Wanted: More downtown workers to return to the office, including city staff
Companies keep letting people work from home and that's hurting downtown recovery
As the city contemplates how much remote work its workers should be allowed to continue doing, two downtown organizations are calling for staff to return to their office jobs to help energize the core's post-pandemic recovery.
"The city could be a leader on getting more office employees back downtown. We need to bring back foot traffic, and it makes a statement for the city to get planning and building staff back at their office," said Barb Maly, the head of the Downtown London BIA.
"We continue to hear from our merchants that there is a significant decrease in foot traffic still continuing today from before COVID."
About a quarter of London's downtown office space is sitting empty and the city's downtown has been struggling to rebound from pandemic shutdowns. Now, city hall is grappling with whether it should order some of its workers who occasionally work from home, back to the office.
"With a significant portion of employees staying at home, we are missing the 'feet on the street' and people walking through the market, picking up their morning coffee, grabbing lunch and also picking up groceries before they head back home," Amy Shackleton, the general manager of the Covent Garden Market, wrote to politicians considering their next steps.
Right now city hall has a temporary hybrid work policy that allows some workers to spend half their time outside of their city workspace. "The benefits of remote working include increased productivity, better work-life balance and expanded talent and diversity in recruitment efforts," city staff wrote in a report.
Will office workers return?
Workers want to be able to work from home, and that is a powerful recruiting tool, the report says.
Other large corporate offices have also allowed their workers to work at least part-time from home, though they are signaling that this option will be over by the end of the year, Maly said.
In terms of city staff in particular, planning and building department workers who look over blueprints, are needed in their offices, Maly said.
"There's nothing better than face-to-face conversations and if you're submitting site plans or building plans or engineering drawings, it's nice to be able to put those in front of city staff and have that conversation one-on-one."
At a council meeting Tuesday night, politicians voted to require city planning and building staff to be in the office four days a week, a move made in part to address complaints from developers that hybrid work models were holding up planning applications.
Deputy city manager Scott Mathers told council that city administrators are trying to balance multiple factors, including:
- A desire by staff for more flexible work arrangements.
- New provincial rules that mandate strict timelines for handling of planning applications.
- A competitive job field where other employers are offering work from home.
The motion put forward by Coun. Shawn Lewis and Coun. Steve Lehman followed three hours of debate (it was a similarly long debate at committee last week, where it ended in a 7-7 tie).
The motion passed by a 9-6 vote (Coun. Hadleigh McAllister, Coun. Jerry Pribil, Mayor Josh Morgan, Coun. Peter Cuddy, Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen, Coun. Steve Hillier, Coun. Steve Lehman, Coun. Shawn Lewis and Coun. Susan Stevenson voting in favour).
Coun. Skylar Franke explained her vote against, saying a hybrid model allows the kind of work/life balance that employees are looking for post-COVID.
"I want to retain the talented employees that we have," she said.
Lewis said working from home was causing service levels at City Hall to suffer, and that a four-day-a week requirement to be in the office is an effective compromise.
"The status quo is not working for our customers," he said. "If this compromise doesn't pass, then I'm in favour of going back in the office five days a week."
The shift for planning and building staff to work from the office four days a week will start before the first quarter in 2024. Meanwhile, other city staff already working on hybrid work models will continue.