REAL ESTATE NEWS

The corporate return-to-office debate has been ongoing in California and nationwide since the pandemic.

According to the Leesman Index global workplace effectiveness benchmark, the average home supports the average knowledge worker better than the average office. Allison English, co-founder at Aéto, a management consultancy specializing in people and place, used that insight to spark a debate and a panel discussion Aéto led during the CoreNet Global Summit recently in Anaheim, Calif.

This tug of war over work-life balance benefits is often quite personal and very emotive, the panel recognized.

Said one panelist, whose global firm provides high-quality coffee in their offices, “Our employees can talk about coffee all day if they want, but that’s not going to inspire our employees to come to the office more often.”

Tim Oldman, co-founder of Aéto, offered to the panel and audience as the session concluded, “Moments are the currency of experience. Measure them and invest wisely.”

RTO Policy: ‘We Don’t Have One’

San Jose-based Cisco, which was also represented at the CoreNet Global Summit, continues to focus on delivering a future-proofed workplace experience for its employees as it works toward a complete retrofit of its five-story Mission Bay office in downtown San Francisco and the old Splunk HQ near Santana Row, a trendy mixed-use facility. Both will be fully completed by mid-2026.

Tom Schwab, Leader of Strategy for Cisco’s Future Proof Workplaces, and an Aéto client, shared that Cisco actually does not have an enterprise-wide return-to-office (RTO) policy. Teams, instead, are encouraged to determine what works best for them based on the work need, with some spending more time in the office than others. Many are continuing to work remotely or in a hybrid manner.

“When we design our offices, we do so with intention, tailoring each space to the needs of our workforce in that particular function or region,” Schwab said.

For example, its New York office serves almost exclusively as a customer showcase facility for sales and marketing teams, so it is designed to facilitate customer visits, promote brand recognition, and showcase its technology to the business community. In contrast, its new Austin office serves as a balanced engineering and marketing center purpose-built to foster collaboration among our engineering, marketing, and sales teams.

“Clearly, there is a diverse range of workplace policies that exist across different companies in the Bay Area when it comes to the tech industry, though the overall trend is a shift away from fully remote work toward structured hybrid models or even full return-to-office mandates,” Schwab said.

“Flexibility is still a major factor for employees, but many companies are reducing the amount of remote work they offer. Cisco is very different. We encourage employees to come into the office, but we have no strict rules. We build our offices with intent and purpose. We want to make our offices a place employees want to be.”

Cisco’s Atlanta office (located in the Coda at Tech Square Building at Georgia Tech), which opened in 2023, earned an exceptionally high score of 87 on a 100-point scale from Leesman, which measures the quality of place and employee performance.

Cisco’s score took into consideration the modernization of space, proximity to public transportation, and numerous societal factors. Schwab said the location is ideal for Cisco, inviting students to the office as a recruiting tool to give them an experience of what it’s like to work in a Cisco office.

“Over the years, Georgia Tech has been a pipeline of technical talent for Cisco, yet our offices have never been within 5 miles of the campus,” he said. “The location of this office gives students immediate proximity to Cisco’s facilities.”

Divesting and Investing in Design and Technology

Its policy has evolved thoughtfully from just before the pandemic to the present day, according to Schwab.

“We have always embraced a flexible approach to workforce policies, recognizing our leadership in networking, security, and collaboration that enable global connectivity,” Schwab said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, its entire workforce transitioned to remote work. At that time, it was managing over 20 million square feet of real estate worldwide.

“We used the pandemic as an opportunity to reevaluate our real estate portfolio, divesting a significant amount of underutilized space and reducing our footprint to under 16 million square feet,” Schwab said. “Throughout this period, our executives remained committed to supporting a highly flexible remote work policy.”

Cisco’s workplace strategy is built around four core principles: promoting employee well-being, advancing sustainability, enabling hybrid work across both physical and virtual settings, and grounding decisions in measurable data such as space and energy use. This framework has proven effective in locations such as New York, where the company has created environments that enhance engagement and productivity.

Developed in partnership with Gensler, this agile workspace integrates cutting-edge smart systems, Power-over-Ethernet infrastructure, and technology platforms designed to support seamless hybrid collaboration. It was the first iteration of a purpose-built, tech-first Cisco office.

The layout prioritizes optimal delivery of technology, with careful attention to elements such as camera positioning, sight lines, and audio quality. More than 70 percent of the 59,000-square-foot office is dedicated to video-enabled collaboration areas, ranging from small huddle rooms to informal breakout spaces.

This high proportion reflects the growing needs of organizations with mobile, creative, and hybrid workforces. By combining advanced technology with access to amenities throughout the office and building, as well as a variety of workplace settings, employees are empowered to select the space that best supports their work, ensuring flexibility, connection, and a dynamic workplace experience.

Data Helps Drive Decisions for Five Personas

Schwab said that Cisco utilizes real-time workplace data to inform its design and operational decisions.

“There is significant focus on digitizing the floor plate to provide real-time access to the right working environment, driven by health/wellness, frictionless experiences, and workplace design principles.”

Its decisions are made based on five personas:

Customer showcase: primary locations representing core, Cisco brand presence, major business, economic, and community centers that serve to increase Cisco’s brand recognition in the market.

Talent center: key locations placed in markets with concentrated talent pools and specific recruiting objectives.

Operations center: locations representing specific and unique product skills or capabilities within Cisco's lines of business in support of their customers and partners.

Product center: locations that play a key role in the development, testing, service, or distribution of specific products or services within Cisco’s overall product line.

Enterprise center: major locations represented by significant populations across multiple lines of business and core campus locations.

Source: GlobeSt/ALM