. Platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and Toptal all provide a safe and easy way for freelancers to find a job. So, not only are people getting better at working from home, but companies are finding more and more ways to find workers. This increase in freelance work gives both companies and workers the freedom to choose and learn like they never did before.

Where do people migrate to?

Until recently, the main migration for people was from smaller cities to larger ones to find better-paid jobs. Now, we should see people going back to their hometowns. After all, why pay high rent and utility bills when you can go back home and easily save hundreds of dollars monthly. This train of thought lead many Americans to head back home and enjoy a quieter lifestyle. As it turns out, remote work is also excellent for people that want to practice farming on the side or live in secluded areas, as they don’t have to worry about finding work in the local area.

Final thoughts

In our view, the fact that remote work leads to vast migration is a good thing. Remote work gives people the freedom to live where they want to live. And as far as we are concerned, the more freedom people have, the better. Mind you, we wouldn’t be surprised if remote work changes in the upcoming years, as the whole concept of if being this massive is quite new. But, we are hopeful that those changes will be for the better.

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Anthony Clark has worked as a business manager and consultant for over 15 years. After moving back to his home town, his primary focus has been on writing helpful articles about moving for websites like highqualitymovingcompany.com and raising his daughters.

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Archives, Banking on Global Trade, Global Trade Daily, Special Reports

How AI-Driven Technology Can Make Expense Management Faster, Smarter, and Easier

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Now more than ever, finance chiefs and their teams are looking to technology to redefine finance management, freeing up time from manual tasks to focus greater attention on analytical matters. Yet, given the vast array of existing and emerging technologies, it’s often difficult to know where to start.

For many organizations, travel and expense management is a prime candidate for automation, with existing processes still manual, time-consuming, and error-prone. Today, customizable AI-powered technology exists not only to automate travel and expense management but to do so intelligently, enabling organizations to set their own rules and decision-making criteria based on their specific requirements.

AI technology is perfectly suited to this area. AI looks at everything – every transaction, every line item – spotting duplicates and anomalies over time and learning as it goes. AI also sees each transaction in context, not in isolation, and can identify problematic patterns across a large number of different users and companies.
There are many ways that the use of flexible AI-powered expense and audit technology can help enforce an organization’s specific policies. Here are some examples:

Different thresholds for specific projects

There may be different thresholds and expense policies that apply to specific projects within an organization. For example, first-class train travel may be allowed for a client project but not for other purposes. AI-based systems enable the automatic creation of custom rules to monitor spend within specific general ledger codes that represent particular client projects and company events.

Configure remote work expenses

With more employees working from home, and office hours now far more flexible, applying work-from-home policies automatically has become a big area of focus for many organizations. AI-powered expense audit technology can use dynamic conditions (such as who is working remotely on a given day) to apply different work-from-home policies automatically. If someone who is working from home submits a travel expense claim, for example, this will be flagged for further review.

Check for compliance variations

Organizations need to ensure compliance with anti-bribery and corruption regulations, such as the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the UK Bribery Act. These prohibit bribery (gifts, meals, entertainment, cash compensation, employment opportunities) in connection with international business, and violations carry civil and criminal penalties. This can be a complex undertaking because there are often specific variations or exceptions that need to be tracked. AI-based systems enable the creation of custom lists of requirements to detect these distinctions automatically.

Understand different documents

Many organizations require pre-approval for specific expenses, such as entertaining clients at a sporting event. Employees typically need to submit a signed business justification document along with their expenses. Although the format of these documents differs between organizations, AI can read, understand, and audit pre-approval documents, to make sure they have been signed off and company policy is followed.

Manage lifetime employee perks

Some employees are given a specific amount of money that they are allowed to submit for reimbursement over time, such as a lifetime or annual allowance for productivity tools. With customizable AI-based systems, it is easy to create custom rules to keep track of these expenses for each employee, to ensure they don’t exceed their allowance over time.

Flexibility needed more than ever

In today’s changing work environment, a one-size-fits-all policy does not make sense. As companies embrace remote working, travel, and expense policies need to be more adaptable to cater to employees purchasing video conferencing licenses, home office equipment, and productivity software.

Likewise, no two corporate travel and expenses policies are the same, and using AI to automate travel and expense management means enterprise finance teams can configure systems to automate their specific travel and expenses policies, risk assessments, and approvals processes, to reflect their own precise needs.

Conclusion

Spend management has become more complex, making the need for data-driven systems that provide automation, visibility, and control over expenditure more important than ever. An AI-based system means organizations rely less on an auditor’s luck in catching expenses abuses, and more on a systematic, evidence-based, and consistently fair approach.

When implemented correctly, the result is a well-defined and efficient travel and entertainment expense system that sets clear expectations for employees, reduces fraud, and provides up-to-date spend data to improve financial management and decision making. Particularly in the face of today’s rapid pace of change, AI-powered expense management automation vitally free finance leaders and their teams from manual, labor-intensive processes and help ensure that they can instead focus their time on the strategic concerns that matter most.

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Andrew Foster is the VP Consulting at AppZen