The Trust Company spent the end of 2019 testing remote work for an employee, a first for the company.

“We tried it and it was great,” said Jack Davidson, chief strategy officer for The Trust Company of Tennessee. “It was kind of funny for us because culturally it just felt weird, right? How are we really going to engage with that person?”

Turns out they’d learn all too well how to engage with remote workers.

Also at the end of 2019, the leadership team was debating how much more square footage it would need for its growing team, which regularly depended on in-person meetings and a traditional office routine.

Now the firm is subleasing some of its unused space as only 50% of its team is working out of the office.

Safe to say working at The Trust Company has changed during the course of the pandemic. The team has hired out-of-state employees. It conducts meetings on Microsoft Teams.

“We have just had a lot of success in this environment and having people work where it’s best for them,” Davidson said.

Businesses have been forced to become more flexible, creative and savvy to give employees a working environment that keeps them healthy and happy. For many businesses, at least some of those changes have long-term potential. But time will tell if employees will relish those changes for the long haul or will crave a return to their traditional office environment.

Meeting space still critical

Davidson said The Trust Company adopted a two-week mindset during the coronavirus pandemic in which it was understood that any working policies were subject to change as the world changes.

They officially welcomed back employees to the office at the end of July but maintained that as long as employees were happy, healthy and productive, most employees could decide what their work habits entailed.

The company onboarded eight employees in 2020, including several working out-of-state.

Many positions will be remote permanently, Davidson said. Those individuals can reserve spaces in the office to host meetings or work at “time-share” desks and offices.

“There may be a small handful that will have to be in the office,” Davidson said. “We changed our mail process, we changed inter-office administration, communication through Teams, really making it location neutral in terms of a lot of back office stuff.”

Of the company’s 23,372 square feet of office space in Knoxville, about 1,300 of it will be leased.

That space was once full of employees; now it’s mostly open cubicles and empty offices. But, because he thinks face-to-face meetings will increase, Davidson said the company is prioritizing meeting spaces for hosting clients.

After a three-month pause beginning in March, office leasing became “extremely active” if not back to normal in the second part of 2020, said Justin Cazana, principal at Avison Young. Cazana closed 19 office leases in the second half of the year.

Though there may be fewer employees working in the office, Cazana said social distancing norms mean tenants need just as much overall space.

“People have realized that from a corporate real estate standpoint that they don’t need to make a 10-year decision based on six months of data,” Cazana said.

Maintaining an evolving culture

Paul Sponcia wasn’t worried about efficiency when he transitioned his team at The IT Company from 90% working in office to 95% working out-of-office in spring 2020.

Tech company employees are well-equipped to work from anywhere; Sponcia was more concerned about maintaining company culture for his team of 17. This made it challenging for a work-from-home model when the culture was built upon person-to-person interaction in the office.

Today, about 50% of the staff works in the office at any given time, except for team meetings. That may go up to as high as 70% in the future, Sponcia guessed.

“There’s a few people that really want to work from home because they have a particular role that lends itself to just hyper-focus, like no distractions,” Sponcia said. “And because our office is a bit more open, it’s just not conducive for that type of work.”

He’ll work with employees to meet their needs, and The It Company will pursue a hybrid work model long-term. Sponcia is working with an architectural firm to redesign the flow of the office to suit that new model.

They’re maintaining their office square footage but are eliminating workspaces in favor of more collaborative, casual areas with seating. Those who want to work in office full-time will get a designated desk. Everyone else will have the ability to use unassigned desk space.

“I have no plans to force people to be in the office. … I’m totally OK with whatever people need,” Sponcia said. “I think the most important part is, two pieces: One is how we build the culture and be intentional and two is making sure we set clear expectations of the job and what success is and how someone would be measured on it.”

Solo-preneurs’ needs have changed, too. Erika Biddix opened coworking space Girl Boss Offices in December 2019 to provide a professional work environment with a supportive community for female entrepreneurs.

“I think the people in the world who did not understand the benefits of working remotely, I think those obstacles have been removed for a lot of companies and a lot of women who during this time have decided they do want to do an entrepreneurship journey,” Biddix said.

The office includes 13 assigned desks, which are all leased. Biddix launched the Girl Boss Insiders program in January because she saw a changing need for her target market: The insiders program offers two one-day passes a month to use additional unassigned desk space and access to community events, which are virtual for now. The new program is $100 a month.

While potential members still need professional desk space, Biddix said she finds what they’re craving most is a community, especially those who have been working at home for the past year.

“What we were finding is people wanted to be part of the community but they’re at home with their kids doing school … they just don’t have time to be in an office space, even if it’s 24/7, because they have to be a Mom, or their business has suffered because of COVID, so they just can’t afford it.”

Girl Boss Offices members include accountants, event planners, marketers and consultants. Memberships are 3, 6 or 12 months and range from $300 a month for a 12-month lease of an assigned desk in an open office to $700 a month for a three-month lease in a private office.

“We’ve got a 95% retention rate of people who have re-signed,” Biddix said. “So when I say we’re on a wait list and I look at who we’ve got, unless somebody moves out of town or closes their business, I don’t see that those seats will pop open very often.”

Space with room to grow

Cirrus Insight grew its team thanks to a merger but downsized its office footprint.

It absorbed Raleigh, North Carolina-based tech company Zynbit under its umbrella in 2020, said Franchesca Ramos, manager of operations and people-ops.

About 80% of Cirrus’ staff was working from home in spring and summer of 2020.

“At that time our lease was coming up, so at that point we just felt like it was a better decision to not renew just because, again, the uncertainties of where this was leading and the fact that we were spending so much on overhead that didn’t need to be spent since people were working from home,” Ramos said.

The team downsized from 1,500 square feet in Knoxville to two, two-person offices and a single office at e|spaces, the coworking facility in Western Plaza that opened last summer. Cirrus’ offices are available for any of their team to use.

The company also plans to sublease its Raleigh headquarters. So a work-from-home and flex office space model seems a permanent reality for Cirrus.

“I think for technology companies, it just makes more sense, because you save on overhead and then that goes into investing more in our employees, investing in tooling, continuous engagement and obviously, you know, it gives us a better financial outlook that’s not so uncertain,” Ramos said.

She anticipates Cirrus leasing more offices at e|spaces as employees get vaccinated and feel safe returning to an office environment.

That’s music to the ears of Jon Pirtle, president and partner in e|spaces, which has locations in Tennessee and Florida.

His 13,000-square-foot space opened in August and is about 30% leased. Typically within the first year, e|spaces offices are 80-90% leased, he said.

That leasing process typically involves big opening parties, made impossible during the pandemic.

“Once I get people in the space, it sells itself. Most people think coworking, they see a bunch of tables and people wearing hoodies,” said Pirtle, whose tenants include accountants, tech companies and wealth managers.

Members can utilize hot desks starting at $175 a month or rent designated offices starting at $600 a month for a single office. Leases are typically 6-12 months.

For clients like Cirrus, who are downsizing, Pirtle touts the benefits of saving money, saving time on back-of-house functions like trying to fix a printer and base of potential clients or referrals.

“This is the way to do work now. And you’re not sharing with everybody, you’re still your own company.”