Commercial offices: on-site specialists, dentists, childcare to get workers back
Landlords are competing against remote and hybrid work arrangements to get workers back into the city full time.
On-site skin specialists, dentists, childcare and other left field options are among the services commercial property owners have been warned may be necessary to lure more workers back into CBD offices post-Covid.
Concerned about a perceived dwindling in productivity, office landlords need to reimagine the concept of ‘the workplace’ to get workers out of the spare rooms and into the city, according to Natalie Slessor, Executive Managing Director at CBRE Pacific.
But it will be an uphill battle, with many workplaces still predominantly remote or, at best, a hybrid arrangement, and employees reluctant to give up their new found balanced lifestyles.
Office landlords left field efforts to get workers back in the CBD full-time. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw
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In Sydney, offices are still only seeing around 75-80 per cent of workers on peak days, with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the most popular days to come in, revealed industry leaders at the 24th annual Australian Property Outlook.
With increasing prices for childcare and public transport, location and “what the workplace had to offer” would have to trump the commute and costs, according to Ms Slessor.
“I think childcare is so expensive and ridiculous, there needs to be something in it for families,” Ms Slessor said.
Natalie Slessor, Executive Managing Director at CBRE speaking at the 24th Australian Property Outlook.
“What if there was an occasional childcare that you could book in the morning of, I think that would really encourage parents.”
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Ms Slessor, who is also an environmental psychologist and leading workplace strategist, has retired the word “workplace” from her vocabulary and replaced it with “place of work”.
“We’re not there for the desk and the chair anymore, we’ve got that replicated in our home” she said.
Remote and hybrid working arrangements continue to be a battle in getting workers back in the city. Picture: John Appleyard
“People are marrying the office with other life based things,” Ms Slessor said.
The future of the office should cater for convenience, Ms Slessor believes.
“Instead of having to take an hour and half out of your day to go to an appointment, come to the office where we have a dentist, doctor and skin specialist all here” she said.
Feasibly, Ms Slessor said it didn’t always have to be a cost to tenants, as “landlords had a role to play” in creating multi-use facilities that lease spaces to healthcare professionals.
Would the convenience of a doctor or specialist get you back into the office?
Some work places have intertwined gyms and yoga classes, but Ms Slessor said it needs to encourage everyone, not just a small demographic.
“Yoga can be a bit hit and miss, it’s great if you love yoga but we all need skin cancer checks.”
She suggested funding for seasonal events like lunches could be repurposed into having healthcare professionals come in even just for a few days or a week throughout the year.
Yoga may get some people in the office, but not all said Ms Slessor.
“The workplace is a product, and people can’t be told to use products. You have to start with the benefits.”
On top of location and amenities, Ms Slessor said that people are also coming back into the office because of an “underestimated long tail of the pandemic” … loneliness.
“They are genuinely distressed,” she said.
Ms Slessor said that on site doctors, psychologists and health services could bring workers back in and additionally curb the issue.
“The side-effect might be productivity, great if it is, but isn’t it a greater societal responsibility to say it’s about community?”
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