So, be deliberate. Look at your business and your culture. Review your strategic plan and see how real estate and project management decisions can support that plan. For savvy companies that plan ahead and find customized decisions that work, we say, “yahoo!”

Before companies decide on their virtual office policy—including the level of their mobility program—they should consider several key variables:

• What is the goal of your workplace program? Is it to more effectively

manage real estate costs by reducing space? Is it to recruit and retain

top talent? Promote collaboration? Or all of the above? (As companies continue to scrutinize the bottom line, we can't forget that real estate is still the second largest corporate expense, after labor.)

• What are the demographics of your organization in terms of

Millenniums, stay-at-home parents, retirees, and the multi-cultural breakdown? (As the Baby Boomer generation yields to new demographics, the workplace paradigm must adjust.)

• What percentage of your workforce is best-suited to work out of the

office? Are you growing your sales force and service field offices, or are you a headquarters or back-office operation? (In the former case, you can push for more seat sharing and consider a mobile workforce of approximately 75%; in the later example, more staff needs to be in-house, but you can still reduce seat requirements by up to 30%.)

• What technological tools will you provide to remote workers? (To

promote communication, laptops, cloud solution services, and video conferencing are important ways to keep employees connected.)

• What are you planning to do regarding managers who fear they will lose

control and accountability with less direct staff contact? Is training in place to help managers support and stay connected with remote staff? (Here, change management programs are critical.)

In other words, before you jump headlong into a workplace solutions program, you should consider many variables and be strategic in your approach.

Robin Weckesser, managing principal at Cresa in San Jose, is the head of the office's Project Management group. The views expressed in this column are the author's own.