Free lunch and fitness centers: How Louisiana companies are luring workers back to office

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Every Wednesday, dozens of the 90 employees who work at International-Matex Tank Terminals’ downtown New Orleans office gather for a weekly, catered lunch in the company’s 29th-floor common space, which is lined with a wall of windows overlooking Poydras Street below.

Accounting folks sit next to co-workers from human resources or marketing departments, while members of the executive team visit with new and younger employees in what company officials say is an effective way to build a stronger corporate culture.

“Being in the office creates a sense of community among employees, and the weekly lunches help strengthen relationships,” said Kim Nave, IMTT’s office administrator. “It’s an opportunity to sit with people from other departments and get to know one another.”

The coronavirus pandemic sent office workers home and ushered in a new era of remote work that promised to redefine the way professionals do business. Five years later, companies that allowed remote work are increasingly calling employees back to their cubicles in an effort to increase productivity and get co-workers talking to each other, face-to-face.

Since the beginning of the year, JP Morgan Chase, Amazon, AT&T and the federal government, among others, have done away with work-from-home policies, while other large employers, like Southwest and IBM, have gone to hybrid schedules that require employees to spend more days in the office than not.

Around the country, small and medium-sized employers are following suit. In south Louisiana, which often lags national trends, the return to the office has been more gradual. But real estate brokers say there is an uptick of 15%-20% in the number of cars in downtown and Metairie office tower parking garages during the middle of the week, which offers a glimmer of hope for an office market sector that has been battered by the pandemic.

“The days of downsizing headcount are over, and the garages are more full than they were two years ago,” said Cres Gardner, a broker with Beau Box who manages four downtown New Orleans office towers and two in Elmwood. “But Mondays and, especially, Fridays are still light.”

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Small employers are also calling workers back. In Lafayette, SchoolMint moved into its recently renovated headquarters building last week. Though employees have been gradually returning to the tech company’s office since 2022, now that its building project is complete, workers will be expected to show up in person every day.

“I can already see the benefits,” company CEO Bryan McDonald said Tuesday. “I’m bumping into people I haven’t talked to in months, and we’re solving things in five minutes that used to take us two days and a 30-minute Zoom call.”

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They also say that while amenities can make a difference, the biggest incentive to get employees back to the office is to give them at least a little flexibility. Nationwide, more than two-thirds of employers surveyed earlier this year allow for some sort of hybrid schedule.

IMTT gives employees the option to work from home on Fridays. Most employees, Nave said, take it.

“It helps with the work-life balance,” she said. “It conveys to our employees that the leadership team trusts them to get the job done regardless of where they are.”

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