Detroit Economic Club Future of Work Series: Navigating the Return to Office

On Nov. 2, the Detroit Economic Club (DEC) hosted Sara Armbruster, President and Chief Executive Officer of Steelcase Inc., and Bill Emerson, President and Chief Operating Officer of Rocket Companies, for a conversation on navigating the return to office as part of its Future of Work series. Armbruster and Emerson discussed how they’re managing this new reality and why they still believe work is better when people are together. The conversation was moderated by DEC President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Grigorian.

Watch the full conversation or read more about it in the Crain’s Detroit Business article below.

Crain’s Detroit Business
Nov. 2, 2023
Nick Manes

Workers at downtown Detroit’s largest employer learned to navigate the busiest mortgage market in history from home offices and basements in 2020. Flash forward just more than three years and it’s a different story

Now, employees at Detroit-based Rocket Companies Inc. are back in their plethora of central business district offices at least four days per week, while Friday still makes for a quiet day in the corridors of the mortgage lender and financial technology companies’ various downtown office buildings.

Having Rocket’s nearly 11,000 Michigan employees back in the office on a regular schedule has been good for a plethora of reasons, according to President and COO Bill Emerson.

…

The Rocket executive spoke Thursday at the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit hotel in downtown Detroit alongside Sara Armbuster, president and CEO of Grand Rapids-based office furniture company Steelcase Inc., during a meeting of the Detroit Economic Club.

Emerson and Armbuster were in full agreement that winding down work-from-home routines should be a priority for employers, touting myriad statistics on the benefits of increased productivity and corporate culture by having workers in the office.

Still, Emerson acknowledged that “flexibility” is key.