Microsoft announced last month that it would fully reopen its Washington State offices after shuttering them two years ago when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the U.S. The tech behemoth is offering flexible work schedules — including a hybrid model where it expects its workforce to be in the office at least 50% of the time.

Which begs the question: Will the rest of the tech industry follow suit now that employers are making a push for employees to return to the office? In a recent podcast interview with GeekWire, WTIA CEO Michael Schutzler said he isn’t surprised that a majority of tech companies are embracing a hybrid model. However, he also noted that employers, even smaller ones, are no longer bound by geographic limitations. One upside to the pandemic is that it showed employers they no longer need to hire local talent. Similarly, workers are no longer limited to working for companies with offices located within commuting distance of their homes. 

This paradigm shift is good news for employers that are open to seeking out and recruiting diverse talent from locations outside Seattle or the Pacific Northwest. It also means they are no longer limited to local colleges and universities to source that talent, and that they can be more thoughtful about equity and inclusion in their hiring practices. Employers now have an unprecedented opportunity to explore “non-traditional” pathways to advance diversity in their workforce, such as apprenticeships and relevant vocational programs.

Nonetheless, although work has been getting done in a mostly virtual environment for the past two years, companies are likely making the push for a return to the office because there are certain activities and interactions that don’t lend themselves well to a Zoom call, Michael said on the podcast. Zoom calls are mostly “transactional,” he noted, whereas in-person interactions are a vital part of relationship-building. Put another way, being in-person is key for collaboration and team-building.

For many tech employees, especially in the Seattle region, it seems that returning to the office is not a matter of “if,” but “when.” The region’s real estate market appears to be booming despite rising crime and homelessness. Tech companies leased more than 2 million square feet of new office space in Seattle and surrounding areas in 2021, triple the amount of any other sector, according to a new study from commercial real estate firm CBRE. Specifically, tech accounted for 34% of the total office space leased in the region, at 3.2 million square feet, including new leases, renewals, and expansions.

For its part, WTIA has gone completely virtual, giving up its offices in downtown Seattle. As a result, the organization has experienced a savings of more than half a million dollars in real estate and other operating expenses. However, Michael observed that while companies like Amazon and Microsoft have billions of dollars in real estate costs, they also have less flexibility to go 100% virtual than smaller companies with 500 or fewer employees.

Importantly, he pointed out that women of color are particularly impacted by the return to an office, and not necessarily in a positive way. Women of color are more apt to enjoy their jobs and their relationship with their employer more when they work from home, because they are not subject to the microaggressions and other systemic biases that they have long faced in the tech industry.

When it comes to putting down roots in a tech hub like Seattle, Michael pointed out that the tech industry is fluid, and always has been when it comes to geography. He compared the tech industry to Bitcoin, saying that the shift to a lack of a geographic identity or boundary makes it almost fungible and decentralized—a positive development for employers, and for expanding equity and inclusion within the industry as a whole.

One challenge facing tech employers in the remote/hybrid world is building a culture of belonging and inclusion. Michael mentioned on the podcast that he believes that humans are tribal beings and we do well in groups. Having those occasional opportunities to come together and collaborate is among the biggest hurdles for employers to overcome in this new world of work. Bringing people together in innovative ways and helping them build relationships across geographic boundaries is an interesting conundrum for today’s entrepreneurs to solve, and an enormous opportunity, Michael said.