Despite a deadly pandemic, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) appears on track to meet hiring goals for its Arlington second headquarters and is rapidly becoming a major employer in Greater Washington.
But many of those who interview for an HQ2 role are wondering just how, and where, they'll do the job.
One question Brian Riley, head of talent acquisition for HQ2, hears often: What is the future of work at Amazon? Another: Will it be an in-person work environment or will it be virtual?
His answer is largely the same.
“The only thing we can do is be authentic,” he said Tuesday. “We don't know the answer to those questions right now. But what we do know is we are providing employees the work environment they need to be successful.”
He and others spoke briefly on the issue of long-term remote work during a forum hosted by Arlington Economic Development titled Arlington’s Bold Future: The New Wave of Tech Talent.
Riley, who moved to the area to help develop talent for the East Coast headquarters, spoke some on the remote work policies Amazon has implemented since the Covid-19 crisis took hold. He also noted that while the company is committed to developing the minimum 4 million square feet of office it promised the county, how that space is used in a post Covid-19 world is still unclear.
“Because we want to be really thoughtful about it, we haven't put a stake in the ground about if the future is 100% virtual, is it hybrid, is it in-person. We don't know,” he said. “But we've continued with our construction plans in Arlington. We're continuing forward as if we will occupy the same space that we've been planning for.”
And that's critical as Arlington looks to recover from the Covid downturn, whenever that becomes possible. HQ2 is expected to boost hotel night stays, lure other tech companies to Crystal City's empty office space and spur new interest in local retail and restaurants — all sectors pounded by the pandemic.
Amazon plans to open its first to 2.1 million square feet of office in Pentagon City in 2023, and in September spent nearly $150 million to expand the future PenPlace phase of its development.
Amazon now has about 617,000 square feet leased from JBG Smith Properties (NYS: JBGS) in Crystal City, having just opened 1770 Crystal Drive. But, those offices are open only to a limited number of employees, Riley said. Amazon’s workforce won’t have to come back into the office until summer 2021, but he said the company is reviewing the return date quarterly.
Carolyn Parent, president and CEO of Arlington-based LiveSafe, said that she’s allowed many of her employees to leave the region during Covid. LiveSafe, a tech platform that helps companies manage and communicate security risks and incidents, reopened its offices in June.
“We have a lot of our workforce that moved home to be with their family,” said Parent, a panelist. “They went back to Indiana or New Hampshire. We have offices open and people can go in. But we are not putting pressure on any of our employees to come back into the office.
Hiring and recruiting for LiveSafe has also become "open-ended," allowing new employees to live where they want for the foreseeable future, Parent said. But she believes once restaurants, theaters and the community reopen, those employees and the rest of the remote tech talent will want to come back.
Riley agreed.
"In the current state of affairs, does it make a difference whether you are sitting in Arlington or Boise, Idaho? Probably not," he said. "But if we look ahead in a year or two or whatever it takes for some sense of normalcy to return, I think that will shift."
