Boise Hunter Homes is dedicated to building quality homes in fantastic communities, and its new office in Eagle is helping them do it. Founded in 2007 by Jim and Jan Hunter, Boise Hunter Homes (BHH) started as a custom home builder with a handful of employees and has grown into a large-scale land developer and community builder. Today the Hunters are joined by their two sons, Travis and Cody, and have around sixty employees. BHH has experienced substantial growth over the last two years. With the effects of Covid encouraging people to move to Idaho, BHH has grown to keep up with demand.
All Under One Roof
The new office is the fourth location BHH has had in the Eagle River Development. At one point, the company had space in three different buildings, which made coordinating schedules a logistical nightmare. While many businesses chose to vacate the office at the onset of Covid, BHH doubled down and decided to get an even bigger office. The collaborative nature of their work made it essential for them to get everyone under the same roof. Rather than build, they jumped on the chance to purchase their new building when it came up for sale. Things got even better when they found out OEC did the previous TI and could help reconfigure the space so that everyone got a great office. “Michelle (OEC Workplace Consultant) understood our vision and helped us execute it. From the design and TI’s to the furnishings, it was a one-stop-shop.” -Travis Hunter.
An Open Atmosphere
The two-story building is designed circularly, with offices rimming the exterior walls. By using Steelcase privacy walls, the offices remain private while also allowing light into the core of the building.
“Being in the space boosts your energy, it is a lot lighter and brighter, and the Steelcase system creates an open atmosphere rather than people hiding in their offices. Seeing people’s faces is a big part of our culture. So much of what we do is face-to-face with employees and outside consultants. The whole environment is very welcoming, and our staff loves it.”
Randi Meredith: BHH CFO
Steelcase Series 2 Chairs & Steelcase Groupwork Table
Cradle To Grave Development
It is important that the staff loves the space because they have a lot of work to do in it. Developing communities involves taking a project from the cradle to the grave. BHH buys land, entitles it, develops and designs communities, then offers several different house plans to build. What they offer their customers is an all-inclusive financing option. Rather than buying the land then separately financing the build, BHH’s customers put down earnest money on a lot and close on the finished home with a conventional loan. Not only is this easier for customers, but when they give their earnest money, the price of their home project is locked-in regardless of price increases.
Delivering On Lifestyle
However, BHH recommends itself in other ways too. “We want to build fantastic communities that provide the lifestyle people are looking for. They are not just buying a home; they are buying into a community. We pride ourselves in our amenities like organic produce, walking trails, pools, basketball courts, and more. The amenities are a driving reason why people live here. We want to deliver communities with the exact lifestyle people are looking for and houses that meet all of their wants and needs.” -Travis Hunter.
Working With Cities
Creating these fantastic communities requires working well with different cities and municipalities.
“One of the best parts of our job is working with cities. It is really fun to be a part of helping the town grow in a positive way. We aren’t a national or even regional company. We live and breathe the treasure valley, have planted our roots here, love helping the town grow in the right way.”
Travis Hunter
Left to Right: Travis Hunter, Jim Hunter, Cody Hunter
Working With Family
It is no wonder that BHH focuses on creating great communities for families when it is a family-run business. “Working with my family is really fun. We often spend more time with our coworkers than we do with our family, so when you work with family, it helps you invest in those relationships more. We can rely on each other’s strengths and diversify our work.” – Travis Hunter. With great working relationships, a beautiful new office, and plenty of work on the horizon, Boise Hunter Homes is looking forward to growing with the community for decades to come.
Three technology solutions giving power back to employees
In the last couple of years, the way we work has changed dramatically. Now work from home solutions have become center stage. However temperamental some of these leading solutions were, they kept the show going and have become a part of the new way we do business. But the show is changing as employees once again fill their office seats. The new rising stars of Hybrid technology are emerging with the motto “Empower the team, not the tech.” Let’s meet some of these Hybrid stars.
Investing In Virtual Meeting Software
Perhaps the most widely known and favorite of the work-from-home era solutions are software programs. A couple we all love to hate are Zoom and Microsoft Teams. These, and platforms like them, have allowed us to connect with clients, coworkers, family, and friends over the last couple of years when we could not meet in person. Though temperamental, they have been so instrumental in our new work styles that they are now an integral part of how we conduct business in the office and at home. When you can’t make a large company meeting in person, you can jump on Teams. Want a quality connection with a client? Hop on Zoom. From now on, you will see successful offices investing in technology that enable easy access to this software from anywhere, at any time.
Reserving the Spaces You Need
In Hybrid offices, flexibility is a buzzword. It refers not only to the physical space employees inhabit but also their schedules. With employees occupying office space at different times or days of the week, ensuring they have what they need is critical to their productivity. Room and desk reservation systems play an essential role in empowering employees to easily find and reserve a place to work in an office with shared workplaces. An employee coming in for an important meeting can reserve a room to collaborate with team members ahead of time. After the meeting, the employee can reserve a desk for heads-down work rather than going home to a distracting environment. These two reservations systems blend the physical office with digital booking technology to accommodate that all-important flexibility
Power Wherever You Need It
With great power comes great flexibility. Working wherever you want is great until you need to charge a device and there is no outlet in sight. A great solution to this problem is a freestanding power outlet designed to lay nicely underneath the carpet. This simple system provides power to any space – whether in a café or classroom – allowing under-utilized real estate to work harder. With single circuit and dual circuit technology, building owners can distribute power throughout ancillary and conference space. They can even power larger applications. Flexible power systems are making their way into commercial spaces to put the power back into your hands, literally.
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“When I first joined Nova, I asked, ‘Where do we meet?’ They responded, ‘At our office, Café Capri, and they have great coffee!”
Haokun Hu
When Haokun Hu joined Nova Measuring Instrument, Inc. as the Account Operations Manager in March of 2021, he was on a mission to create a home base for the local team. For years, the Boise team worked from home, on the customer site, or the coffee shop supporting its clients. This was not a long-term solution, and employees needed a private and collaborative space. Fast forward, and Nova has made a home for itself right next to the company it has committed to serving.
Solutions for Semiconductor Manufacturers
So, what does Nova do, and why is its office location so important? For starters, Nova was founded in 1993. It is the leading supplier for dimensional and material metrology solutions for semiconductor chip manufacturers. Their extensive portfolio of products and services act as customer’s eyes and ears in measuring the quality of the products they are manufacturing and subsequently helping them improve the yield. Therefore, having an office minutes away from a key strategic customer is essential to delivering on Nova’s promise of excellent service.
Creating A Unified Design
But how do you create a unified look and feel for offices spread around the globe? You start with a unifying design principle, home. Haokun Hu and the US headquarters Facilities Manager Manny Balcita identified a building near the customer surrounded by other suppliers to fulfill this task. Next, they collaborated with both the US and Israel head office teams with the goal of designing the office to feel like their headquarters in Israel and the US (California). “Whether you are walking into a site that has seven or three employees, it shouldn’t look different than the site with seven hundred.”, says Manny Balcita. To achieve this continuity, they enlisted local vendors like OEC to help them design the informal, relaxed, and collaborative environment that their employees would call home.
Nova Grand Opening Left to Right David Goehring: Boise Service Engineer, Dewaine Hale: Boise Service Manager, Igor Nosikovsky: Israel Business Manager, Gaby Waisman: Israel Chief Business Officer, Melvin Ng: Singapore Global Account Manager, Carolina Gomez: Boise Application Engineer, Laura LaFleur: Fremont, CA HR Partner, Haokun Hu: Boise Account Operation Manager
Working With OEC
Working with OEC’s design and sales team, Haokun and Manny began to fill in their empty shell of an office. “We went in with a basic idea of how many chairs and workstations we wanted and how they would best stimulate collaboration. Then we decided on the best layout. Jill (OEC workplace consultant) was very understanding and accommodating from the beginning. We made some design changes midway, and she helped us create the same feeling as our headquarters offices within our budget. During this selection process, the most important thing to me was good communication and a quick response which is exactly what Jill and the OEC team gave us.” – Haokun Hu
Claiming Their New Home
The now completed office boasts two conference rooms, workstations made for collaboration, a kitchen table that doubles as an informal meeting place, and lounge chairs for casual conversations. Tying it all back to the look and feel of the headquarters are various cool colors and a unique metal panel. Now, the local application and service team have a place to meet together and bounce around ideas, create new opportunities, and improve the service to their customers.
“Our teams are constantly working for our customers and trying to solve problems. So, seeing them at our ribbon-cutting ceremony, claiming their new home, choosing where they would sit, and chit-chatting in that area gave me a warm feeling. I know it’s been a long time coming. I could already see that being in the space was lifting their morale and creating a sense of family and a sense of team.”-Manny Balcita.
Manny Balcita
Workstations
Keeping A Promise
This office is a dream come true for the Boise team. When Haokun joined Nova, the team asked him when they were going to have their new office. He told them they would have it by the end of the year. That promise was very important to him and the company’s mindset toward its customers.
“When we make a promise, we will make it happen. This office is a symbol of Nova making the commitment to our long-term partnership with our customers.”
Have you ever tried to do a job with the wrong tools? Typically, the results take longer and aren’t quite as good as if you had the right tool made for the task. Well, the other day, my wife called me from the Idaho State Capitol. She’s in the House of Representatives for the Idaho State Government. For two months out of the year, she works alongside all the other citizen legislators at the Capitol to make laws for Idaho.
The Wrong Tool
She called me because her state-supplied office chair that came with her small cubicle had no arms and was seemingly purchased at some basement bargain sale. She could only sit in it for short periods of time before getting uncomfortable. Wrong tool for the job. So the other day, I dropped off a task chair from Steelcase for her to use for a few months. Not only is she the envy of the legislators, but she now has a proper tool for the job and can work for extended periods of time in comfort.
Do You Have The Right Tool?
Wherever you work (home, office, Capitol building), take some time to consider your furniture as your tools to do your job. Are you using the right tools? Would an investment in your tools yield more efficient or higher quality work?
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Moving has a way of teaching you to take stock. It forces you to consider what is worth keeping, what needs to be thrown away, and what needs replacing. Taking stock is common for many businesses moving into new office space. They realize some items will not work in a new work environment and others are best new.
However, the company interested in saving money will do well to bring their higher quality, functional furniture with them. When this is the case, it pays to hire an expert commercial installer to reconfigure the furniture for their new space.
Why Reconfigure?
Reconfiguring furniture saves money and makes furniture work in your new space. If your furniture is in good shape, bringing it to a new space is like giving it a second life. Any time you can reuse items, that is money in your pocket.
But why not just set things up exactly how they used to be? There are three main reasons reconfiguring furniture is best. First, moving into a new space sometimes requires working with items the last tenants left behind.
A great example of this situation is OEC’s client, Boise Hunter Homes (BHH), moving into an office with existing privacy wall. In this space, all the offices hugged the perimeter of the building, separated from the interior by tall, glass privacy walls. The glass walls allowed natural light into the core of the building while providing privacy for each office.
BHH loved the space and wanted to keep the privacy walls, but they needed to make changes to fit their company. OEC had installed the original privacy wall, so they could reconfigure some panels to reshape and even add offices. Reconfiguration allowed BHH to transform its office with minimal downtime or cost.
Why Space Planning Is Vital In Reconfiguration
Second, a new space entails a different flow. Your furniture should complement the architecture of the new space and help support your company’s culture. Doing this right requires experts in space planning and design.
OEC’s design team works with each client to learn their vision for the space and their pain points. Then they can fix those pain points by correctly positioning the existing furniture in the space. They also account for power accessibility, safety requirements, and sound management. Successfully implementing a reconfiguration is impossible if you don’t have an experienced designer working through these logistics.
Reconfiguring Without The Move
Finally, not all companies that reconfigure their space are moving. Boise State University is one such example of reconfiguring existing space. BSU needed a workstation, and they decided to add it to a pre-existing station.
OEC’s reconfiguration service team built the station using existing wall panels and a few new joining parts. By working with the OEC design team, the installers know which pieces to use, where to put them, and which new items to add. It made for a smooth installation that allowed BSU to make more of its existing space.
Whether moving or staying put, reconfiguration allows you to reuse existing furniture to reimagine your space.
How often do we walk into work and take for granted that the lights are on, the heat is up, and that thing that falls under no one’s specific jurisdiction has been taken care of? If it hasn’t crossed your mind before, that is because your facilities team has already thought of it. Join two exceptional facilities managers as they share what it is like to look at buildings through a facilities lens.
Yorick de Tassigny
Yorick de Tassigny has been the Building Planning and Maintenance Manager at City of Boise for four years. He and his team of fourteen support at least thirty buildings, including City Hall West and public safety facilities.
Do you ever have a typical day?
“It is different all the time. That is the beauty of facilities. We have a robust preventive maintenance program that is routine work, but otherwise, different needs and repairs can pop up.”
What are some new challenges you are facing?
“Dealing with the growth of Boise has been a significant challenge. We have outdated furniture systems, and with limited budgets, we are trying to be more efficient with our existing space and replace what we can.”
What are some changes you have seen happening in your facilities?
“Asking ‘Do you feel safe in your building?’ has forced us to look at how we think about the physical space. That led us to hybrid work. From a facility standpoint, we are hoping this will help solve our space limitations. Meanwhile, we are piloting some projects with different seating elements and workstations to see what will work for other projects.”
What are some things you hope to change in the future?
“I have always been interested in having blank floors and using modular furniture or offices. Some rooms can move around, are cozy, and very quiet. I would like to introduce more of those elements into the workplace.”
What is your favorite part of your job?
“I like the planning aspect of it. Looking at our buildings and finding ways to make them more efficient and build automation is really fun. We also collect data in our operations, like energy data, work orders, or labor hours, to make data-driven decisions.”
Rob Womble
Rob Womble is the Regional Manager for the Operations, Divisions, Facilities Department at Power Engineers. He directly manages twenty-four individuals on three separate teams maintaining fifty-five offices around the U.S. and Canada. One of the teams designs and implements new locations and expansions.
Do you ever have a typical day?
“No, I get phone calls at three in the morning that a door isn’t secure. We get involved in natural disasters dealing with locals, contractors, or insurance companies. There is hardly ever a typical day, and I think that has drawn my employees to work here.”
What are some new challenges you are facing?
“Prior to COVID, our biggest challenge was keeping up with our own internal growth. We have been expanding and taking on new locations, and trying to do that with a small crew is hard.”
What are some changes you have seen happening in your facilities?
“I have been here for fifteen years. Something that has changed in my role is the effort and drive behind sustainability. We have always been involved in our communities and recycling. Two of our buildings operate with solar power. We are working more towards documenting to understand our impact on the environment and how to mitigate that. We truly believe in being responsible and are proud of that effort.”
What are some things you hope to change in the future?
“We are looking at the future through the lens of the employee experience, and that is exciting for me. Our employees can work from home or in the office, so we are trying to utilize space to draw them into the office.”
What is your favorite part of your job?
“The people I manage are absolutely phenomenal. I would put them up against anybody anywhere at any time, and they would blow the other folks out of the water. Beyond that, I have been very fortunate when it comes to the people who managed me in my career. I have never worked for a company that puts as much focus on the employee to develop their career and support them.”
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HUB International refreshes their Boise building by the Train Depot
In 2013, locally owned and operated insurance firm Premier Insurance was at a crossroads. There were a lot of changes happening in the healthcare world, and the successful firm knew they needed help providing their clients with the resources they deserved. So, they brought their four Idaho locations to the table to be acquired by Chicago-based insurance company HUB International. Since then, the newly minted Boise HUB office has doubled its staff from twenty-two employees to forty-five and is still growing. To accommodate this expansion, the company has completely redesigned the second floor of their two-story building on Rose Hill St., next to the Boise Train Depot.
Collaboration Space
The Second Story Renovation
HUB Commercial Broker and Regional Sales Lead Matt Azevedo has played a significant role in the second-story renovation. As manager of the Boise office, he knows how important it is to breathe new life into the previously outdated space. “Not too many exciting things happen in an insurance office, so the change has been fun. We have employees who have been here for fifteen plus years, and maybe never moved chairs within the office. We felt they should have first option to move upstairs. Every one of them took it.” The renovation is excellent not only for its view of Boise’s iconic Train Depot but also for its plethora of natural light and great flow.
HUB Culture
While getting into the space has felt like an eternity, it is already making a positive difference in the culture. “We stayed home for COVID and then were forced to be apart for a remodel, and that doesn’t help our culture and what we are trying to build here in the Boise office. This building is new, it’s fresh, it’s vibrant, and that makes us excited to come back.”
Working With OEC
What took Matt by surprise was the size of the OEC team it took to install everything. “Initially, I couldn’t believe there were twelve guys here installing. You just don’t realize the sheer amount of furniture that it takes to furnish a building of this size. Overall, they were extremely professional, and our Project Manager [Riley Weber] was very thorough. I appreciated that because we are all super busy this time of year, but I could tell that he really cared about the quality of the work he was doing.”
OEC Team Member During Installation
Seeing People Around The Office
Matt’s favorite part of the new office is how easy it is to connect with coworkers, especially after so much time in isolation. “No matter where you are in the new space, you see people. I feel like over the last year we have lost some of the continuity that comes along with simply seeing people and the expressions on their faces, their smiles. Around this office, you can always see people, so I’m excited about the fluidity of the building.
Coming Back To Work
As they settle into their new space, HUB Boise is looking forward to growth and is excited about the productivity that returning to the office will bring them. “We want to keep our clients happy while getting into the groove of coming back to work.”
New research finds key hybrid work issues to resolve before they put business at risk.
“The Great Resignation” is causing upheaval in organizations everywhere. Despite efforts to secure the best talent, people continue to seek new opportunities. Their departures leave leaders searching to find, hire and train new team members all while locking down employees with critical skills they can’t afford to lose. The numbers are startling — 41% of the global workforce is likely to consider leaving their current employer in the next year, according to Microsoft data.
In response, many companies are testing the waters with a hybrid work strategy. They want to see if they can satisfy employees’ desire for flexibility in how, when and where they work while still fulfilling customer needs, creating innovative solutions and maintaining company culture. After all, 78% of employees say they want some form of flexible, remote work options to continue (Steelcase global research, Fall 2021).
Steelcase WorkSpace Futures researchers identified key areas to watch as organizations implement these hybrid models. Their latest research conducted in Fall 2021 included in-depth interviews with North American global talent experts and human resources leaders responsible for driving workplace policy and defining hybrid work models, as well as a meta-analysis of literature about effective hybrid work structures.
Structured Flexibility
There are many ways to approach hybrid work which creates significant complexity when it comes to choosing a hybrid model. What works for one organization, may not work for another based on how they are able to balance a variety of business factors. There is not one clear best hybrid model for every organization, but Steelcase researchers did see several consistent approaches emerge.
Most organizations are implementing two or three days in the office and two or three days remote. While the number of days is defined at the company level, decisions around which days people will come into the office are being made by department or regional leaders. They are in a better position to understand their teams’ work and when they need to be together. The consistent insight among talent and human resource experts is that offering flexibility should not be totally open-ended. It helps employees to have some structure to let them know when other people are most likely to be in the office, so they can make connections and collaborate.
The 3-2 or 2-3 model offers more flexibility than a five-day in-office or five-day remote approach and lets organizations test new ways of working while minimizing risk to business continuity, talent strategy, overall costs and maintaining culture.
“These are complex challenges requiring leaders to meet varied criteria while considering multiple stakeholders in the context of a volatile, uncertain and complex environment.”
MARK MORTENSEN
Organizations are experimenting and measuring to understand the new patterns of behavior employees adopt over time.
Six Emerging Challenges with Hybrid
Within the range of new hybrid structures, Steelcase researchers noted six potential challenges organizations will likely face. Successful hybrid organizations will need to be proactive and transparent about how they are trying to address these new, critical issues.
#1 HYBRID IMPACTS CAREER VISIBILITY. ELIMINATE PRESENCE BIAS.
Historically, career advancement and growth opportunities are linked to time spent in-person, gaining exposure to leaders and growing internal networks. HR leaders are seeing hybrid work colliding with talent and DEI initiatives. Hybrid makes it difficult for entry-level employees and new hires to grow in their careers. At the same time, women and people of color are more likely to opt for greater flexibility and, as a result, are less likely to be in-person and visible to leaders.
Bottom line: HR leaders committed to talent development, engagement and DEI goals are developing new training for hybrid leaders to address biases before they become entrenched.
#2 EQUAL IS IMPOSSIBLE. AIM FOR EQUITY.
It’s inescapable that certain jobs are more apt for remote work. Yet, providing some workers with the option to work remotely and not others can result in unintentional inequalities. Additionally, by pushing down decision making, variations will likely exist across the company. Leading organizations are accepting that, while things may not be equal, they can strive for more equity by offering different pay structures, resources or benefits to create a greater balance.
Bottom line: Employees understand things cannot always be equal, but they value organizations seeking to level the playing field.
#3 AVOID KNOWLEDGE SILOS. FOCUS ON FLOW.
“Without intervention (to improve the flow of information), the effects we discovered (of siloed knowledge) have the potential to impact workers’ ability to acquire and share new information across groups, and as a result, affect productivity and innovation,” write Microsoft researchers in the journal Nature of Human Behavior.
Despite virtual collaboration tools, HR leaders continue to observe that in-person interactions remain ideal for transferring all sorts of knowledge, allowing people to learn faster and be more confident to use what they learned. This ability to share and build upon knowledge contributes to effective collaboration, reduces redundancies and improves resource efficiency. Without it, organizations risk losing the diversity of thought needed to innovate and solve complex problems. The ability for an organization to orchestrate how knowledge is made visible contributes significantly to its success. Hybrid makes this exceedingly more difficult and requires leaders to put a greater focus on building collective knowledge.
Bottom line: Organizations that have already undergone digital transformation, and have processes and tools in place to make it easier to access information, are better positioned to avoid knowledge silos. For those that have not, hybrid work will accelerate their need to restructure and invest in collective learning and broadening network connections.
#4 LESS PREDICTABLE WORK. MORE INTENTIONAL EXPERIENCES.
The days and times people go into the office will vary in a hybrid model. They will be less likely to bump into one another — especially people outside their immediate teams. And as people become more deliberate about when and why they come to the office, they will have new expectations about the space and tools they need. Leading organizations are responding by redesigning their spaces to better support hybrid work. They are also creating experiences that help build a culture of trust and a sense of community. These could otherwise erode when people spend less time together.
Bottom line: Less predictable daily work behaviors will require space and tools to be more adaptive and flexible to respond to what people need in the moment. Feedback will be critical to managing both the physical environment and workplace experience.
#5 DISTANCE WEAKENS BONDS. BUILD SOCIAL CAPITAL.
Hybrid models will result in less shared experiences that build social capital. “Even though everyone could connect, and we’ve got these technologies, the social connectedness scores were just horrible in our pulse surveys. We’re just not conditioned well to operate and stay connected with our employees that way,” says one Steelcase research participant.
People work for, and find motivation from other people which means to feel engaged and loyal to the organization, they need to feel connected to others. Laughing over a cup of coffee or discussing an issue over a meal creates the relationship glue that leads to trust — a key ingredient to engagement, retention and innovation.
Bottom line: HR leaders worry a distributed workforce will make it harder to build social capital and more difficult to onboard new employees into the existing culture. Leaders understand the need to rebuild weakened social bonds and are leveraging the power of the physical environment to strengthen culture.
#6 BASICS AREN’T ENOUGH. SUPPORT THE WHOLE PERSON.
People have greater expectations about the role their organization takes in supporting their overall sense of wellbeing. Flexibility — whether organizations adopt a formal hybrid policy or simply allow for more remote work or flexible work schedules — is becoming the new table stakes for attracting and retaining talent because people are not willing to give up their new sense of autonomy and greater work-life balance. People are also looking for more than the basic benefits package from their organization. A new social contract is emerging in which companies support their employees’ body, mind and spirit in totality.
Bottom line: HR leaders understand employee wellbeing is now an issue organizations will need to support in concrete and meaningful ways. A range of new benefits include sabbatical leave, mindfulness training, child care and rejuvenation experiences in the office.
Organizations that adopt hybrid work policies may see these and other challenges emerge. Anticipating and planning ahead for these issues before they arise will enable companies to be far better positioned to attract and retain talent, maintain business continuity and act quickly to achieve successful results for their people and their business.
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Anyone driving by the Scentsy Headquarters in Meridian, Idaho, knows how impressive and beautiful the campus is. They may not realize the work and planning that goes into maintaining the over one million square feet of buildings, green space, public events, and even farming that takes place there. In this article, we are pulling back the curtain to shine a light on the often-underappreciated people who keep the lights on and the toilets flushing: the Scentsy Facilities team.
Scentsy Facilities Manager Roger Gamble and his team of eleven have the enormous task of keeping the Scentsy Headquarters looking and feeling good. They know that it takes over 3,500 gallons of paint to freshen up their buildings every five years, over 7,000 light bulbs to change on a continuous cycle, 200 thermostats campus wide to control the heat and air conditioning, and more than 3,000 parking spots to re-stripe every five years. Their annual Rock-a-Thon firework show takes three days to set up, 22 minutes to light, uses 1,400 shells, and requires weeks of clean-up. They have almost 500 trees lit for Christmas this year, and the focal point is a five-story steel Christmas Tree. So how do they do it?
A Typical Day At Scentsy
To work on the facilities team at Scentsy, you must first understand that your day will seldom look the same. Some days you will be a painter, while others may require being an electrician, HVAC technician, plumber, farmer. In Roger’s case, the occasional space planner for new Steelcase furniture. “We have become more accommodating over time to make our employees happy. That includes ergonomic chairs, height-adjustable desks, and so on. We even have specific proprietary colors for Scentsy that go into our furniture too.” Fortunately for Roger, selecting and placing furniture is a fun part of his job.
The Golden Plunger
Less enticing are the other duties as required; items that require special attention, including restrooms. “We have a really diverse and humble team here. Every week we give out a golden plunger to recognize those who go above and beyond the call of duty.” This willingness to go the extra mile allows the team to manage the property like it is the Augusta National golf course. “That is the expectation that everybody on our team shares. If we see a gum wrapper on the ground, we pick it up. If we see geese on the property, we send out the dogs (a.k.a. employees) to chase them off so that the property stays impeccably clean.”
Unique Solutions
Some people may call this level of quality crazy. The facilities team has undoubtedly developed some unique solutions to the problems they face. However, you can’t help but admire the work they put into keeping the campus beautiful and functional. Especially when someone puts bubble-bath in their crystal-clear water fountains.
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Cascadia Healthcare in Eagle, ID makes a difference.
Nate Hosac is one of four friends who started Cascadia Healthcare, a skilled nursing company caring for those who don’t need to be in a hospital but require constant care. The company is a fantastic example of what can happen when real estate and skilled nursing experts, but more importantly, friends, decide to build a business together. Since its conception six years ago, Cascadia Healthcare has grown from a tiny office in Eagle, Idaho, to 26 different facilities, employing almost 2,300 people across six states. The most recent addition to the company’s facilities is a new administrative office in Eagle, Idaho.
Cascadia Grows
With a history in office and industrial development, Hosac was the perfect person to bring the new building online. He handled everything from building location and design to furniture and layout. “What this building means to us is the ability to grow.” After outgrowing their original building, creating a space where they could grow became of paramount importance. While there are currently forty-five people occupying the new space, there is room to double that.
Kitchen
Working With OEC
However, getting into the new building had its twists and turns, mainly the possibility of a new building. The layout and furniture designs were ready to go when Hosac called his OEC workplace consultant, Jill Miller, to halt the project. “I called Jill and said, ‘We’re looking at another deal, so we need to stop [the design] right now.’ She was really understanding and even helped us with a couple of conceptual floor plans in the new space.” In the end, Cascadia Healthcare stayed with the original building and has enjoyed some of the great new spaces. In one such space, they took what would have been a conference room and turned it into a casual, collaborative area. “It is receiving the most use of any of our rooms. People love going in there because they can sit and chat without having to feel like it’s really formal.”
Collaboration Space
Looking To The Future
After achieving so much in six short years, Cascadia Healthcare looks at the future differently from most. “When the four of us got together to start this company, we all had good careers. We didn’t need to start a company. But as we talked about it over several weeks and months, we asked ourselves, ‘Why are we doing this?’ At the core of it, we identified that we want to be a force for good. It sounds like a catchphrase, but it is the truth. We care a lot about all our employees and the residents in our care. We don’t look at growth and success at a financial level, how many states we are in, or the number of employees. Rather, we judge it by seeing our employees happy and our residents getting better. When they are smiling and receiving good care, that makes it a really rewarding industry to work in. In the future, I see us being a force for good.”
