Microsoft isn't giving up plans to transition to collaborative work spaces, but it is making adjustments for the effects of COVID-19. So said the company's head of global real estate and security, Michael Ford, on the CBRE podcast The Weekly Take.
"We've done our research and we're transitioning from individual offices to team-based spaces, and those spaces are for eight to twelve engineers, employees, working in a team room or a neighborhood," Ford told CBRE's Spencer Levy.
The spaces will be equipped with "focus rooms, concentration zones and more collaborative spaces. So that's a major shift for Microsoft and a major change for Microsoft across our portfolio," Ford said.
But the company is keeping COVID-19 in mind. "With the new social distancing standards, the six feet or two meters, we will make sure we're complying with that new standard," Ford told Levy. "So we will create more space around each individual employee."
Ford said Microsoft has been in individual offices for over 30 years. Corporate headquarters are in Redmond, WA, but the company operates 700 locations across 117 different countries.
Most employees are working from home, but when Redmond is fully operational, employees can use a Microsoft app called MyHub to arrange transportation and other logistics. "They can order lunch, they can check a menu, they can book a conference room, they can book one of our shuttles or connectors into campus and around campus," he said. "They don't have to send an e-mail to real estate and facilities or security."
Ford said that some Microsoft employees have always worked from home. He expects that number to remain higher even after the pandemic has run its course, "because of all the tools and the products and services that are being developed that allows an employee to work from anywhere in the world." The company plans to support both approaches.
Ford said he believes that co-working "is here to stay" for many companies, though COVID-19 may be pushing out the timeline for adoption at Microsoft. "I don't know if [it's] going to be three years, five years, 10 years down the road. But I can see us going in that direction also, becoming more dense."
He said that Microsoft will not be rushing employees back onto its campuses. "We want to take a slower approach at Microsoft and make sure we get the model right," Ford said. "This is something we don't need to be the leader in. We can step back and watch others move back into the office and we can move later. We're in no rush."
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Scott Graham
Scott Graham focuses on intellectual property and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He writes ALM's Skilled in the Art IP briefing. Contact him at [email protected].
