Transcription:
Trends Relative to Workplace

Bill Klaproth: When you've been searching for the right insight, advice and information on financial marketing, you know where to go, the Speakeasy. The exclusive source for financial marketing insights with a shot of human, starring Kelly Hellickson and Hilary Reed from EmpowerFi, strategy-infused data-driven marketing solutions for financial institutions nationwide.

And on this episode, Kelly Hellickson welcomes Jenny Bengeult, Executive Vice President and Director of Design at Momentum, Inc., an integrated plan design-build firm as they talk about pre, during and post-pandemic trends relative to workspace. Now, here's Kelly Hellickson.

Kelly Hellickson: It is our second opportunity to speak with Jenny Bengeult, from Momentum. Jenny, thanks for coming back on. How are you doing today?

Jenny Bengeult: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. How are you?

Kelly Hellickson: Good. It's been a little bit since we spoke last. And, if you remember correctly, we were talking about the good old pandemic because we haven't talked about it enough, but more specifically too, brand. We touched on a lot about what brand means and how it's kind of come into its own, especially in the financial institution, financial arena.

And I thought today, Jen, we could talk about workspace. And I think one of the things that I'd love to touch on is, with your expertise and your background there at Momentum, let's talk a little bit about residential office space pertaining to credit unions and banks. What are you guys forecasting or maybe even seen already because of the pandemic and maybe some really good changes, maybe some not so good changes? Talk to us a little bit about that.

Jenny Bengeult: Yeah, absolutely. So obviously, everybody went home a little bit over a year ago, was forced home and, to work from home when the pandemic hit. And some people literally have not stepped foot in an office in over a year and some are slowly starting to come back. Huge lessons learned from this whole experiment, right?

But what we have learned is that most knowledge-based workers, which are most back office credit union and banking employees are knowledge-based workers, they're at a computer most of the day, have been fairly successful in working from home. Now, this has varying degrees of success based on their job types, their roles or functions, how much they need to collaborate with others.

And also the big other thing we've learned about the success of working from home is what type of office space or even set up you have at home. You know, are you having to balance being also a homeschool teacher for your kids during this time? Do you have dogs barking in the background? Or are you sharing a home office or dining table with your spouse?

Kelly Hellickson: Oh yeah. Checking off all the boxes right there, Jenny.

Jenny Bengeult: Yeah.. Obviously varying levels of success. But most people are enjoying working from home or having more of a residential-based home office. That said, post-pandemic, we are seeing that most people are interested in exploring what we're calling a hybrid work environment, where they would still allow people to work from home, anywhere from one day to four days a week. But they would like to see people coming back to the office at least a few days a week as well.

While you're individual productivity work can be done at home, there's great gains from bringing people together as well and having more of a collaborative environment and doing that type of work in person. So, yeah, big lessons learned from everything we've been through in the past year.

Kelly Hellickson: Absolutely. And that's a really good point you make too about, not only coming back into the office so to speak, but I just feel like everybody's craving connection. And in the financial industries, financial service arena, I mean, connection is typically equivalent to a really great business outcome. And for us to be viewing these community credit unions as our leading, PFI, premier financial institution, is a really good thing. And I think that's good for everybody involved, especially the community. But I think you bring up a good point too about the next normal. What are we going to see? You know, I think that it's not a one-size-fits-all, right? I mean, wouldn't you agree?

Jenny Bengeult: Absolutely. And that's something we're helping a few of our clients with right now is what is that right solution? And it really is based on different roles or work types within organizations and also the culture and brand within that organization as well. So you don't need to be physically right next to somebody to connect on a cultural level, but it helps. And there's just different organizations that do that better in person versus virtually too.

I also think geography plays a big role. How easy is it to commute into an office? You have a lot of workers that are having to commute in an hour plus. Or do you have a lot of employees that are a little bit closer and it's easier to get to an office environment?

And then that third caveat, like I mentioned before is do you have a lot of younger workers that are having to juggle family life at home and they just can't concentrate and get the work done that they need. And they're looking for that break away and space to go work and get their work done? Or do they have a nice home office environment too, that they can work out of regularly? So there is absolutely no one-size-fits-all solution for anybody. You have to really consider all these different facets to help determine what the next best strategy is moving forward.

Kelly Hellickson: Yeah, that's great. Do you find yourselves at Momentum-- do you find yourself, Jenny, maybe even acting as not therapist, but counselor, if you will, for leadership that really just-- there is some leadership at credit unions right now that, well, we've never navigated this, but they are kind of old school, traditional work office mentality. Are they just blatantly asking you help and advice or what are you seeing there from leadership?

Jenny Bengeult: Yeah, we are getting requests for some help right now. And that's the big thing, right? Nobody's ever been through something like this, but I think it's been a great thing. It really pushed people forward to think about, "Well, do these people need to be in the office every day or can we successfully work from home part of the time?"

I'm not a therapist, but I like to think we can definitely help our clients come up with strategies that will best, work for them. So yes, we are asked. And that's the thing, nobody really knows, it is I feel like a very experimental time right now where everybody's trying different things. And so I think that's a key to the future of office space and the future of work, is that it needs to be really flexible and nimble. It needs to be adaptable to changes, that I think employees overall are just going to work out of office spaces differently. They're going to come into the office for different reasons in the future, and there's gotta be different reasons that they want to come in.

Just forcing employees to come back I don't think is necessarily the right tactic. I think you're going to have to give them a reason to come back, right? You're going to have to get them excited to come back. I think it's going to look different in the office environment and be a different setup.

Kelly Hellickson: I do too. And I think that we're going to see maybe even a new opportunity or an opportunity for new positions that really do kind of reside between leadership and the frontline. I also think that we're in a unique situation within our landscape. And that credit unions and banks, they own their buildings, so if they're not occupying the building with their team, with their staff, there's opportunities for gains there in terms of business outcomes and potentially even credit unions and banks being landlords.

Jenny Bengeult: Yeah. We are seeing some of that or that when a new operation center is built, planning for the future and growth, having some lease space available in there. I do think though also pre-pandemic, office spaces were getting awfully efficient and tight on space. It was all about how many square feet per person, how efficient can we make this floor plan and how many people can we get into this space?

And I think post-pandemic, it's about spreading out a little bit more and giving people the opportunity to maybe work out at different spaces over the course of a day. Maybe they start at a desk, but then they moved to project team space where they can kind of collaborate and have ideation sessions and that kind of thing. Then maybe they need to step into a small private room where they take a few video calls, things like that. So I think we're going to see more of what's called activity-based work where people can move around over the course of the day. And so that means we can't get quite so condensed on a floor plate. Maybe we need to allow for more of that growth and space and ability to move around a bit more.

Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. That's a great point. I hadn't even thought of that one. I think that too, it's going help with the hybrid mentality of, okay. well, like you said, you know, maybe you're in the office three days and then your work from home the other two. And I think that, as with anything in life, balance is so hard. It's so hard. Everybody balance, balance, balance. But it's really hard to achieve. And I think post-pandemic, that's going to be a great outcome and that it's going to allow for us full-time workers, raising families, having babies, fur babies or otherwise, you know, we really want to spend time with the ones that you love. And I think post-pandemic, we're going to see that that's going to be a good outcome and that we're going to achieve more balance, I think, as a society.

Jenny Bengeult: I think so too. And, for me, I think about this in my own personal terms and how I've done. I've gone back and forth working in the office and working at home and I'm kind of juggling going back and forth day by day. I was in the office three days this week. I'll probably be home the other two.

But what I struggled with at the beginning of the pandemic was not having that car ride, even if it's only 10 minutes long to and from the office. And just that mental break or that psychological break from, "Okay, now I'm at home" and "Now I'm at work." And then also having that routine has really helped me as well. So I think even if it's just going to the other room in your house or just making sure you do get up and get ready at the same time every day, I think there's a lot said for that too. And it goes a long way in mental well-being and feeling like you're going to work and then you are at home and maintaining a little bit of balance there, too.

Kelly Hellickson: Absolutely. I love that. I just read a little excerpt from a magazine because I was just traveling for work, but I was still working while I was traveling and also trying to be a mom and parent from the road. But I was reading an excerpt from Christina Applegate and she said the last year has really allowed us to, if we wanted to, kind of fall apart, maybe lay in bed a couple of days too often. But then, it did kind of refuel us, recharge our batteries. So now, I think that you're right, the capabilities and the want, the need to have that routine, I think it's a new routine it's a little bit of a hybrid, but it's kind of exciting to get back out there and get back to what your next normal is going to look like.

So thanks so much, Jenny. As always, it's really great to have you on, and we just really respect everything that you have to say, your expertise and thank you for joining us today.

Jenny Bengeult: Well, thanks so much for having me. It was great chatting with you.

Bill Klaproth: And thanks for joining us. And to connect with Hilary or Kelly to simplify your credit union marketing needs with EmpowerFi's full service marketing and design support, please visit EmpowerFi.org. You can also email info@empowerfi.org for more information.

This is the Speakeasy Financial Marketing Podcast. Thanks for listening.