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Top 5 Things to Consider when Leasing your next Office Space in San Francisco

6/14/2019

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<Sponsored Blog Post by our friends at CBRE>
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1. Start your process
EARLY.

Begin planning for an office move at least 3-4 months before your ideal move-in date. The typical Leasing Process from start to finish can take anywhere from 2-6 months. This depends on a variety of factors:
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Speed: We know you can move quickly and so can your broker, but can the Landlord (or Sublandlord if it is a sublease) move as quickly? The answer is usually no, so jump in early and allow others for extra time.

Tenant Improvement Work: Is there any construction that needs to happen in order for you to move in? This could add another 2-3 months to your timeline.

Sublease vs Direct: Are you planning to sublease your new space? Subleases are especially popular options in San Francisco and are great for hypergrowth companies because they frequently come as "Plug & Play", fully furnished suites. That said, when you sublease space in any building, you are required to go through a final extra step after the sublease process: Landlord Consent. The Landlord has a 30-day window to review the Sublease & the incoming Subtenant's financials and determine whether they consent to the sublease or not. If not, the Landlord usually has a right to recapture the space (email us directly if you'd like to discuss Recapture in more detail).

Finding the Right Space: You can find your perfect space in the first building you see during your first tour. That usually is not the case. It takes time to find the perfect space for your company. We see various situations where companies will begin their search 1 or 2 months prior to their Lease Expiration and get forced into a space that isn't perfect for them because they were on a time crunch.

Note: The only 2 scenarios where things can move a lot quicker are in coworking suites (WeWork/Regus/Knotel) or in Live/Work suites.
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2. Stay FLEXIBLE
Do you know how many employees you will have in the next 12 months? How about the next 24 months? Reality is, it is difficult for startups to project headcount growth far into the future. We see too many scenarios where companies lease either too little or too much space and end up needing to move again far sooner than they hoped. This is what makes San Francisco one of (if not the) hottest sublease markets in the country.

When leasing directly from the Landlord in San Francisco, Landlords typically try to push Tenants to go for long-term leases (at least 3-5 years if not more). Their goal is to keep their spaces leased and earn additional revenue from the 3% annual increases that come with every lease, which is understandable. The longer the lease term, the less work the Landlord has to do in marketing the space and leasing it to a new tenant (and possibly having to incur the cost of having a vacant space).

Push back! Don't commit to 3 years if there is an 18-month sublease out there that fits your company's needs, especially if you are not sure where your headcount will be in 3 years. Do everything you can to stay flexible so that you do not have extra liability and incur the cost and time of subleasing space and "becoming Landlords".
3. Do your best to minimize cost/capital expenditures
Leasing office space is similar to renting an apartment in that it is a sunk cost for your company. You don't own it and you can't earn appreciation from it, so do your best to minimize your overall expenses.

Until your company grows more and can afford to spend the money needed to improve your space, build extra conference rooms & make it nice enough to attract the talent you need.  Try to stay away from doing Tenant Improvements in your suite. Paint & carpet/flooring is okay, but once you begin moving walls, building rooms and working on the electrical, construction costs really add up and (speaking from experience) companies almost always spend more than they originally estimate when planning the project. ​
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If you can get "Plug & Play” space that is fully furnished, even better! Buying new furniture can be expensive and companies tend to leave it or discard it when moving because moving furniture between offices can sometimes be just as expensive as buying new furniture altogether. There are also other costs you save when taking on a “Plug & Play” space, such as cabling/wiring, purchasing AV (if the previous tenant is willing to pass the AV on to you) and hauling the furniture.
4. Be Responsive, Act Quickly
San Francisco is an insanely competitive market. We're hovering at ~4% vacancy throughout the city, which is SF's lowest vacancy rate since the dotcom boom. Spaces come and go extremely quickly in this market.

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The majority of tech companies are all looking for a similar type of space: high ceilings, brick walls, polished concrete floors, a surplus of meeting rooms and a creative overall feel. Those spaces get leased even quicker than the rest. If you have your eyes on a certain space or if your broker shows you a space that just came online and seems perfect, go see it immediately. If it's perfect, send a proposal immediately. Get your name in the ring before the space gets snatched right from under you.
5. Work with a broker that you like and that you know will hustle on your behalf
As we have noted, SF is a fast-moving city when it comes to office space. Work with someone you know is on top of the market, continuously sending you new opportunities and keeping you updated throughout the lease process.

Know what's going on throughout the process. Having a broker you trust and can call/text for a quick update is crucial. It is unacceptable if your brokerage team is unresponsive or if your broker keeps you out of the loop. Good brokers will keep you posted throughout the process and make sure you know where things stand. There may be situations where you lose out on 1 or 2 or 3 spaces because of high demand and stiff competition, but continuing to stay on top of the market and evaluate new options is crucial to any tech company in San Francisco looking to find creative and flexible opportunities.
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​We would be happy to answer any questions about these 5 things to consider or about real estate in general. Please don't hesitate to email or give us a call anytime!


Jenny Haeg  | Global Real Estate Services
[email protected]m

Reuben Torenberg | Global Real Estate Services
[email protected]
C +1-201-240-8479
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L&D Event Recap: Diversity & Inclusion Panel

3/31/2018

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We kicked off our 2018 L&D event series on Tuesday 3/20 with a panel on Diversity and Inclusion. Robert Hightower from Lob and Erin Carter from Planet walked us through how their respective companies view and treat diversity through hiring initiatives and how they stay inclusive once they have awesome people through the door. 

Erin talked about how Planet mitigates bias as much as possible through data backed strategies such as having two women on every interview panel. She also emphasized the need to support individuals as much as groups of people. Hightower shared company career page hacks to show off your company's diversity such as having the photos on the page rotate so it showcases different individuals each time someone visits the page. He also impressed us with how Lob promotes inclusion such as their Lob-brary, where employees can bring or order books that have been particularly inspiring and helpful for them individually. 

So many amazing people and vendors made this meaningful event happen. Big thank you to IFTTT for hosting us in their gorgeous downtown office space. Thank you to Eden for helping us pull off our first LIVE STREAMED event! Attendees were spoiled with a delicious mediterranean menu from Zesty. Office Libations blew our socks off with Kombucha and cold brew cocktails. And of course big thank you to all the attendees that made it out to the event despite the rain, it was a great conversation and we look forward to more L&D events in 2018!
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3 Ideas for an Innovative, Food Truck-Fueled Employee Recognition Event

2/12/2018

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From company holiday parties and summer picnics to post-work happy hours and team building activities, it’s no secret that investing in your company culture can provide real benefits to your business — think greater employee engagement, increased morale and stronger workplace relationships.
 
Increasingly, HR pros are looking for ways to treat their employees to thoughtful recognition initiatives that are better aligned with their employee demographics, interests, and own unique brand of fun. In fact, a 2016 Gallup poll on millennial job habits — the largest generation in today’s workforce — found that “engaged millennials are 64 percent less likely to say they will switch jobs if the market improves.”
 
In short, your company culture is unique, and the ways in which you recognize your employees should be too.

Off the Grid Catering, a Bay Area-based events and catering platform with a network of more than 300 mobile food creators in its arsenal, regularly plans and executes team building and recognition events for companies large and small.
 
“Clients are coming to us looking for thoughtful and unique ways to recognize their employees — they want unconventional, outside-the-box, and perhaps even a little quirky,” says Samantha Brown, Catering Sales Manager at Off the Grid. “Mobile catering is a really attractive option because of the possibilities for menu customization, full-service event production, and indoor and outdoor service styles. Not to mention, it’s fun, approachable and far from the ordinary.”
 
With National Employee Appreciation Day approaching on March 2, it’s the perfect time to start thinking about how to beef — or veg! — up your employee recognition initiatives with mobile catering. Here are three innovative ideas for a food truck-fueled event to salute a job well done.
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1. Foster feel-good vibes with a company block party.

Take over your company’s parking lot, or other outdoor space of your choosing, and host a streetside event that will keep employees mingling, munching and memory-making well into the night.
 
In true block party fashion, let your mobile caterer curate a crowd-pleasing menu of street eats and nostalgic favorites (like cotton candy from Sugar & Spun), employ friendly service staff to carry food and drinks directly to party-goers, and incorporate games and activities like giant beer pong, jenga and cornhole. For a truly unique experience, add an unexpected element to your event like live caricature illustrations from Silent James. 
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​2. Throw your team one “tech” of a party.
 
Hosting a mobile event gives planners the opportunity to throw in of-the-moment experiences that go beyond just food. Why not treat your employees to a tech-savvy soiree decked out with party robotics, a digital dance floor and video game rentals?
 
If you really want to make a splash with guests, toss in an immersive mobile VR experience — hailed as one of the biggest trends impacting the event industry this year — like Exit Reality’s “cowbots and aliens” virtual reality game aboard their custom VR truck.
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​3. Raise a glass (or three) to employee success.
 
Perfect for larger companies or those with teams who work remotely, a tapas-style experience provides guests with freedom and variety while encouraging interdepartmental networking, relationship-building, and all around fuzzy feelings.
 
For a truly sophisticated event, talk to your caterer about coordinating full bar service (including taking care of all the nitty gritty like insurance and liability coverage), custom branded menu signage featuring your company logo, and passed bites from premier mobile food vendors paired with specialty cocktails. Better yet, keep your employees mingling — and mixing — with hands on cocktail-making classes from Elixir to Go.
 
If you’re looking for innovative ways to toast your employees in 2018, mobile catering could be just the ticket — after all, nothing screams “we appreciate you” like delicious street food, craft beverages and attentive staff to make sure the whole thing goes off without a hitch.
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​Jaclyn Dunne-Gallagher is the Director of Catering Sales at Off the Grid, where she leads a dynamic team of sales professionals who bring in more than 400 events per year in 10 Bay Area counties. A 14-year veteran of the region's hospitality industry, Jaclyn began her career at the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco before joining the team at Paula LeDuc Fine Catering as a Senior Account Executive. Jaclyn divides her time between San Francisco and her beloved hometown of San Diego, where you can find her exploring the city's many amazing restaurants, and strolling its breathtaking beaches with her pup, Frisco.
 
About Off the Grid Catering
 
Off the Grid Catering is a Bay Area-based events and catering platform with a network of more than 300 mobile food creators in its arsenal. While many in the Bay Area know Off the Grid for their food truck extravaganzas at both Fort Mason Center and the Presidio, the company’s catering arm re-creates the lively atmosphere of their market experiences in a private setting, offering full-service event production, flexible set-up for both indoor and outdoor venues, and a diverse array of street food fare served via trucks, carts and stationary kiosks.

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The Art of Juggling: What Event Planners Can Learn From CEO’s, Moms and Politicians

2/5/2018

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As an industry professional, I am often asked about what I view as the critical skill sets of a successful event planner. We’re sure many of you, as executive and professional assistants, have lots of ideas on that score!
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Event planners must be right brain and left brain, detail oriented and strategic, forecaster/planners and operational “in the moment” reactors. And without a doubt, all effective event planners must know how to artfully juggle their priorities, deadlines, resources and relationships. This in fact, may be the most critical talent of all for event planners moving forward and upward in their careers. So how do you master the art of juggling?


Learn more…

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New Year’s Resolution: Make life easier, get better IT!

1/15/2018

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New Year’s resolutions: they can be easy to make, but hard to achieve. Your personal list may include eating healthier and exercising more, but what about your professional life? What would improve your life at work in 2018? Let us add one to your professional list: get IT that works!
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Why is this an important resolution? If you have employees constantly coming to you and complaining about slow Wi-Fi, if you are struggling to keep track of your inventory or devices, or if you’ve realized that you need corporate IT policies, then it is time to put a little effort into IT and reap the rewards for doing so. Putting the right IT infrastructure in place will not only free up your time, it will also make everyone more productive, reduce your headaches, and set you on the right track for a successful year.
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​There are three important initiatives that can help improve IT in your company in 2018.

​1. Upgrade your network:

​Your network is the foundation of your infrastructure and your company depends on a strong and reliable network. When the internet is slow or there is an outage, no one can get any work done. An easy solution to this problem is to establish a backup internet connection. Let’s say you use AT&T for your internet and they have an outage on your block that lasts three hours. That means everyone in your company will lose three hours of productivity. However, if you have a backup internet connection with a different provider, you can switch over to that and there is no loss of productivity.

Upgrading doesn’t just mean redundant connections, it also means investing in the right network equipment. If you are still using a basic modem from Comcast that you could also use in your home, it is time to upgrade. Most basic modems and routers were never designed to handle the amount of traffic most companies generate. Additionally, they do not have the necessary security protocols in place to keep corporate data secure. To have the appropriate security and capabilities for your company, you need to invest in an enterprise level network. An enterprise level network will also let you distribute connectivity across various access points so users get the bandwidth they need, where they need it.
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Pro tip: WiFi connectivity depends greatly on the configuration of your network. Make sure you get an experienced IT professional to help you evaluate your office space, the number of devices that will be connected, and the placement of your access points – this will make a significant impact on the effectiveness of your network. 
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2. Implement asset tracking:
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Have you ever gone to grab a spare laptop from your supply closet for a new employee and realized there weren’t any spares left? Or have you just been unsure which devices are assigned to which employees? Implementing asset tracking can be tedious and time consuming at first and may require assistance from an experienced IT professional, but once it is implemented, it will ultimately save you time and worry.

How do I start?
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One of the first steps to asset tracking is labeling all hardware. You don’t have to invest in fancy labels with barcodes either. Simply buy a label maker and create a numbering system that works for you. For example, all Mac computers can be Mac-001, Mac-002, etc. Make sure you also add your company name and/or logo to every label as well.

The most important part of labeling hardware is documenting it. You can either do this manually on an excel spreadsheet, have an IT professional do it for you, or utilize asset tracking software. If you choose the manual option, make sure to record the label, the device type, who it is assigned to, and the serial number.

Pro tip: It is best to research which asset tracking software is best for your company depending on capabilities, number of users and items, and price. There are also solutions that provide unified management of all devices. These solutions have many features such as the ability to deploy software and applications to every device as well as remote wipe if a device is lost or stolen. The remote wipe capability will help protect your company’s data and files.
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​3. Create or update IT policies:

If you already have IT policies and guides in place, make sure you annually review and update them. If you do not have IT policies for your company yet, you should create them or have an IT professional create them for you and here’s why:
  • Avoid inconsistencies – Your team will have clear direction from management on how to handle specific situations.
  • Protect your company against possible legal actions – IT policies prove your company has specific procedures and security in place.
  • Use it as a training tool – If you articulate the appropriate steps and expectations within your policies, it can be given to new hires as part of their training.
The specific IT policies you should have in place:
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The policies you should have in place are dependent on what industry and type of company you are. For example, healthcare, government, and public companies are required to follow more rules and regulations than privately owned companies. No matter your industry, you should have an Employee Handbook that outlines the company culture and appropriate HR policies and guidelines.
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Companies also need to have IT policies in place as a guideline for privacy and security. If possible, utilize an IT professional or consultant to help you create these policies. The main IT policies you should create are:
  • Business Continuity Plan: Outlines the course of action you should follow in case of an emergency or natural disaster
  • Information Privacy and Security Policy: Establishes a general approach to information security and a plan on how to protect your company’s physical and IT assets
 
These three IT resolutions will help improve and protect your company in 2018. They can significantly reduce complaints about slow internet, organize and protect company devices, and update your company’s IT infrastructure and processes. If your company is quickly growing and you are trying to tackle these IT improvements on top of your other daily tasks, it might be time to enlist in professional IT support. Hybridge has experienced IT professionals and consultants that can help you complete these tasks and improve IT for your company.
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Good luck this new year creating a better you and a better company! 

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Taylor Morrow is the Operations and Marketing Manager at Hybridge. She handles the day-to-day operations of the company, IT consulting work, and all marketing efforts.
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Hybridge was founded in 2009 to bring the best of the cloud down to earth. Our team is the trusted and caring IT expert that simplifies technology for growing businesses in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco. From creating an optimized and secure network to fully supporting devices and a 24/7 helpdesk, Hybridge offers a variety of support and services designed to help your business succeed. Hybridge is your go-to IT expert so you can focus on your business’s core needs

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How to Use Unique Space to Jump Start Your 2018 Plans

1/8/2018

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 ​With the new year, you should be thinking of the best ways to get a jump on your Q1 plans. Are you looking to develop your annual plan or bring everyone on the same page or launch a new product or service? It takes the right mix of planning and commitment from team members to make everything run smoothly, so it’s essential that you take initiative by setting measurable and realistic first quarter goals and planning meetings in advance.
 
Prior to tackling the big goals scheduled for the coming year, it’s a good idea to review the current year’s goals and evaluate how effective you were in meeting them. In terms of planning, you should ideally include a great deal of forethought as the last thing you want is tackle last minute issues, which leads to hasty decision-making that could cost your company revenue and lost productivity. According to Rony Chammas, CEO at Peerspace  “Utilizing unique space enables you to reach your goals, promotes creativity, and encourages collaboration”. Here, we’ll explore the best ways to get a jump on your first quarter events and meetings to ensure a successful 2018.
 
Out-of-Office Strategic Planning Sessions
 
Once you have determined your overall goals for the first quarter, it’s time to develop a roadmap for success. This is easily accomplished by holding meetings for the sole purpose of strategic planning. A great way to utilize unique space for strategic planning is to get team members together outside of the office, as many studies have shown that a change of scenery can have a positive effect on creativity.
 
For maximum effectiveness, strategic planning sessions should be conducted slightly differently from typical staff meetings. Consider holding your strategic planning meeting over a nice dinner or a Virtual Reality playlab since employees who engage in activities they enjoy are more likely to come up with more innovative ideas and are more productive overall. Not only will outside planning sessions help flesh out ideas for the coming year, they can also serve as an opportunity for team members to relax and interact in a different environment. Strive to make the activities that precede the meeting as engaging as possible so that team members can foster a sense of unity before they get to the business of planning.
 
By developing a rapport beforehand, each team member will be more comfortable with sharing ideas while being receptive to the ideas of others. Strategic planning sessions also give leadership a chance to learn about their team and offer any knowledge they may have about making the planning process easier. When making an agenda for your strategic planning meeting, be sure to allow ample time for each team member to provide input. This is accomplished in a variety of ways from video interviews to suggestion boxes, but the point is to make sure that the environment is conducive to listening and providing constructive feedback.
 

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Consider Team Retreats for Maximum Creativity
 
Any successful business owner understands that success doesn’t just happen. It takes innovation, planning, and genuine enthusiasm to achieve big goals, yet the process can often feel rushed. A team retreat enables everyone to decompress then come back together to continue the planning process with fresh perspectives. These retreats also present many opportunities to delegate tasks based on each individual’s strengths while maximizing time away from the office.
 
Strategic planning sessions are great but many companies have found that employee retreats are even more critical to a successful first quarter planning process. While general ideas are usually hashed out in weekly meetings or during a couple of hours at a strategic planning outing, these settings often do not provide not enough time to adequately explore everyone’s ideas. This is where a team retreat comes into play. Companies like Uber and Google have praised the effectiveness of team retreats to intensely strategize and promote team bonding. During your first quarter retreat, consider hosting a kickoff meeting that will set the tone for the rest of the year.
 
Leading into your retreat, start by discussing what went well in the prior year and encourage attendees to begin thinking of new ways to expand on this success. Team retreats should also include any relevant training that you feel is necessary to take your first quarter plans to the next level and ensure that your team is up-to-date on the policies and procedures other organization and using proven techniques to achieve goals. Be mindful of company culture and office dynamics when choosing a location for the retreat and consider team suggestions before making a final decision on the retreat site.
 
Some Final Tips to Make your Q1 Meetings a Success
 
During all stages of the planning process, it’s important to keep a few basic things in mind. Always develop an agenda and make a real effort to stick to it. It’s imperative that you allow adequate time for team members to contribute ideas while remaining conscious of time so everyone gets equal time to share. It’s a good idea to be proactive and send out the agenda days ahead of the planning meeting to elicit additional agenda items to address.
 
Another helpful tip for planning for Q1 is to record audio or video of planning sessions. Doing this will ensure that all ideas are adequately captured and should be referred to later if necessary. Following planning sessions, make sure to review the video or audio from the meeting and document all important ideas in writing. The resulting document can then be sent out to meeting attendees and can include action items for specific team members so they can get started right away.
 
With 2018 approaching quickly, there’s no time like the present to get started with your Q1 planning. Continue to expand on what has worked and get rid of anything that isn’t while coming up with an action plan your team can get excited about. Consider changing the scenery by getting out of the office and giving your team members something to get excited about. Holding your first quarter planning sessions in a different environment is just the boost your team needs to make your year the most successful year yet.
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​Jai Singh is head of growth and marketing at Peerspace. Jai is a high-impact marketing executive with experience leading various facets of marketing. He has held marketing leadership positions at Peerspace, Facebook, TripAdvisor, and
Vistaprint. During his 10-plus years in 
marketing and additional time in broader consulting at Accenture, he has generated over $500 million in cumulative revenue and over 200million in monthly active user growth.

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How to Keep Your Workspace Welcoming and Secure

12/19/2017

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Creating a space where your team feels safe, relaxed, and able to focus on doing their best work is one of the basics of building a successful business. The idea of a secure workplace spans the ways you secure your space and assets to how you create a culture of personal responsibility, trust and respect.

As you prepare your office for holiday closures and plan for 2018 it’s a great opportunity to review your security needs, especially if you are planning on growing your team or moving offices in the next year.
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We often overlook security before it’s too late
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Any office harbors valuable equipment, such as computers and monitors, as well as employees' assets. As such, security should be a key consideration for even the smallest office. Burglaries of non-residential locations, like stores and offices, occur about 550,000 times a year, according to data collected by the FBI. Too often companies wait until an incident occurs before investing in the right solution for their space. However, there are smart, cost-conscious strategies to prevent and minimize the loss from office break-ins.
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Learn the basics of protecting your people, property, and assets
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“Security” actually covers a wide range of products, systems, and services, many of which work together to keep a workplace or commercial space protected from issues such as intruders, theft, and damage. When you pick the right system for your space you have the peace of mind that you are protected and, if something does happen, you’ll be able to get back to business quickly. The main types of security systems include access control, surveillance, and alarms and sensors. To help you understand your options and choose the right one for your space, download the Office Security Simplified guide, which we created based on our experience helping our clients choose the right system for their office.
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Security begins with a culture of respect and support
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Security is not just about which systems you install or what levels of access control to put in place. Security starts with how your team treats each other and expectations for behavior in the workplace. Take time to define and publicize what respect means in your workplace and how you expect employees, guests, and vendors who visit your space to conduct themselves.

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A Code of Conduct, which Ashe Dryden defines as a public statement that sets the ground rules for participation in a specific community, is an important tool in creating a secure, safe workplace. It can benefit all team members because, when done well, it sets clear expectations for behavior, outlines how to report violations, and enumerates the potential consequences for those who violate it. The goal is to make expectations for behavior clear so there are no surprises. Everyone knows what is permitted in your space and what isn’t, and everyone knows what happens if you don’t follow the Code. Teams managing the office culture and space can work together to create a Code of Conduct for your office and post it publically so that it provides a clear reminder of the secure culture you all have committed to creating.


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Eleanor Whitney is the Managing Editor at Managed by Q. She is a writer, musician, and community manager based in Brooklyn, New York. In 2013 Microcosm Publishing released her first book, Grow, a field guide for creatives to build satisfying companies and careers. She is currently working on her second book, a feminist memoir, to be published in 2018.

Managed by Q
 is the platform for office management. Q makes it easy to run an office by connecting companies to services, including cleaning, maintenance, office administration, IT, and security. A solution for recurring and ad-hoc office needs, Q saves companies valuable time and supports office operations for thousands of businesses nationwide.

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How to measure productivity at your office

12/12/2017

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Employers of yore had it so easy.

Actually, forget yore. Employers from just a few decades ago had it pretty easy too.

Here’s why: During the manufacturing boom, it was simple for companies to measure productivity. The factory setting allowed for quantifiable tracking of inputs and outputs, and for many years the following formula reigned supreme as the primary determinant of a team’s productivity:

Number of outputs (e.g. products) ÷ number of inputs (e.g. resources involved in producing the outputs) X 100% = the workforce’s productivity rate

Easy peasy, right?

It certainly is—if your business entails running a factory. If you don’t fall into that camp, things get a little more complicated.

As anyone who has spent time in a modern office can attest, determining the inputs and outputs involved in a day’s work can be wildly challenging. There are so many seemingly unquantifiable factors involved, from policies and processes that may influence an employee’s work flow, to relationships between coworkers that can help or hinder efficiency. Plus, most employees perform a variety of tasks, many of which may not be quantifiable.

Despite these challenges, measuring employee productivity is important. Among other benefits, keeping track of productivity allows you to identify opportunities to improve processes, acknowledge employees’ performance, set realistic goals, and track your team’s progress over time.

The question then becomes: How can employers and employees effectively measure productivity—and enjoy all the benefits that come along with doing so—in an office setting instead of in a factory?

Thankfully, it’s easier than it sounds. These five strategies are a great place to start.

Establish a baseline
Measuring productivity is a process of comparison: You compare how much an employee or a team produces, in relationship to how little would be produced if team members didn’t inhabit their respective roles. Sometimes you compare a given employee’s productivity directly against the productivity of an employee in a similar role. Other times, you compare your team’s results to industry averages. In order to make these comparisons, you first need to establish a baseline of whatever it is you’re comparing to.

For example, if you run a sales team or call center, you could divide the average number of daily sales or customer calls by the number of employees to determine how many calls each of your employees averages each day. You can then use this as a baseline to determine who is fielding more or less than the average. (Of course, the baseline shouldn’t be the end-all, be-all to determine a team member’s productivity—after all, quantity rarely beats quality.)

This process can get trickier if you work in a more administrative setting where each employee has a different role and their tasks are less quantifiable. In these cases, it’s still important to establish a baseline. For example, you may consider breaking projects into assigned tasks so you can track how well employees stay on top of their work (more on that in the next tip).

​No matter how you determine a baseline, try to avoid using the number of hours worked, the number of sick days taken, or the number of vacation days used. These metrics don’t necessarily have any relation to the quality or effectiveness of a given employee’s work. 
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Define tasks                                            
A simple way to measure productivity is to clearly define tasks and then track whether, and with what expediency, those tasks are completed.

This is a great way to make sure you don’t fall into the micromanaging trap, because it focuses more on outcomes than it does on the minutiae of daily responsibilities. It also allows you to measure employees’ ability to meet deadlines, which can be a useful performance metric. Just make sure you don’t simply assign tasks for the tasks’ sake. Tasks should offer real value to the company for them to have significance as a performance indicator.
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One other caveat: Using tasks to track productivity requires that those tasks be assigned effectively in the first place. Make sure managers communicate exactly what deliverables are expected for a certain assignment and when those deliverables are due, as well as any other information relevant to completing the task effectively and efficiently. Only when this information has been provided is it reasonable to expect a team member to follow through on the assignment. 
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Identify benchmarks
Once you establish a baseline set of metrics and tasks to measure productivity, it’s time to figure out how you’ll track these metrics over time. Presumably, your goal is for employees to meet or exceed the baseline on a regular basis—so you need to determine benchmarks that help you identify what qualifies as “exceeding” the baseline and help you notice if your employees stagnate in their roles.

Just as when you established your baseline metrics, it’s important to take a multidimensional approach to setting benchmarks. For example, you may establish a benchmark for X number of sales successfully closed, X number of professional presentations delivered, X number of software functions coded, etc. Then, throw in some subjective outcomes to get a better sense of the whole picture. That may include things such as feedback from customer satisfaction or peer surveys, or the team member’s ability to collaborate, think creatively, problem solve, and so on.

The important thing is to develop as broad a picture as you can and then use this information in a constructive way—not a punitive one. If an employee appears to be stagnating, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re unproductive. It may mean their manager fails to communicate assignments clearly, another employee’s bad work habits inhibit their productivity, they’re a better fit for a slightly different role, or something else entirely. Benchmarks provide a valuable data set, but it’s important to look beyond them to really understand why an employee does or does not maintain their productivity.
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No matter what benchmarks you decide to move forward with, it’s helpful to assign a time period by which certain benchmarks should be met. Different benchmarks require different time periods ranging from daily to weekly, monthly, quarterly, and even annually. Establishing these timelines is essential because it allows team members to know how they’re being assessed and encourages managers to set realistic expectations for their teams. 
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Encourage employee participation
If you want your office’s productivity metrics to be valuable, it’s essential to involve your team members when crafting baseline metrics, defining tasks, and identifying reasonable benchmarks. After all, these team members have the most accurate sense of what it takes to accomplish a given task, what is a reasonable amount of work to complete in a given time in their individual roles, and so on. This helps explain why one study found that employees who participate in crafting their productivity metrics are most likely to demonstrate increased productivity over time.

Engaging your employees in this process also gives them a chance to identify the resources they need to thrive in their respective roles. The key is to listen when employees tell you what resources would enable them to do their jobs better, and then invest in fulfilling those needs. For example, if an employee tells you they’d be more productive working from home two days each week or that a certain part of their job could be automated, give them a chance to prove themselves right.
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By treating your team members as autonomous individuals who know a lot about their jobs, you’ll simultaneously improve morale (which has been linked to heightened productivity in its own right) and empower your team members to take their productivity into their own hands.
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​Regularly reevaluate how you measure productivity
Identifying and tracking productivity benchmarks isn’t a one-time thing. Instead, the way you measure productivity should constantly evolve depending on whether the baselines change, certain benchmarks have been achieved, key team members leave or new team members are hired, industry norms or standards shift, and so on. Because there are so many moving parts involved in productivity, it’s essential to continually redefine all these parts to make sure you accurately perceive and evaluate the bigger picture.
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​Attempts to track productivity shouldn’t feel like a draconian way to police employees’ every move. Instead, each of these steps should be taken with buy-in and feedback from your team members so everyone can understand their priorities individually and collectively. By creating a company culture that emphasizes respectful collaboration, assigns job duties to the individual performing them, and creates and executes effective processes, you’ll give morale a boost and empower your employees to be their most productive. 

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​Megan Palmer is the PR Director at ZeroCater . A news junkie and networker, she loves to discover great stories and the amazing people behind them.  In her free time, you’ll find her off chasing the sun (and really great sushi).  
 
Founded in 2009, ZeroCater is a San Francisco-based startup with a mission to help companies build high-performing cultures through food so they can hire, retain and make top talent productive. Arram Sabeti founded ZeroCater after realizing firsthand the pain points of organizing office meals. ZeroCater makes office catering and snacks simple through dedicated account managers, top-notch restaurant partners, and technology that allows for a seamless process and in-depth insight. Currently, ZeroCater provides office catering and snack services in San Francisco; New York; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Austin and Los Angeles.

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The Importance of Etiquette, Honesty and Empathy in the Modern Office

11/27/2017

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While open plan offices, casual dress codes, and different environments for different workstyles are making workplaces more relaxed, the push to hit weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals can make for a pressure-cooker-like environment. Dishes pile up in the sink. A single team, or person, camps out in a coveted conference room. Team members either trade verbal barbs or pointedly ignore each other.

Sometimes in the race to get our work we forget to treat our coworkers like people. Especially with the added stress of the busy holiday season approaching, those in office management and people and culture roles often feel the pressure to keep the office socially stable, even as calendars fill up, tempers shorten, and patience frays. At Managed by Q we wanted to help you take a deep breath as the holiday season approaches and share strategies for keeping the values of kindness and respect front and center, even during the most hectic of times.

Clarify and model your values

In a busy office it’s easy to be so laser focused on your own to do list that you neglect or discount common courtesy and engaging with the workplace community. If rude behavior is running rampant in your workplace, check in with yourself and your team. If you are a manager and team leader, are you modeling values of kindness and respect for your team? Have you set clear expectations around behavior?
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Business etiquette expert Daniel Post Senning suggests bringing teams together to address behavior that is having a negative impact on your team. "Talk to everyone together and take a fresh-start approach, highlighting that it isn't about what's happened before, but about what happens from this moment moving forward," says Senning. "Having reasons and being ready to talk about why it's important to you is key. Be as explicit as you can, but also let it be an open discussion. That's part of good management," adds Senning.
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Dare to have honest, empathetic conversations

If a group conversation about a particular behavior or issue will alienate some of your coworkers, having a direct, honest, one-on-one conversation can help smooth out tensions or address problematic behavior. “It's really important to respect someone's feelings and show consideration for them, and also to give them the best possible chance to respond well,” says Senning.

Taking on hard conversations can also feel like a burden when when you are also are handling daily tasks related to office operations, but bringing honesty and empathy into your work will not only help make your office a better place to work, but help your career. In fact, empathy is projected to be the skill you need to be successful in the workplace by 2020.
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Sarah Larkin Birdson, a licensed therapist and professional development consultant, defines empathy as understanding and experiencing another person’s emotions while still maintaining discernment of your own. “You don’t need to agree with somebody, but you have to know where they’re coming from,” she says. Communication is key to empathy, and, in fact, real communication is next to impossible without empathy.
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Keep a handle on culture as you grow

If your company is growing quickly, your workplace culture can be strained if you don’t have a plan in place to enable your culture to scale and evolve as your team expands. Define what values drive your culture, figure out how to work cultural values into your hiring practices in a systematic fashion, open lines of communication for employees to give feedback, and think about retiring old traditions and creating new ones that work for your current team. These tasks require buy-in and commitment from multiple departments, but if you are in an office operations role you are uniquely positioned to help manage and advocate for cultural growth.

Cultivating a kind and productive workplace is a huge, and ongoing, task. To help you build a great workplace culture you can subscribe to All Hands, a publication about life at work. You can also rely on Managed by Q to handle the logistical tasks of running your office and ensure your space stays clean and welcoming through regular cleaning, office help, or assistance during special events.
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​Eleanor Whitney is the Managing Editor at Managed by Q. She is a writer, musician, and community manager based in Brooklyn, New York. In 2013 Microcosm Publishing released her first book, Grow, a field guide for creatives to build satisfying companies and careers. She is currently working on her second book, a feminist memoir, to be published in 2018.

Managed by Q
 is the platform for office management. Q makes it easy to run an office by connecting companies to services, including cleaning, maintenance, office administration, IT, and security. A solution for recurring and ad-hoc office needs, Q saves companies valuable time and supports office operations for thousands of businesses nationwide.

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Appeal to Millennials With These Money-Saving Work Perks

11/13/2017

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​The unemployment rate is low, labor shortages have emerged in many areas, and skilled workers are in high demand. Employers can’t afford to neglect millennials, the largest living generation in the U.S. With more than 75 million members, millennials (who currently range in age between 17 and 37) are expected to be the workforce's largest generation by 2020.
 
Born between 1980 and 2000, millennials grew up during a time of unprecedented technological and global change. Contrary to popular opinion, the majority of millennials prefer full time work at a company rather than independent freelance work. Research also shows millennials have unique values and financial concerns that impact their work decisions. Want to attract and keep the best and brightest millennials? Keep reading to learn why money-saving work perks may be particularly tempting to the millennial generation and which perks are likely to appeal everyone in the workforce. 
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Minds on Their Money
 
Many millennials launched their careers either during the 2008 recession or in the sluggish recovery that followed. Graduating college during any recession can dramatically and negatively impact wages for decades afterward, according to a study conducted by Lisa Kahn, a labor economist at Yale University. The 2008 recession may have had an even bigger impact than other economic downturns because it was the worst recession since the Great Depression. Research suggests the average millennial makes about $10,000 a year less than the average baby boomer did at the same age, when accounting for inflation. To compound the problem, a majority of millennials started or will start their careers with record levels of student loan debt.
 
Despite high employment numbers, millennials tend to live at home with their parents and delay marriage, children, and home ownership much longer than previous generations, many times for financial reasons. They’re sometimes portrayed as immature or irresponsible, but research suggests thrifty millennials are more financially responsible and save a bigger percentage of their paychecks than other generations. Despite their proclivity for saving, millennials may face a less secure financial future than previous generations because of several distinct challenges. 
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​The result? Many millennials are stressed about finances. In a separate study, 67% of millennials said financial stress interferes with their productivity at work, and 68% say financial stress impacts their physical health.
 
Student Loan Repayment Assistance
 
If your company is developing a benefits package or an incentive plan targeted toward millennials, keep their financial concerns in mind. In one survey, more than half of millennials said they worry all the time, or often, about repaying student loan debt, and 40% said worrying about student loan debt affects their health. Student debt is a huge issue for millennials; helping them pay off loans could ease stress levels, inspire loyalty, and increase work productivity.
 
In one survey, nearly 90% of young employees with student loans said they’d commit to a job for five years in exchange for help paying their loans. In another survey of millennials, more than 50% said student loan repayment assistance would be an attractive workplace perk, and more than 45% said they’d value help paying off student loans more than a 401(k) matching program. About 4% of companies offer student loan repayment assistance, and the trend will likely grow.
 
Continued Education
Millennials also value opportunities to learn, grow, and develop on the job significantly more than baby boomers or Generation X workers. Thus, tuition reimbursement, paid trainings, and mentorship opportunities may be of particular appeal to millennials.
 
Food and Coffee
When employees offer meals as a part of their incentive package, employees can save major dough. Considering the average American office worker spends $3000 a year on coffee and lunch at work and snack and coffee runs account for 2.4 billion hours of lost productivity each year, both companies and their team members have a lot to gain with in-house meals. By offering great coffee options (and avoiding the burnt, bitter coffee of offices past) and healthy, delicious breakfast, snacks, and/or lunch, you can help keep employees engaged in the office and appreciative they don’t have to drop $15+ on restaurant coffee and food every day. 
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​Lifestyle Solutions
 
In many ways, millennials aren’t that different from other generations. Benefits such as health insurance, vacation time, paid leave, and flexible scheduling, appeal universally to workers. Money-saving perks, such as catered lunches, free snacks, and help with living expenses, may appeal to the thrifty millennial generation even more than to other generations. Some companies are attracting millennials by kicking in $20,000 to fund employees’ weddings, paying for pet insurance, covering monthly entertainment subscriptions, and offering fertility benefits. 
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Employers can present money-saving perks in the most appealing way by understanding millennials’ unique buying preferences. Millennials have been called the NOwnership Generation because home ownership and car ownership rates are down among young people. The trend away from ownership may partly reflect the rise of the sharing economy with business models such as Lyft, Netflix, and Spotify making it less necessary to own material goods.
 
Surveys indicate that millennials tend to prioritize spending on experiences. In a Harris study, 78% of millennials said they’d prefer to spend money on a desirable experience rather than a material good. Travel is important to millennials: In one survey, 70% said travel was a major motivation to work, second only to funding basic necessities. Millennials dine out more than other generations, and they attend more special events. In a 2014 study, 82% of millennials said they spent money on concerts, festivals, and other events during the previous year, and 72% said they’d like to spend more money on experiences during the current year.
 
Travel, dining out, and special events are expensive. Perks that help employees save money on daily necessities help them afford the memorable experiences they value. Benefits that help employees save money while creating a memorable experience may be particularly appealing to millennials. Office happy hour anyone?
 
Conclusion
 
Companies should target incentives and benefits to the largest number of workers. With millennials poised in the next few years to comprise half of the U.S. workforce, employers need to keep their unique financial concerns and values in mind. Perks that help millennials pay off student loans, advance and grow at work, and shave money off daily living necessities to fund memorable experiences could help your company attract and retain top talent.

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Megan Palmer is the PR Director at ZeroCater. A news junkie and networker, she loves to discover great stories and the amazing people behind them… and then tell the whole world about them.  In her free time, you’ll find her off chasing the sun (and really great sushi).  
 
Founded in 2009, ZeroCater is a San Francisco-based startup with a mission to help companies build high-performing cultures through food so they can hire, retain and make top talent productive. Arram Sabeti founded ZeroCater after realizing firsthand the pain points of organizing office meals. ZeroCater makes office catering and snacks simple through dedicated account managers, top-notch restaurant partners, and technology that allows for a seamless process and in-depth insight. Currently, ZeroCater provides office catering and snack services in San Francisco; New York; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Austin and Los Angeles.

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