Operational adjustments by one local business could make a significant impact on all of downtown Columbus in the immediate future.
If you ask just about any downtown store owner what the biggest hurdle in returning to “normal” has been, most will point to the same issue: the lack of Cummins employees on the streets every day.
Cummins employs about 8,000 people in the area and has several offices downtown, including its corporate headquarters which can accommodate around 1,000 workers.
Since the onset of the pandemic in March of 2020, most all Cummins employees have worked from home; leading to a monumental shift in the amount of foot traffic the city sees on a regular basis.
Thankfully, as of Monday, some of those employees are no longer working remotely, as Cummins has launched a pilot program to bring a group of downtown employees back to the workplace.
Cummins didn’t disclose how many employees are participating, but said that 1,500 received invitations. If all goes well, the program will be expanded rather than ended.
The company’s changes will have the biggest impact on local restaurants, which have been decimated by pandemic-related restrictions over the last year. For some restaurants, purchases by Cummins employees make up more than 50% of their daily sales.
While it’s all good news, it’s important to remember that Cummins is in the process of re-evaluating its future like all other major companies. Cummins has been in the process of categorizing each role in its company as fully on-site, fully remote or a hybrid between the two based on the nature of the work with the majority expected to be hybrid.
It’s unlikely that downtown will ever look as it did before the pandemic, but the company’s recent changes could still make a major impact in the short term.
The return of Cummins employees to downtown is a significant step in moving towards our post-pandemic society in Columbus, and will provide a barometer for the future of the city.
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