Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week
/Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in leadership and the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners": corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. Each day we can become a better version of ourselves.
1. #CREi - People to Follow! The 2021 Top LinkedIn Influencers in Commercial Real Estate List
I love to see people succeed and I love positivity. The #CREi: LinkedIn Top Influencers in Commercial Real Estate list highlights genuinely good people doing amazing things in our world. The list is intended to lift up those who great contributors, leaders and influencers in our industry. We want you to learn a little about them through the bios as opposed to simply a sequential line list of names.
Pulling together a list like this takes some doing. The team spent many hours evaluating potential list makers and using sophisticated technology to rank those that met the qualifications for the #CREi designation. I want to give my partners a strong shout out and ask you to consider them for your business needs.
The List Maker team includes Lindsey Broscher and Tamara Schlachter who are very talented professionals from The Wilbert Group. The expert PR professionals at The Wilbert Group (@TheWilbertGroup) have helped by suggesting influential individuals they think merit inclusion and helping with graphic design. Thanks to Caroline Wilbert (@carolinewilbert) for your partnership!
Also, the amazing Nick Luczyszyn, CEO of Amplify OSM brought his LinkedIn tech skills to the table. I call him the “LinkedIn Ninja,” because he is the best professional I’ve ever encountered in terms of his knowledge of the platform. Look him up on LinkedIn and I bet you’ll be impressed too.
2. Why Does A Headquarters Matter Anyway?
It is perhaps appropriate that a company operating in such a digitally native space would not find the need to have its employees meet "IRL" to build culture, as was the case for plenty of tech startups years before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
But going headquarters-less is still a fairly rare decision. A company’s headquarters is often both a central part and a crucial expression of its identity, even though it had become less and less devoted to housing the bulk of a major company’s employees even before the pandemic scattered the workforce. As hybrid remote work and hub-and-spoke models of office look to become a permanent fixture, the importance of a headquarters is less likely to be about day-to-day operations going forward.
As office-using companies consider what will be gained and lost with the increased prevalence of remote work, among their chief concerns has been maintaining the connections, both professionally and socially, that allow employees to better understand the company they work for and the people they work with, said Tamar Moy, Newmark Northeast executive managing director of workplace strategy and human experience.
3. Office landlords offer amenities to reel in employees
(iStock/Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)
In Manhattan, where just 15 percent of workers have returned to the office, landlords are getting frustrated competing with employees’ couches.
So they’re offering amenities ranging from on-site child care to dry-cleaning pickup and parking discounts — anything to bring back employees, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Tishman Speyer, for example, is dangling free use of a new co-working space, an app to book services ranging from manicures to grocery delivery, newly installed picnic tables and even free tarts.
Such services aren’t necessarily new. Apple, Google and other tech companies in a war for talent have provided amenities to their employees for years. But now the pressure is on to lure workers back to the workplace.
4. Covid: 'People are tired of working from home'
People are keen to return to the office because working from home has left many "fatigued", says a boss at Britain's biggest office and retail complex.
Howard Dawber, head of strategy at Canary Wharf Group, said people will still want to divide time between the workplace and home.
But they are missing office and city-centre life, he told the BBC.
The Canary Wharf financial complex, in London, has only about 6,000 people on site, against 100,000 pre-Covid.
Canary Wharf Group is the developer behind roughly 7.5 million square feet of office space and would stand to benefit financially if there is a surge in demand once lockdown restrictions ease.
But Mr Dawber argued on the BBC's Today programme that people will be eager to get back in the office after so long away from the workplace.
5. Pay Cuts, Taxes, Child Care: What Another Year of Remote Work Will Look Like
Companies are anticipating another largely remote work year, and new questions about compensation and benefits are weighing on managers.
Discussions about the future of work, such as whether to reduce the salaries of employees who have left high-cost cities, are priority items in board meetings and senior executive sessions across industries, according to chief executives, board members and corporate advisers.
Among the questions companies are trying to resolve: Who should shoulder tax costs as employees move to new locations while working remotely? And what is the most effective way to support working parents?
Companies say there is much at stake, from the happiness and productivity of employees to regulatory consequences, if they get these decisions wrong.
Your success blesses others. I wish you a great a hugely impactful week!
