The executives of corporate America are stepping up efforts to get workers back into the office, using a combination of threats and incentives to get employees to give up the work-from-home lifestyle they adopted in the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Iowa-based HNI said Wednesday that the acquisition of Indiana-based Kimball International will enhance manufacturing capabilities and create a combined company that can better benefit from post-pandemic trends in the markets it serves.
The building was purchased from former occupant Girls Inc. by an affiliate of Merchants Bank for $3.1 million in May.
The purchase of the Morrison Opera Place building puts an end to plans previous owner Bruce Bodner had to convert part of the property to apartments. An earlier plan for an 18-story addition was dashed due to the pandemic.
Cummins, Rolls-Royce, Eli Lilly and Co., AES and Elevance Health are among the city’s largest downtown employers and all say most of their workers have the option of working at home at least part of the time.
The pain is particularly acute outside the U.S., where the burnout rate has been rising enough to offset slight improvements seen by American workers.
The Gallup survey found a strong link between workers with best friends on the job and profitability, safety, inventory control and retention.
The building’s 58,800 square feet of office and retail space is now mostly vacant, following exits in recent years by Scotty’s Brewhouse, HomeAdvisor and third-party logistics company Backhaul Direct.
The development team hopes to land a single office tenant to occupy most of the building, although the first floor could also consist of retail or other commercial uses.
Direct Connect has about 250 employees based in Indianapolis, with plans to hire an additional 150 workers by the end of 2023.
While scaling culture remotely might have challenges, companies say it’s worth it. Employees have more freedom, and employers can access a larger talent pool, including workers who want or need flexible work.
Jeff Smulyan, chairman, CEO and founder of Emmis, said the company is weighing all its options for what could be done with the prominent downtown property.
With the unemployment rate near its lowest level in five decades, even some of the staunchest critics of work-from-home have changed their tune to attract and retain employees.
The research exposes a generational divide in which executives closer to retirement age differ from younger managers in their 30s and 40s, who are generally more accepting of hybrid arrangements and keen to make sure they benefit everyone.
The last day of the workweek, once synonymous with long lunches and early departures, has become the most common day to skip the office altogether.
Tom Bell learned that his team of skilled workers in Indianapolis could digitally show how the Rolls-Royce engine would integrate in to the U.S. Air Force B-52 aircraft—all while working remotely.
The offices the company is closing in three major cities were its most “consistently underutilized,” with only about 2% of workspaces in use each week.
Duke and its predecessor companies were behind or involved in many of the biggest office, retail and industrial projects in the city’s history and left a mammoth mark on the city’s form and workplace function.
Leslie Bailey, who co-founded the Indy Maven lifestyle website in 2019, realized that many of the women who had left the workforce early in the pandemic were starting their own businesses.
After working remotely in sweats and yoga pants for two years, many Americans are rethinking their wardrobes to balance comfort and professionalism as offices reopen.
