company culture « PG Commercial Real Estate – Commercial Realtor Montgomery County, PA and Greater Philadelphia Region

The New World of Work

Posted by Peggy Gallagher on May 10, 2016

Collaborative office space was originally conceived by Steve Jobs for his new Pixar headquarters in Emeryville, California. He believed employees who work independently are less creative than those who work together. So he designed Pixar to provide chance encounters, giving employees the opportunity to connect, collaborate, and create.

As more tech companies adopted this approach, they observed and experienced the extensive benefits of collaborative office space:

Reduced Footprint. Traditional office spaces are based on 250-300 square feet per person. Employees in collaborative space sit at benches and managers use workstations, thus reducing space needs by up to 40 percent.
Google Space. Google took collaborative space to the next level. Perks such as gourmet food, massages, and fitness facilities are bait to attract and retain top talent. This minimizes the need for and cost of staffing companies.
Work/Life Balance. Google Space has become so attractive to employees that they don’t want to leave the office. They eat gourmet food and have their dogs at their side, enabling them to work late into the evening.
Fewer Sick Days. Wellness has become a major component of the new office environment. Healthy foods and exercise areas promote wellness, reducing time away from work.
Innovation. Collaborative space fosters creativity. Since all companies thrive on innovation, collaborative office space has become a major contributor to their success.
Brand Promotion. While collaborative space is good for the employees, the design of today’s office space has become a showroom for the company’s brand, which helps to sell the company’s products to potential clients.

The benefits of collaborative office space are too numerous and influential to ignore. That’s why so many of the world’s top companies are retrofitting their offices accordingly. Contact Peggy Gallagher, your ITRA Global Representative to re-invent your office environment!

This article was originally seen in the monthly mailed newsletter.

Tags: Commercial Real Estate, company culture, corporate office space, floor plan, ITRA Global, philadelphia commercial real estate

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Company Culture: Center City v. the Burbs

Posted by Peggy Gallagher on May 10, 2016

If your company is looking to make a move one of the biggest things to consider is location, location, location. Where your company sits is huge in not only determining the type of people and clients you attract, but it also helps define your brand and how the world sees you. There are many factors to consider. Do you need to be near the port, near the turnpike, near potential employees, or your customers, near your home, etc.

If you are a fancy tech start up that wants cutting edge programmers, you want to have stylish offices in the heart of Center City. The Work where they Live Strategy. And, where your employees can grab a coffee at Starbucks on their break, get sushi for lunch, and go out for a beer with their friends after work, all within a mile or so of your location. Central Business District of Center City Philadelphia is a hub for public transportation systems for those employees living outside of the CBD. All of these factors go into creating the type of company culture you want, a young professional, intellectually curious group of people that do their best work in an open floor concept office where they have access to their colleagues and maybe even snacks!

Now if you are another type of business, maybe one that requires mostly office space but a small storage, or assembly area with double doors direct to outside, or your customers, or you, and your employees live mainly in the suburbs, Center City would probably not make sense. Your employees are in a different stage of life, they want to be home for dinner with their kids, or able to drop them off at dance and soccer practice after school. Sitting in an hour and a half of traffic on 76 doesn’t make any sense for someone who wants that type of life. The type of building and even the furnishing aren’t as important as a central location near good schools, neighborhoods, and doctor’s offices.

2 sides of a coin, both great options depending on what your company and employee’s needs are.