This workplace struggle is resulting in real opportunities for commercial mortgage brokers to help their clients develop new strategies in how they think about the office sector, including the concept of hybrid work. In recent years, returning to the office has been a different experience for those who have been resistant to change and those who have embraced it. The companies that are thriving are those that have seized this time of change to rethink how they grow and manage their teams — and how they use the space that their teams need to operate effectively.

“This unprecedented era of change means that mortgage brokers have an opportunity to transform their relationships with business clients.”

Those who are entrenched in a pre-pandemic mindset may be missing out. Stubbornly focused on traditional ideas of team management, they are not embracing a new approach. In so doing, they may be falling behind their competitors.

This unprecedented era of change means that mortgage brokers have an opportunity to transform their relationships with business clients and help those eager to embrace opportunity to find new office space options. It is also a chance to help those who are resistant to such changes in facing a new reality.

Acknowledge the fear

The clients who are resistant to a more permanent shift in their return-to-office strategy have legitimate fears and concerns. Mortgage brokers must recognize and validate these feelings.

Businesses that require employees to return to the office in a pre-pandemic style often cite a desire to increase productivity, enhance corporate culture, create opportunities for junior staff to learn from peers, and other logical business reasons. Executives fear their staff members will miss out on these opportunities by shifting into any new variation of hybrid working.

Others may see the opportunity but fear their ability to manage hybrid working equitably. Lacking traditional and consistent human resources policies around hybrid working, they simply discard it from consideration. It is not too difficult for them to imagine future lawsuits where workers allege favoritism or discrimination based on unenforceable hybrid working guidelines.

These are all legitimate fears, especially for large multinational businesses with complex work dynamics. But fear-based decisionmaking seldom leads to progress in business or life. And while they may resist change for these reasons, various studies have found no evidence to support these positions.

Presenting the facts

Once the fears of clients are acknowledged, they can then be presented with information that can help them find solutions. But first, they need to know what employees expect today in their work environment.

Research shows that a hybrid work schedule is much more popular than working from the office. According to the business consulting firm McKinsey & Co., 87% of employees will work flexibly when given the chance. The consulting company Accenture has reported similar survey results.

The research is clear that most employees want more agency over their time and where they work. Some executives may argue that they are not in business to serve their employees. They may think their companies are either too big or too unique to need to address the fact that the vast majority of their employees expect to have some form of hybrid work option. But when fundamental shifts in human behavior and expectations become this evident, ignoring the trend would be akin to telling the now-defunct Blockbuster Corp. it was right to turn down the chance to buy Netflix’s mail-order DVD business.

If recognizing these trends in human behavior isn’t enough, looking at the performance of businesses that are adopting strategic changes may hit harder. Job recruitment website Zippia estimates that 74% of U.S. companies are currently using or planning to implement a permanent hybrid work model. What’s more, 63% of “high-growth” companies use a “productivity anywhere” work model, a hybrid approach that combines the benefits of remote and in-office work.

In other words, the majority of the companies that are growing the fastest are doing so by adopting a hybrid work model, which means they are adjusting their commercial real estate strategy. If they use less traditional space, they use the space they have more effectively and strategically. Blending on-site offices and meeting spaces with off-site workplaces is a tricky needle to thread, but it’s one that experienced real estate and mortgage professionals are able to accomplish.

Finding solutions

Once clients understand the facts about changing workforce attitudes and the success of other businesses in adapting to the reality of hybrid work, it’s time to get specific about finding solutions. It can seem counterintuitive for mortgage brokers, whose livelihoods depend upon clients using commercial real estate, to suggest that clients might use less of it or use it differently.

The reality, however, is that when the real estate finance industry can deliver solutions that truly meet clients’ business objectives, everyone wins. There isn’t necessarily less pie to go around. The pie is just valued differently. Your business depends upon your clients’ use of commercial real estate, but you need to help them do so strategically and to create tailored solutions.

For instance, a Seattle-based biotechnology company experiencing rapid growth needed to expand its space to accommodate both lab and office needs. Because their mortgage brokerage took the time to understand the business and the technical requirements necessary for complex genetic research, they were able to find a property that consisted of 30% office space and 70% lab space.

The broker then worked with the owner and landlord to ensure that current and future equipment, as well as the power supply, would be available for work that could not be done remotely. Meanwhile, accommodations could be made for those who were utilizing a hybrid work model. Thinking about current and future needs gave the broker the opportunity to provide a long-term solution that could meet the evolving needs of the client.

New spaces

No matter who the client is, the broker’s focus remains on solutions for physical spaces. This can look differently for different clients. Here are some approaches that have proven successful:

• Providing dynamic designs and exciting spaces can accommodate both collaborative and individual work.

• Using technology to track patterns of usage can inform your clients’ approach to hybrid work.

• Embrace sustainability as an opportunity, not a compliance process. By reducing environmental impacts and the associated costs in one area, a business might be able to reinvest in space improvements or a more desirable location.

Rethinking the use of space will open up new opportunities for mortgage brokers and their clients. Since much of the research can point to irrefutable facts about the future of work, sharing personal success stories and the success of clients makes it real. So, find your personal stories and point to ways you or your clients have personally thrived in this new approach to working.

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In the end, mortgage brokers are in this business to serve the best interests of their borrowers. This means providing modern thinking and informed strategies for improving a client’s workplace. Remember, success isn’t found in the amount of space you broker but in helping your clients use space wisely. ●

The post Embracing the New Office Model appeared first on Scotsman Guide.

The advisory role that mortgage brokers can play includes acting as a sounding board, listening to a client’s concerns and offering critical advice. Being close to their clients will help brokers facilitate successful deals while also developing long-lasting business relationships.

This role is particularly important to clients who are undergoing major changes. One aspect of the mortgage broker advisory role is help with change management. When done well, the added value that change management brings can help to close deals faster while building a deeper, more diverse referral network.

Change management is the art and science of leading an organization through substantial transformation. It is a structural process for planning and implementing new ways of operating within an organization. It requires boldness in the face of inevitable resistance as well as clear, measurable goals that are rooted in articulate and thoughtful answers to one question: Why change?

Embracing change

When the question of change doesn’t have a good answer for the people whom change affects, the subsequent lack of buy-in inevitably leads to failure. To avoid such problems, change management strategies must address several key aspects.

First, it is important to define the driving purpose so that everyone can understand why a company is making a change. Address the human side of change, which takes into account the impact on employees. And acknowledge that change cannot happen with a snap of the fingers or a hope that everything will be OK. Next, work through the change process by engaging everyone involved in the change. Allow voices to be heard and concerns to be addressed. Encourage continuing participation in the process by facilitating the journey and keeping people from resorting to old habits.

A mortgage broker’s role in change management starts by helping a client solve a space issue, which can solve a business issue. It’s about taking them from a statement such as “my lease is running out and I need new space” to helping them define their space requirements. They should be making smart business decisions via solutions that are aligned with the direction their business is going.

For example, when tenants say they need more space, a mortgage broker thinking about change management will start by asking about what they’re looking to get out of the space. This immediately transforms the conversation from a transaction to a strategic collaboration. Change management helps to clarify the client’s needs and the impact these needs will have on their business and their employees.

Companies that specialize in commercial real estate change management are regularly tapped to collaborate with mortgage brokers and help clients navigate this change curve. Increasingly, these specialists find that mortgage brokers who embrace change management strategies have faster closing rates.

Brokers should think beyond the footprint of a property to its impact on the business. This creates opportunities to deliver smarter real estate solutions, which in turn will lead to successful transactions, happier clients and lasting business relationships.

Time is money

It may feel like more time is needed at the beginning of the process to consider these factors. But that isn’t the case. When done well, adding a change management perspective to the real estate transaction process helps to close deals more efficiently.

Several years ago, for example, an international security company needed help to select new offices at 200 locations across the U.S. This had to be done in less than six months. They contacted a project management consulting company that specialized in change management.

The security company wanted to look at virtually every property on the market. But the consulting firm helped to define what the space needs were and how to target the client’s approach by narrowing down the search. The consultant succeeded in doing this by using an essential change management checklist, composed of a series of questions that included the following:

• Do the locations meet the requirements of the company?
• Is there enough parking to meet needs?
• Are the locations accessible to all employees and clients?
• Should they be located near public transportation options?
• Is the site compliant with the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act?
• Are there any special needs or requests for the facility?

The answers to these and other questions allowed the firm and their mortgage broker to explore potential real estate options with precision and purpose in relation to physical parameters, such as access for emergency vehicles and proximity to customers. The sites were also weighed with other incentives, such as financial or tax benefits of certain municipal zones.

Creating buy-in

Once the consultants narrowed down the options, they worked with the client and their program management team to get employee input so that everyone in the security company felt heard. This approach narrowed down the search to a manageable level while helping the client communicate the reason for change to its employees.

Management’s explanation went beyond “our lease is up” to showing the benefits that change would have upon the employees. As a result, buy-in was easier to obtain, impact to productivity was minimized, and the move was more seamless and less stressful.

Instead of wasting everyone’s time looking at countless properties that met some arbitrary square-footage requirement, the consultant was able to present a handful of exacting possibilities that led to a faster close and a happier client. Furthermore, the lasting impression of the entire experience led the client to remember the benefits of working with a mortgage broker who took into consideration the full impact of the company’s move. At the end of the process, not only did the transaction itself close more quickly, but after the deal was completed, the client regularly referred other prospects to the broker.

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Change doesn’t happen to an organization; it happens within an organization. Truly meaningful change needs to be spurred by a deep understanding of the problems that the change intends to fix, the opportunities the change intends to create and what success after the change will look like.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in tremendous change that the business world and commercial real estate stakeholders are experiencing to this day. Too many businesses have yet to acknowledge the level of change their employees have experienced and that they are essentially trying to fit square pegs into round holes. They are attempting to put today’s people, priorities and business realities into an office space that was designed for a different time.

A common example of this is the current discussion around hybrid work, a flexible model that supports a blend of in-office, remote and on-the-go working environments. But companies often make the mistake of thinking that the concept of hybrid work means the same thing for everyone when it may not.

Instead, companies need to use change management to help address this new reality. They should develop solutions for the contemporary demands of flexible working conditions. Mortgage brokers are on the front lines of helping businesses navigate this ever-changing world. When they bring a strategic change management perspective to the negotiating table, everybody wins. ●

The post The Power of Change appeared first on Scotsman Guide.