The way society views the workplace has undoubtedly altered how businesses have operated. With millions of employees working from home, companies who have been hesitant to adopt any sort of flexible workplace policy are now reevaluating if this arrangement could be a permanent solution to ongoing circumstances.
While history has taught us that pandemics can completely change the course of the status quo, it also reveals that they can simply accelerate trends that were already anticipated. For instance, experts have long predicted that businesses would become more flexible in the next decade. However, pandemic expedited this change after companies had no choice but to adopt remote working en masse.
Now, it is up to companies to recognize and understand what role that remote working plays in workplace operations. Choosing where to locate, who can work from home and who is required to have a physical office will be essential moving forward.
For corporations in particular, location strategy decides the type of talent a company has, and whether those workers are satisfied with their positions.
Traditionally, large companies open a headquarters in large cities that are hubs for their industry. That is why we associate the Bay Area with technology companies, Los Angeles with entertainment and Detroit with industrial companies.
According to a Harvard Business Review statistical model that tracks hundreds of Fortune 500 headquarters’ locations, 70% of those headquarters are in metros.
Although it is too early to indicate how the pandemic will transform the economic geography of America, businesses will surely use location as a determining factor for their talent searches.
