Health and safety are pushing businesses and workers away from dense, crowded cities toward suburbs and smaller cities, with technology and remote work making the move possible. Remote work rose from 5% before the pandemic to above 40% after.
Good medical care will be a considerable determinant regarding where people, businesses, and companies choose to locate. These significant changes are because of the ongoing effects of the global pandemic.
The initial impact of the pandemic had the economy shrinking by as much as 32% during the second quarter of 2020, leading to extensive business disruptions. There now exists a direct and indirect link between the pandemic and a company’s decision to locate its premises.
This article analyzes how health and safety concerns force businesses to rethink their office’s location or where employees will work.
Why did the pandemic hit crowded cities hardest?
The pandemic has destroyed the inner cities due to the sheer number of people packed in a small area. Poor areas bore the brunt of COVID-19 because of all the people packed into tiny spaces at home, dealing with poorly ventilated subways and workplaces.
Even well-to-do areas had to contend with cramped office spaces and interaction with numerous people all day long. It’s no coincidence that the most densely populated states also had the highest excess mortality rates:
By comparison, suburbs offer sunshine, open spaces, and outdoor activities, an excellent environment for preventing infectious diseases. Statistics show those living in suburban metro counties may have lower premature death rates than residents in urban areas.
How Companies and Individuals Are Reacting to the Pandemic
In the end, people need to adjust to the pandemic as they have always done in the face of other crises–incompetently at the beginning but slowly and firmly solving the problem by adjusting to the threat.
1. Being close to people
Pandemics and natural calamities, including climate change, often cause changes in how and where people live.
For instance, New York’s three counties with the highest urban density recorded the highest fatality rates compared to the state average. Manhattan’s fatality rate is at 4.8, and Brooklyn and Bronx are both at 7.5 times the nation’s proportional death average.
On the other hand, suburban and less dense counties, with urban densities between 2,500 and 5,000, recorded a lesser national death rate average at 0.8%.
Even with an increase in death rates, states like Texas, Kansas, and Dakota still record between one-third and one-eighth of those in New York and similar places.
The measures taken to curb the spread of the disease will have a more profound and longer-lasting impact among the poor, who are more vulnerable for obvious reasons.
For these reasons, there is a push for workers and organizations to move away from crowded workplaces. In addition, companies should embrace measures that minimize human contact for health and safety reasons.
2. Technology
Many companies are anxious and worried about the level of productivity of their workforce when working remotely from home.
Indeed, various factors may affect telecommuters’ productivity, such as poor time management, procrastination, distractions, poor communication, and coordination challenges.
However, strategic use of technology and digital connectivity has been of massive help during the pandemic.
As people dispersed and isolated during the pandemic and most employees worked from home, technology became a savior as people learned to complete tasks virtually. Now, individuals and businesses employ technology to improve efficiency and productivity.
3. Dispersion
Being away from crowded places, driving in your car, and having few neighbors considerably reduce the risk of contagion. Judging from emerging demographics and current real estate trends, it is evident that people should consider dispersion to smaller, less densely packed cities.
In addition, remote working, which increased from 5% before the pandemic to above 40% after, may be the new trend. Most people working from home prefer to continue to do so.
Most companies, especially tech firms like Twitter, Facebook, and Salesforce, have resigned themselves to seeing most workers working entirely online. They now expect a large section of their workforce to continue working remotely even after the pandemic.
How should businesses and workers adapt to keep the workplace safe?
The new workplace seems to involve working at home away from other people, so companies and individuals may have to contend with and adapt to this new reality.
Adapting and adjusting is never easy for both individuals and businesses, but accepting the challenge ensures every party acclimatizes to ensure health and safety practices in the workplace.
Firstly, organizations need to provide a healthy working environment for workers. That could mean improving ventilation, reducing the number of workers in every workspace, and adopting a hybrid work model so you won’t have all workers in the same place on the same day.
They would need to clearly define and enforce health and safety management roles and responsibilities to convince workers.
Workers should learn to adapt to working online and have a dedicated space free from the distractions of working from home to ensure a smooth transition. Moving to the suburbs might also help.
What Will Happen to the Big Cities?
Coming up with ways to make tiny spaces safer should be the top priority of cities, especially if they want to find new residents.
In the future, there’s a possibility employees will rank locations based on safety, health, and environment at the workplace and the location, such as the quality of medical care infrastructure, how the site performed during the pandemic, and their adherence to the health laws like social distancing.
Rather than promote expensive and crowded bars, clubs, and loud festivities, cities will now strategize and market themselves based on safety standards, spacious office areas, open places for recreation, and strong internet connection that supports telecommunication.
Frequently asked questions
What factors now shape where a business locates?
Health and safety have joined the list. Businesses and workers now weigh the quality of local medical care, how a place performed during the pandemic, how well it follows health rules such as social distancing, the space available in offices and outdoors, and the strength of its internet connection for remote work. Crowded, dense locations lose ground on most of those measures.
Why are businesses and workers moving to the suburbs?
Density spreads infection. During the pandemic the most densely populated states had the highest excess death rates, while suburbs offered sunshine, open space and outdoor activity, and suburban metro counties may have lower premature death rates than urban ones. Remote work and digital tools make the move practical, because many jobs no longer need a desk in a crowded downtown office.
How did remote work change where companies locate?
Remote work rose from 5% of the workforce before the pandemic to above 40% after, and most people working from home prefer to keep doing so. Tech firms such as Twitter, Facebook and Salesforce expect a large share of their staff to stay remote, so fewer companies need big offices packed into dense city centers.
How will big cities compete for businesses after the pandemic?
By selling safety instead of nightlife. Rather than promoting crowded bars, clubs and loud festivities, cities will market their safety standards, spacious office areas, open places for recreation and strong internet connections. Their first priority is finding ways to make tight spaces safer, especially if they want to attract new residents and the employers who follow them.
