What's Becoming of SMB Office Spaces? Not What You Think.

After ironing out the initial kinks, the shift to remote work… worked.

Though we have considered for years whether traditional offices would truly give way to remote working arrangements, this pandemic has proven that technology truly is a powerful and connecting force and that many employees can, in fact, thrive in this new normal.

We already know that a majority of office workers—72 percent, according to the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM)—want to continue working from the office at least two days a week, while nearly one-third never want to return. Now, the fate of many commercial office spaces hangs in limbo, and SMBs owners are split on what to do.

Half of very small businesses (VSBs) and small business (SBs), and nearly a third (the plurality) of mid-sized businesses (MBs), do not plan to change their commercial office space, according to a recent TriNet Pulse survey*. However, roughly a quarter of MBs will reduce their commercial space, and about a fifth will get rid of their office space altogether.

“The future of work is mobile,” said Michael Mendenhall, SVP Chief Marketing Officer/Chief Communications Officer at TriNet. “But mobile isn’t the only way people will work in the wake of the pandemic. As the work starts to revolve around the human needs of employees, we’re seeing a mix of work-from-home and work-from-office options, even within the same company.”

This is significant as we look towards trends of mobility and flexibility. We already know that employees are fleeing cities—both permanently and temporarily—for rural and suburban areas. And as flight happens away from urban centers, commercial office space will likely sit dormant.

SMBs know better than anyone that work is not about the space, but the people who are in it. As employees migrate, so does culture. It’s vital that SMBs keep their thumbs on the pulse of their culture and devise strategies for maintaining it amid what is likely be a permanently hybridized workforce.

* SMB Pulse, conducted with third-party research firm Bredin, surveyed 500 principals of U.S. companies between September 26 – October 13 with 1 to 500 employees, including: 250 Very Small Businesses (VSBs) with one to 19 employees (97.7% weighting); 150 Small Businesses (SBs) with 20 to 99 employees (2.0% weighting); 100 Mid-sized Businesses (MBs) with 100 to 500 employees (0.3% weighting). The data cited in the research represents the opinions of the survey respondents and not those of TriNet or its employees.