Employee Harmony

There is a heuristic that brokers who have been in the business for a long time understand, which is: the location closest to the most senior level executive’s home is the location that will be chosen. Other companies are very sensitive to the drive times of all their employees and great pains are taken to reduce time spent behind the wheel, at least for the most valuable employees.

Finding office space within a specific geographical location can present a range of issues. Many executives in the process of uprooting to another location have to take into consideration the needs of their workforce when finding viable locations for office space, and this important detail can throw a wrench in the works – or, at very least, make things a lot more difficult for everyone involved.

For this reason, ask your real estate broker if they are willing to conduct an Employee Commute Impact Analysis prior to presenting you with a list of potential lease properties. This is an integral part of the kind of strategic planning that has to take place, and the establishment of certain criteria that will ultimately inform which properties are considered. To do this, the following is needed:

•             The total number of employees the company has.

•             How many of those employees work onsite full-time versus how many of them telecommute.

•             The transportation patterns of the company’s workforce (for example, how many drive, how many carpool to work, and how many take the bus or train to work).

•             The current distance of the nearest train or bus stop.

•             Average commute times for employees.

 There are many different online mapping resources, like Google Maps, that will make this work relatively easy.

Gathering this information is vital to finding office space that will minimize any negative impact that a company move will have on its workforce. This information may even make it possible to improve upon the current situation, making it far more likely for a smooth transition into a new office.