BoA’s Real Estate Approach Includes Consolidation, Bringing Back Employees

Bank of America, like many large companies, wants access to a diverse talent base to allow it to connect with customers.

The best way to do that is to have a presence in areas with diverse populations. While some companies may be looking to leave cities, BoA thinks it is essential to have a presence in urban areas.

“I think the urban cities are still going to be very much a part of our equation,” Anne Walker, global real estate and strategic initiatives executive at Bank of America, said on CBRE’s “The Weekly Take” podcast.

This is part of the thinking the banking giant is relying on as it charts a new path for its real estate footprint. Not that it is throwing out all of its earlier strategies. 

Over the past decade, ESG goals have helped BoA inform its real estate strategy. The company’s process begins by identifying the local markets it wants to be in. Then it looks to bring its businesses together in co-locations. This provides efficiency and allows teammates to get to know each other and think about the clients and customers holistically. It also wants to be a great place to work.

“That means we’ve got to think about where we want to be to recruit the right diverse talent,” Walker says. “It means we’ve got to think about what’s the most effective design layout for collaboration, for productivity.”

Over the past decade, BOA has consolidated space going from 130 million square feet in 2010 to 76 million square feet today. While BoA is looking at consolidation opportunities, coworking hasn’t been a large part of its strategy. Part of the reason is potential information security concerns

“We invest a very significant amount of money to make sure we’ve got the right talent and the right capabilities there,” Walker says. “And I just think our having our locations be in our control the most is probably an important factor there.”

Like many companies, the COVID experience has taught BoA that employees can be effective working from home. On an interim basis, Walker says telework will allow the company to manage its consolidation more aggressively.

Walker says the company has been able to pivot to work-from-home more effectively than even its leaders anticipated. The company currently has around 185,000 of its 212,000 employees working from home around the world. Despite this success, it wants to bring its employees back to the office to increase engagement and collaboration.

That said, Walker emphasizes that the company will not bring large numbers of employees back until we’re “on the other side of COVID with the vaccine.”

BoA is using a health screening app that requires employees to answer several questions daily. At its larger administrative and operational sites and financial centers, it is regularly doing COVID testing. It currently has a process around rolling out new technologies, such as HVAC systems, to ensure its employees, clients and customers are having a safe experience. It is also looking at technologies that would do things like allow employees to reserve seats in conference rooms.

“Most of it’s all about providing our teammates confidence and comfort that we’re thinking about them and making sure the health and safety standards are met,” Walker says.