Hybrid work here to stay as Triangle’s largest employers eye future return to the office

As COVID-19 vaccines get distributed across North Carolina, the Triangle’s major employers are assembling their plans to welcome employees back to the office after more than a year of working from home.

For many of the Triangle’s thriving tech companies, employees, working from their couches and kitchens, have kept their employers chugging along, even as downtown Raleigh feels eerily empty and traffic on Interstate 40 has fallen.

But even as companies land on dates to open their offices, the number of people returning might not reach the same levels they did in March 2020 before the pandemic shut down everything.

Many are now giving the greenlight to hybrid work, allowing their workers to choose how many days of the week they are physically present — if at all. And that’s leading to some serious questions about how to best use the office and how much space is actually needed going forward.

Kendall Strickland, a branch manager for the staffing consultancy Robert Half’s Raleigh office, said if companies aren’t giving their employees more flexibility after the pandemic, they will be hurting their ability to recruit and retain talented employees.

“Everyone wants a hybrid schedule – something that gives them some control over both work and their personal life,” Strickland said in an email. “Some candidates are even taking roles that pay less for the flexibility or the ability to be 100% remote roles. Candidates know these roles and companies are out there and they are willing to hold out for them, especially since the candidate pool is national these days.”

No longer are Triangle-based companies competing only among themselves, she added. “You can live in Raleigh but work for a company based in New York or California ... there are many more opportunities for them to sift through,” Strickland said.

The News & Observer asked some of the Triangle’s largest employers about their plans to return to the office. For many, it remains a fluid situation, as hundreds of COVID-19 cases continue to be reported on a daily basis. Several companies told The News & Observer they are not yet ready to share their plans for returning to work.

Here’s what some of them said.

Red Hat

Software firm Red Hat has more than 50 locations across the world, but its largest is at its downtown Raleigh tower, where it has more than 2,200 employees.

The company is asking those employees to work from home until the end of September, though some critical roles are still coming into the office.

The company originally had targeted June, but moved the date back to give employees time to figure out plans around day care and other work situations that may have developed during the pandemic, said Danny Seaton, Red Hat’s senior director of global workplace solutions.

Red Hat already offered flexible work options for employees before the pandemic, and the company expects many of its employees to continue working that way going forward.

Before the pandemic, about 30% of Red Hat employees worked remotely.

“So being removed (from the office) is nothing new to us,” Seaton said.

“What we know is that this concept of hybrid is what our associates want,” Seaton added. “What we will see is probably that kind of hybrid workforce growing, and then it’ll be interesting to see what the remote community does.”

That will change how the company’s office in Raleigh will be used, Seaton said. Already, the company had been moving away from permanent desks and instead focuses on more flexible spaces and meeting rooms. That will likely continue.

Prior to the pandemic, the company had been tracking employee movement in their offices and found that the desk was one of the least used places at Red Hat, while conference rooms were much more active.

Seaton said Red Hat plans to monitor how its employees use the office space when they come back, and then it will contemplate reinvesting in how its offices look and determine how much space it needs going forward.

IBM

IBM’s campus in Research Triangle Park is home to about 8,000 employees. But almost 90% of them are still working remotely, according to Tim Humphrey, the senior state executive for IBM’s operations in North Carolina.

The company, which famously ended a remote-work policy in 2017, is now moving toward a permanent hybrid model going forward. Humphrey said the goal is to have around 80% of employees working that way, though the company is still ironing out the details for each department.

“This takes us back to how we’ve worked for decades,” Humphrey said in an email. “Some come in every day because their jobs require them to be there — like on a systems manufacturing line or an IBM Research chemical lab. Others may be at client sites. Others still in the workplace when needed.”

IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna took that a step further during an interview on Bloomberg TV.

“By hybrid, I mean 80 percent will spend at least three days a week (in the office),” he said. “Maybe not all eight to 10 hours, but at least some fraction of those three days in the office, because how do you create teams? How do you do creative work? How do you have serendipitous actions, et cetera?

“Do I have all the perfect answers, for instance, are we going to leave it up to individuals? Is it going to be more orchestrated? Those are all the questions we have yet to answer, so I want to be clear on that.”

Krishna said this likely will mean a re-thinking of IBM’s current office set-ups. “The workplace may not be a set of cubicles or closed offices where people come in, go behind a door and get all their work done,” he said. “That they might be doing partly at home.”

Cisco

Cisco, which maintains a large RTP campus like IBM, has told employees they have the option to work from home until the end of June.

Until then, it will be mandatory for Cisco employees to stay at home unless they are critical workers. The company has around 5,000 employees in RTP.

But that doesn’t mean workers will be forced to come back into the office on July 1, according to Jennifer Yamamoto, a spokeswoman for the company.

“We will embrace hybrid work post-pandemic. Returning to an office or lab will be based on role and work, not based on days or calendars,” Yamamoto said in an email.

Cisco has determined that most of its work can be done from anywhere, and the company, which makes the Webex video conferencing platform, is confident that its technology can keep up human connections, Yamamoto said.

That is also what the company believes its workers want.

“Workstyles drive how employees chose where they work, how they work and when they work,” she said in an email. “[B]oth leaders and employees must be flexible and adapt to meet the business needs and the employee working style preference.”

Yamamoto said Cisco will not mandate that employees get vaccines to return to the office, but it will continue to ask them to wear masks and follow social distancing protocols. Employees can also get a “recovery day off,” if they get vaccinated.

Citrix

Software firm Citrix says it plans to move its downtown Raleigh office — home to around 700 people — into 50% occupancy at the beginning of July.

The company is opening its office in a phased approach, so that it can keep social distancing protocols in place.

“It’s not like we’re going from the 25 people on site now to 700 within a day,” Jenna Geigerman, Citrix’s director of real estate and strategy, said in an interview.

Around 3% of the company’s Raleigh-based workforce is using the office at the moment, Geigerman added.

Geigerman said a hybrid approach to work will remain at Citrix. The company already is coming to grips with what that means for its office portfolio.

“It’s going to be very employee-centric: Where is the best place for you to work?” she said. “[Employees] can decide where their best place is: at home, at work or a third place. ... That does have some implications for how we use space.”

Geigerman said it may no longer make sense to have assigned spaces for employees going forward. “Not just because it’s not a good use of real estate,” she said, “but because it’ll seem really dead if a floor has 100 people on it, and only 30 percent of people are there on any given day.”

Will that lead to Citrix reducing its office space?

“I think it’s a little early to tell, because we don’t know how often people will come back,” Geigerman said, noting workers might come in just two to three days a week or they might come part of every day. “So we’re trying to anticipate ... so that we can adapt our real estate portfolio to those behaviors.”

Duke Energy

Duke Energy is planning to bring back its nearly 1,000 Raleigh-based employees in phases.

The first wave can begin returning to the company’s downtown Raleigh tower at the end of June, company spokeswoman Catherine Butler said in an interview.

But the majority of those workers will likely not return until September, she added.

“We are preparing to roll out a hybrid option for many of our teammates, but we are in an industry where people need to be on site all times,” she said. “Some are on site at all times and some will be hybrid, where they are in the office for a few days.”

A smaller group will be fully remote.

Duke is not mandating that employees get vaccines to return to the office, though it is offering incentives to get inoculated. The utilities company is offering “health reward points” to employees who get vaccinated, which can reduce the cost of employees’ insurance.

It’s also offering four hours of paid time off to help employees in scheduling appointments.

Fidelity Investments

Some 90% of the roughly 4,375 Fidelity Investments employees in the state began working remotely in March 2020, communications director Janelle O’Haugherty told The N&O. The company operates a large center in Research Triangle Park.

The company has been monitoring the risks of working in person in relation to data on daily virus cases, deaths and hospitalization rates in North Carolina.

“Given these positive developments, we are adjusting office protocols in consultation with medical advisors and local health authorities,” said O’Haughterty. “We are more focused on how we return to the office, as opposed to when. We are actively making plans. When a return is deemed safe, it will happen at a gradual pace, starting small before building over time.”

A North Carolina employee survey conducted by Fidelity showed that 94% of their employees said they were able to work in ways that met their personal needs, she said.

“Associates continue to say that the work-from-home experience is generally positive, but what they miss most are the in-person connections and community with colleagues, especially those they may not work with every day,” she said. “Our approach for the future is likely for associates to have time working onsite and offsite.”

SAS

The company has not decided when the more than 5,000 Cary-based workers at SAS Institute will return to campus.

While its offices are available to those who wish to come in, the campus remains mostly quiet.

Spokeswoman Shannon Heath said in an email the company is not ready to announce its plans, but “we will definitely be implementing (and continuing) flexibility.”

MetLife

The MetLife Global Technology office complex in Cary employs over 2,400 people. The campus is one of the company’s larger offices that have been open for in-person work for employees who want to go voluntarily, according to spokesperson Kim Friedman.

Friedman says MetLife anticipates having a full transition back to the office in the third quarter of this year.

MetLife is currently developing a hybrid work model called “FlexWork” to adapt certain jobs to employees’ needs in the pandemic and allow for flexibility between remote work.

“In our FlexWork model, some roles will continue to be office-based, others will continue to be fully virtual and many roles will move to a hybrid model, with a schedule of in-office and remote days based on what activities can best be done in person or virtually,” said Friedman. “This program allows for a greater degree of work-related flexibility while ensuring we maintain important aspects of organizational success such as our culture, team collaboration, business innovation, and career development and progression.”

GOVERNMENT & HIGHER ED

City of Raleigh

The City of Raleigh has had 75% of its full-time employees working in person since the start of the pandemic, many front-line essential workers, and with reduced personnel in some of its offices, said spokesperson Julia Milstead. The city has about 7,000 employees, divided into 4,000 full-time and 3,000 part-time jobs.

The remaining employees work hybrid schedules, alternating between remote and office work. An official date hasn’t been determined for more staff to return to in-person work.

“Depending upon the ease of the pandemic will dictate the level of planning, but certainly enhanced safety protocols and encouraging vaccinations are ongoing,” Milstead said. “Many of the safety protocols are currently in place, but much will depend upon the in-person staffing levels, to ensure maximum safety.”

A hybrid model, where remote work remains optional in the post-pandemic future, is being considered, she said.

Wake County

The majority of the over 4,000 people employed by Wake County continue to work outside of the office. County buildings that had staff working in them before the pandemic include the Wake County Commons and Library Administration buildings in Raleigh.

County spokesperson Dara Demi told The N&O that they’re in the process of determining what “Wake 2.0” will look like when all in-person is considered safe by the county. More details on the return to office work will be known later this spring, Demi said.

City of Durham

The City of Durham’s employees are mostly teleworking except for essential frontline workers in departments such as police, fire, sanitation and public works. A handful are working in person in offices, spokesperson Beverly Thompson said, but the Durham city and county governments are working on a plan that will work best for employees.

“Of course, we don’t expect every city government worksite to look the same in the coming months, in so far as all employees being onsite at the same time,” Thompson said. “Attitudes about teleworking and what can be accomplished have certainly shifted over the past year. That said, there may be a hybrid approach, with some employees teleworking some days, and working onsite others.”

The city employs around 1,900 employees. A task force, led by a deputy city manager, is discussing various approaches to what remote and on-site work will look like in the future, Thompson said.

Durham County

Durham County is currently using a hybrid model with remote and in-person employees and will continue to do so, county spokesperson Dawn Dudley said. More staff will be on-site as the county phases into opening more facilities to the public, such as libraries, she said.

The county employs around 1,900 people.

“Remote and flexible work options will help the county comply with social distancing guidelines required to manage operations during the COVID-19 pandemic environment,” said Dudley. “Durham County government will continue to leverage technology and new ways of working to support the citizens and county operations while maintaining our commitment to customer service, safety and well-being for all.”

Duke University

For Durham County’s largest employer, Duke University, the experience during the pandemic could vary widely.

Michael Schoenfeld, chief communications officer for Duke University, said the university has hundreds of departments, offices and labs, many of which have been working in person throughout the pandemic, including its hospitals, IT support and police and security.

The university’s research labs and teachers returned to campus last summer — though many Duke offices are still operating in a hybrid form, Schoenfeld said, “with some employees on campus or in offices when that is necessary to fulfill their jobs and many others working remotely.”

Schoenfeld said Duke has not yet settled on a permanent plan for its workers that are working in a hybrid fashion at the moment.

“There is not a single ‘reopening date’ for Duke,” Schoenfeld said by email. “Rather, we are looking at a range of options and formats to best serve our education, research and health care missions, protect the health and safety of our students, employees and the community, and retain and recruit the best talent.”

This story was originally published April 15, 2021 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Hybrid work here to stay as Triangle’s largest employers eye future return to the office."