Though many workers have delighted in heading back to the office, there are still many more who would prefer to continue to work from home either full time or most of the time. This has meant facility managers have had to step up their games in terms of offering perks and incentives to lure workers back to the office.
A few facilities in Chicago have come up with a unique perk that solves two problems at once: Transportation and fun. Electric scooters (or E-scooters, if you’re hip to the lingo) are taking over many metropolitan areas as an easy and cheap mode of transportation. And now, according to the Chicago Tribune, some landlords in Chicago commercial office buildings are offering E-scooter access for free to tenants.
The E-scooters offer an easier alternative than trying to hail an Uber or walking if, say, an employee is stepping out for a lunch meeting only a mile or two away. Biking is great, but during the summer months, employees don’t want to show up sweaty to a client meeting. There’s an environmental message as well as the E-scooters are an alternative to cabs and ride-shares that increase traffic in central business districts.
Several of the tenants of the Chicago buildings offering the E-scooters reported loving the availability and flexibility this office perk offers, according to the Tribune story. Tenants said they use the E-scooters several times per week to jet off to client meetings or to travel between satellite offices.
The property manager, JLL, at one of the facilities receives a monthly report from the E-scooter vendor on ridership patterns to see the perk is something the building’s occupants are really using. So far, the answer is a resounding yes.
Greg Zimmerman is senior contributing editor for FacilitiesNet.com and Building Operating Management magazine.
