Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi and Alexis Christoforous discuss what how the typical office space could change due to COVID-19 with Meredith Essery, Co-founder of had.collective.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: We have been broadcasting to you from our homes for a little over a month now because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But like many of you, sooner or later, we're going to have to step back into the office. But just what is that office going to look like?

Joining us now to discuss is Meredith Essery co-founder of had.collective, which designs office spaces. Meredith it's so good to have you here. We've all been talking about this offline to, you know, when are we going to go back. And then when we do, what's our life going to be like? Give us an idea as to what those plans might look like.

MEREDITH ESSERY: Absolutely. So good morning first of all. Thank you for having me. The topic of what the office landscape is going to look like has been coming up in quite a bit of news and also just conversations through my-- my industry really through these last few months. So the space of business that we work in is we help decision makers, kind of guide them through the best workplace design practices for their businesses when they're in growth and transition. And it's a really unique time for companies like mine because there's a little bit of an unanticipated need for our services.

So some of the things that I think that are important to focus on is that it's going to change in three different stages, right? So we're going to have the immediate need and the now we'll call that. And then we'll have, you know, the next step, which will be maybe the near. And we'll describe that. And then the far changes that we can expect, which will be further down the line--

So some of the first ones that we can anticipate in terms of the now are working with existing products that we have, so our existing layouts. When we return to the office, if we had previously been in an open floor plan, obviously employees-- that's not the kind of environment they're going to feel comfortable returning to. So there's ways that we can work around existing products to stagger employees for the first stage. Obviously, there'll be phased introductions of employees coming back into the office and then the addition of products like plexiglass divider screens, sneeze guards, reconfiguration of these existing workstations, and obviously a stop use of the collaborative areas and the conference room.

BRIAN SOZZI: So Meredith, in your opinion, what you're hearing from folks, do you think the 8-foot tall office cubicle will be back in force?

MEREDITH ESSERY: You know, so my industry has fought for this for a very long time, much to the dismay of the American or even the global employee. The open floor plan, although it can aesthetically-- can be aesthetically pleasing and can serve to spawn collaboration and interaction has not been extremely well received by individuals. So the extreme that we're seeing now is people are kind of referencing that office space, you know, meme or notion that we will be in these high panels.

Now, while certain heightened barriers will-- will help to mitigate any disease transmission, we can't necessarily say that every company will be able to invest in these high panels. Like anything, I think we'll see a healthy mix of both standards. And it will really be more of a culture shift than just a product shift.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Meredith, do you think we're going to see specific companies, if you can share those names with us, or specific sectors that will most likely be leading that change in layout in the office first?

MEREDITH ESSERY: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think-- so-- so we learned a lot about China going back to work right now. So some specific companies that have been a part of that process, like Cushman and Wakefield, who is a global brokerage firm. They've developed this kind of set of standards to roll out to their-- you know, their larger clients.

So when we look at Fortune 500 companies who might be in a transition or moving at this very time when this-- when this pandemic began, we're going to have the opportunity to revisit their entire design, not just the furniture, because they are having an opportunity to look at the actual physical construction of the space. Now, that could mean wider hallways, increased air filtration systems, touch-free and touchless technology, maybe incorporating voice technology.

So for the bigger companies, that will be the direction if they have the support to do that. Now, midsized companies-- we're here in Philadelphia. We have a lot of kind of cool startups. They don't necessarily have that capital to invest right now. So we're working on the kind of in-between-- the in-between area with them to get them back to work.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, Meredith Essery of had.collective, thanks for showing us what the office may look like when we go back. One thing's for certain, it's not going to be like before. Thanks for your time.

MEREDITH ESSERY: Absolutely not.