Barclays' CEO says crowded offices could be 'a thing of the past'
- Barclays' CEO said Wednesday that offices may never see the same crowds again after the coronavirus pandemic subsides.
- "There will be a long-term adjustment to our location strategy," he told reporters following the bank's first-quarter results.
- Across Wall Street, executives are mulling massive changes to workplaces to promote safety.
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One of the United Kingdom's largest banks is rethinking its staffing and office strategies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
"There will be a long-term adjustment to our location strategy," Jes Staley, chief executive of Barclays, told reporters following the bank's first-quarter financial report on Wednesday. "The notion of putting 7,000 people in the building may be a thing of the past."
He said that the bank will be re-evaluating its space needs, including at its London headquarters and branches throughout the world, given that the global company is now being run by staff "from their kitchens," according to the BBC.
Barclays is far from alone as it and Wall Street peers ponder how, exactly, to return their thousands of workers to offices. According to a Bloomberg News report, those brainstorming sessions have included everything from redesigning lobbies and temperature checks to staggered returns and elevator attendants.
Real-estate experts have said that the world needs to prepare for a "new normal" that's already begun to partially take shape. There are early signs of a potential move to the suburbs as people escape high-density locations that have been disproportionately hit by the virus.
Peter Miscovich, a managing director at JLL, told Business Insider's Dan Geiger that this period of remote work has his clients considering new ways of structuring their office space.
"We are looking at reimagining how people work," he said.
Read Miscovich and two other experts' predictions for the future of the office post-pandemic here.
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