Surging Stipends And Office Overhauls Redefine The 9-to-5 Landscape

Technology companies were early adopters of the remote-work phenomenon after the COVID-19 pandemic subsided and businesses started asking their employees to return to the office.

But many have since changed their stances, demanding employees show up for work in person for at least part of the workweek. They cite collaboration, culture and social connection as the most important drivers when it comes to encouraging employees to return to the office. They also say productivity is better, and employees returning to the office boosts lagging outputs, according to real estate company JLL's "Technology Office Spaces: Shifting to Future-Fit Workplaces" report.

The survey found that the most common objection to returning to the office is the commute. Tech companies are responding by increasing commuting stipends, with 12% adding a stipend and 31% having one already in place.

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As tech companies adapt to changing working conditions, they're modifying their office space to accommodate it. When they're considering their needs, they see the space per person decreasing but the rentable square feet increasing as they add employees without expanding their footprint. They achieve this by increasing workspace-sharing ratios to just over two people per seat.

While the last two years as seen tech companies reduce their space, 36% of those surveyed said they would expand their portfolios in the next three to five years.

"Some of this trend is driven by companies cutting too much in 2023 and needing to expand space again to accommodate new growth and more employees returning to the office," the JLL report states. "Adapting space for hybrid work and more collaboration can also increase overall footprint compared to dedicated desks."

As companies adapt to a hybrid workforce, their office spaces look different. They have unassigned seating, set up team neighborhoods to encourage collaboration and provide focused, quiet spaces to allow for heads-down individual work.

Companies also investing more in workplace technologies and amenities, with 93% saying they are willing to pay a premium for tech-enabled space, according to JLL's Global Technology Survey.

Companies that allow their employees to choose which days they work in the office provide more flexibility, but many find that specifying in-office days promotes culture-building and cross-department collaboration.

While many tech companies may be pushing for their employees to return to the office, others believe that a remote-first or employee-choice strategy will allow them to compete for top talent anywhere, which they often see as a recruiting advantage.

Of tech companies with more than half of their employees working remotely, 46% say employee experience is among their top priorities, and 71% that don't require office attendance use social events to connect remote employees.

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