As some companies consider making work-from-home permanent, others see the value in creating a workplace for employees.
"We've always been flexible in our workplace, we've always allowed people to work from home if they want, and what we learned is that people do want a place that is their own that we can come into," said Reid Carr, CEO of the marketing agency Red Door Interactive.
After years of leasing an office in downtown San Diego, the company wanted to create its own space, designed to foster collaboration and growth.
"We were excited when we found it, we had a vision for how this whole process was going to go down," said Carr.
The company purchased nearly half an acre of property to create a campus-style workplace. But after the pandemic hit, they overhauled the design to ensure it was a space employees not only wanted to go to but could feel safe in.
The new campus will incorporate touchless features throughout the buildings, like doors and water bottle filling stations. They're creating outdoor meeting spaces with heaters and shades so that they can be used year-round. And inside, they're investing in the best available HVAC systems for air filtration.
"I'm learning at all this stuff as we go, but we're looking at hospital grade stuff. The perspective we took is there's always going to be flus and colds, so why not do these things that will help keep people from spreading disease," said Carr.
In addition to having their own socially distanced desks, employees will have designated areas separate from visitors, including the kitchen. One building will be the epicenter of conference rooms so they can be easily cleaned more frequently.
"Certain things never change. You want to feel like you belong to something, you want to connect with people," said Carr.
The company plans to break ground on its new campus in early September, with plans to complete the project in April 2021.
