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By: FEDweek StaffThe GSA has said that it expects the “new normal” of federal agencies in a post-pandemic environment to include higher levels of telework and remote work on a permanent basis, which in turn will allow for additional consolidations of tenant agencies from leased to government-owned space.
“With more than 50 percent of PBS’s total annual appropriated budget paying for leased space, GSA has the opportunity to reinvest in its existing buildings and reduce costly leases to save taxpayers money over the long-term. We plan to capitalize on increased telework across the Federal Government to work with agencies to consolidate into Federally owned buildings and reduce costly leases,” administrator Robin Carnahan told a House hearing.
She said that such consolidations—along with reducing square footage and negotiations for below-market lease rates—have contributed to $4.5 billion in lease cost avoidances since 2018 and to the GAO’s decision to remove costly leasing from its high risk list.
In terms of future planning, “We have expanded communications with Federal agencies through targeted outreach; this effort includes quarterly surveys that gauge the real estate, telework, and technology needs of GSA’s customer agencies. While agencies are still considering what a new post-pandemic will look like, including the level and frequency of telework, GSA will work alongside agencies to help them make data-driven space decisions that factor in future telework postures,” she said.
“The future of work will include the full range of options, from in-office to remote working environments to the hybrid work model–whereby employees work part of the week in the office and part of the week teleworking–most likely deploying all three of these models at the same time. It will be important for GSA to make it as easy as possible for agencies to operationalize all of these workplace models, depending on their mission needs as well as their employees’ needs,” she said.
She pointed to GSA’s “Workplace 2030” program that is testing options to “ensure we don’t just snap back to the way things were before” such as co-working space as well as home office technology equipment and furniture packages and emerging office furniture, technology, and other innovations.
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