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“From a cost perspective, it’s probably neutral, getting to maybe a slight benefit,” Barrenechea told the Financial Post in a recent interview, noting that any benefit would be reinvested in the workforce.
“It also is going to allow us to go after talent that we weren’t able to go after before, because our talent has always been tied to a physical space.”
OpenText made its decision earlier than most, but experts in the world of commercial real estate say that companies all across North America are rethinking their real estate footprints, and the long-term effects could transform the way we live.
Ray Wong, vice president of data operations at Altus Group, a commercial real estate services company, said that there are a lot of different effects on commercial real estate as a result of the pandemic.
For example, on the one hand companies will need less space, because more people will be working from home. But at the same time, companies will need more space to accommodate physical distancing requirements until a COVID-19 vaccine is developed.
Wong said that there’s so much uncertainty around the future of the virus, that leaders will need to plan for flexibility, as they enact temporary distancing measures to reduce risk.
“Nobody, I think, is ruling anything out, with the exception perhaps of OpenText,” Wong said.
“That’s how they’re going to plan their space, but I think there are a lot of other companies that are still trying to figure this out, what their needs are, and what their employees’ needs are, how to keep them safe.”
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