Cushman & Wakefield has set up a Recovery Readiness Task Force to develop best practice, products and partnerships to prepare clients for post-Covid-19 recovery and the eventual return to the workplace.
The agent said it would be releasing a toolkit with step-by-step protocols for tenants and landlords to use as they begin planning the transition back to the workplace.
The protocol will be based on best practices from its experience in China, where the firm is already moving 10,000 companies and nearly a million workers back into more than 1,000 buildings through a joint venture with Vanke Service.
“The virus will dictate when we can eventually return to places of work and commerce, but the time to prepare is now,” said John Forrester, president of Cushman & Wakefield and executive chair of the Recovery Readiness Task Force (pictured). “We’re mobilising our top thought leaders and experts, drawing on their experience in areas like workplace innovation and strategy, design and build, facilities management, commercial cleaning protocols, data and technology and research.”
Along with Forrester acting as executive chair, the new task force will also comprise:
- Bruce Mosler, chairman of global brokerage, who will lead the development of strategic public and private sector partnerships to align operating practices with public policy;
- Despina Katsikakis, head of occupier business performance, who will provide thought leadership on the future of work and insight into new workplace strategies;
- Edward Law, head of operations at Vanke Service Cushman & Wakefield, who will provide recovery best practices from China;
- Paul Bedborough, chief executive of C&W Services, who will focus on Covid-19-related commercial maintenance and cleaning best practices;
- Jeroen Lokerse, head of the agent’s Netherlands business, who will deliver build-out innovation from C&W Design & Build;
- Adam Stanley, chief digital officer and chief information officer, who will focus on data-driven best practices, along with the firm’s broad base of innovation partners for technology and virtual business operations;
- Jason Tolliver, head of new commerce research, who will provide thought leadership to both landlords and tenants in the rapidly evolving retail and e-commerce sectors; and
- Kevin Thorpe, chief economist, who will provide insight on Covid-19 impacts to the global and US economy, capital markets, finance, leasing fundamentals, property and project management and factors that affect supply-demand.
The RRTF will also look at developing new products and solutions to help commercial landlords and tenants manage social distancing, including a new design concept, “Six Feet Office”, which is currently being tested at Cushman & Wakefield’s Amsterdam office.
The concept consists of elements that include a visually displayed unique foot traffic routing for each office to ensure employees maintain the recommended six feet apart for social distancing.
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