With some Texas businesses bucking the return-to-work trend, point of risk and opportunity presides

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WACO, Texas – The coronavirus pandemic dominoes keep falling. Be it a resurgence of positive Covid-19 cases, the addition of new variants of the coronavirus, heaped on the supply chain and the labor shortage. Unfortunately, the hits for employers and employees keep coming back in our current economic environment.

Today, in an ever-changing landscape, several major companies are back on the tightrope in implementing full return to work policies. This week, Chevron Corp. announced announced a delay in the full return of employees to the California and Texas offices. Another big company joining Amazon.com Inc. that made headlines earlier this month to push its return to office plans from September of this year through January 3, 2022. On Thursday, Apple Inc. announced a similar delay until its January return to corporate office policy.

In a virtual town hall earlier this week, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell explained how the nature of the workplace has changed.

“So the trend for the remainder of this year and next year will certainly be for people to return to their physical jobs, at least temporarily,” he said. “But you seem certain that there will be a lot more remote work going on in the future. So that’s going to change the way work is done and the way work is done, it’s going to change the way work is done, because how often will people be at work and how will that affect different groups of people. “

While a hybrid work model for employees that includes partly remote and partly office work seems to be the trend that some companies are implementing, not all are on board. And the Lone Star state is bucking the trend. Houston, Austin, and Dallas have some of the highest office occupancy rates in the country. According to the Kastle Back To Work Barometer, which has been recording office occupancy since March 2020.

Kastle Back to Work Barometer

Trend in the weekly utilization report from Kastle Access Control System Data from March 4, 2020 to August 11, 2021. Three of the top 10 cities recorded on the “Back to Work” business barometer are in Texas.

Decisions to implement return to work policies are not without risk, not only for health and safety reasons, but also to keep productive employees. According to the latest data from a survey conducted by Morning Consult, over half of workers would consider quitting if their employer asked them to return to the office before they felt safe. Determining how long the remote work phenomena will last largely depends on the severity of the pandemic, and at least for now the return to work phenomenon continues.

Garrett Hottle

“It changes companies.”

Randy Robertson is the owner and CEO of INNOVATiON, a marketing and consulting company in Waco. You are aware of the hurdles companies face when hiring new employees.
“In the hospitality industry, I know from places I’ve been to and from various customers trying to employ waiters that this is probably one of the areas of greatest difficulty,” he said. “” In the past, salespeople used to come here all the time. Some employers do not want their employees to have one-on-one interviews. So it’s an evolving kind of situation. ”

Whether it is the labor shortage in the catering industry for employers or the prevailing desire of employees to work from home instead of working from the company office, the economic landscape is not changing. And if the hurdle for employers today is hiring new people and retaining existing ones, then implementing a return to work policy can be both a hazard and an opportunity. When asked if it was more of a danger or an opportunity, Robertson said it was a good question.

“Because there are a lot of companies that are struggling to get the number of employees they need, but there is also a change in the way people do business.”

Garrett Hottle

Brazos River in Waco, TX

For now, with the stamina of the remote-to-work phenomena that can still be seen. However, the changing trend in the workplace proves that employers need to be flexible as we all navigate together through a sea of ​​change.

“Everyone’s in the same boat because they don’t know how this will change or how it will end,” said Roberston.

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