Posts in category: News

According to recent findings conducted by Steelcase, there is a significant difference between a leader’s work experience and their employee’s. With so much recent workplace upheaval, it is no wonder employees are struggling to adjust to new workplace norms. In this article, we will discuss the disconnect between leaders and their employees and how they can take steps to improve employee wellbeing. 

When questioned about their feelings regarding work-life balance, health and energy levels, engagement with their work, and mental health, there is a significant gap between leaders and employees. 

While many factors contribute to this overall dissatisfaction with the workplace, here are a few that employees say are significant.   

So what can leaders do to help improve the well-being of their employees? Well, research suggests one of the best things leaders can do is to set an example for their employees. According to the Steelcase study, when leaders are in-person and visible in the office more often, things get better. 

By being visible and accessible to employees more often, leaders can have a significantly positive impact in their workplace.  

Regarding physical space, studies show that 80% of companies have reduced their office space. At the same time, they are also requiring employees to be in the office more often. This loss of space (shared workstations compared to “owned” stations) and subsequent loss of privacy is frustrating for employees. Especially considering they who spend most of their time doing individual work that requires privacy. Since most leaders enjoy a private office, they may not experience the distractions and interruptions employees face in open offices. As a leader, it is important to recognize that your employees have different space needs too. Do your best to create places for quiet collaboration and privacy.  

Privacy Solutions for Employee Well-Being

Some great ways to provide auditory privacy are with acoustic solutions like sound clouds and panels. These work well in problem areas and the addition of sound masking significantly reduces distractions.   

As to visual privacy, adding screens and hoods around and between workstations helps eliminate distractions.   

Finally, adding phone booths or studio pods would provide flexible spaces for individuals or teams to have confidential conversations. They also take up less square footage than a traditional conference room. 

Ultimately, different people have different work styles. By providing a variety of furniture solutions that support different postures, leaders can help their employees be more productive when they are in the office. Studies show that when employees feel like their leaders are considering their needs, their feeling of well-being increases by 22%. In this case, simply taking the step to ask employees what they want makes a huge difference.   

Create spaces where your employees want to work and see the difference it can make for your company. 

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Create Spaces is the expert in space planning and furniture selection. If you are interested in finding solutions for a smaller office footprint, contact us today! We specialize in creating exceptional spaces on time and on budget.

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Thirty years ago, Bluberi was a small company in Drummondville, Quebec creating games for slot machines. Today, it is a complete slot machine manufacturer and game designer with 200 employees throughout the US and Canada. It wasn’t until 2022 that the company began its rapid growth. The combination of coupling tenured industry leaders with the already talented Bluberi team was the recipe to begin seeing substantial success. Here to tell us all about their rapid growth and new office in Las Vegas is Chief Operating Officer, Steve Kohon.

20,000 s.f. office and warehouse to 85,000 s.f.

While Steve started at Bluberi in the sales department, he now oversees the operations, service and IT teams. So, when the team began to outgrow their building, he was the one best suited to help them relocate. “Our previous space was 20,000 s.f. which included the warehouse and the office. As we grew it became a struggle to support our production in the warehouse and team members in the office.” They eventually resorted to shared desks and specific in-office days for office staff. To remedy the problem Bluberi found an 85,000 s.f. space and decided to invest in all new furniture and equipment. As Steve says, “Our team members deserve the best of the best.” After releasing an RFP and entertaining multiple companies, Create Spaces won the deal.

“Our team members deserve the best of the best.”

-Steve Kohon, COO

Vision: Create a place to be proud of

The Bluberi management team wanted to create a place where all the team members would be proud to work. Therefore, the floor plan was designed to help teams interact with each other and further their culture of collaboration. “The space is designed like a racetrack with the executive leaders sitting with their teams rather than being locked away in a secret hallway. There are also no silos between
departments, and everyone’s voice is heard. I think that company culture is what sets us apart.”

“It has truly taken a village to make all this happen…”

-Steve Kohon, COO

Designing a space that supports the culture

Where the previous Bluberi office had rooms pulling double-duty, they now have plenty of spaces for all their needs with technology that makes it easy to schedule. Not only is the space more functional, but it is also very colorful with bright blues and pinks livening up the environment and reflecting the brand’s playful colors. As the employees settle into their new office good things are happening. No more sharing desks, rather, everyone has a dedicated workspace. The teams are seeing great ideas coming out of everyone being in the office together. “I didn’t realize how much went into all of this when I took on the project. It has truly taken a village to make all this happen and Denisse and the Create Spaces team have done a great job.”

Following their core values into future success

With everyone back in the office and collaboration at a high, Bluberi is excited for the future. “One of our company core values is ‘Celebrate Wins But Never Satisfied.’ the other is ‘It’s A Team Sport’. So, this office is definitely a win, but now we want to take it to the next level and do what we set out to do.”

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If you are a business or organization looking to create an exceptional space on time and budget, we would love to work with you! Create Spaces is your one stop shop for space planning, furniture selection, and audio-visual installation. Contact us today!

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Message From The President

A gap exists between leaders’ perceived well-being at work and employees’ well-being. According to the recent Steelcase work study, leaders are almost twice as likely (as employees) to feel better about their work-life balance, energy, engagement, and mental health. So how do leaders bridge the gap and help employees feel as well at work as they do? Let’s focus in on the singular topic of engagement for a moment—I feel like this one is the key to improving wellbeing across the board.

Two key traditional HR questions that drive engagement are the following:

1. Do I know what my job is, do I have a clear, written job description?
2. Do I have the right tools and training to do my job?

For some reason leaders and ownership are better at answering the above two questions for themselves—but not as good at doing this with employees. So how do organizations get better? Here is a simple step in the right direction. Ask your employees the above two questions—do a survey. It’s easy. You can do it with Office 365 (there is a handy app called Forms) or you can do it with a survey using Survey Monkey or something else similar. Make it department-specific but anonymous, that way employees feel more comfortable sharing without fear of being singled out. Once you have the results, review them with the leadership team and then pick an item or two each quarter to work on. Keep track of your survey results and over time you will see progress.

Good luck, I hope you can reduce the Employee – Leader gap at your organization.

Scott Galloway

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Traditional meeting rooms have served businesses well, but it is time to move to modern hybrid spaces. Discover more in this comparison of the two.

Having an up-to-date AV system is essential to your business’s long-term success. Discover when and why you should modernize your business’s AV system.

Designers, leaders and even inclusive design advocates often ask, “How do we balance everyone’s needs when they are very different?” Or, “Who do we listen to when there are competing needs?” These questions come up often because what might support an equitable experience for one group, may also create challenges for another.

Adding new furniture is a great way to refresh your firm, but you may wonder about the schedule. Learn how long it takes to procure commercial office furniture.

In the fast-paced world of modern business, seamless and efficient communication is crucial for success. As technology continues to evolve, businesses increasingly rely on a robust and organized network infrastructure to support their operations. One integral component of this infrastructure is structured cabling, a standardized approach to organizing and managing the intricate web of cables that connect various devices and systems within an organization. When approaching your company’s structured cabling needs, make sure to focus these five things:

1. Scalability

For when your business experiences growth and changes in your technology needs.

2. Reliability + Performance:

A well-designed system helps minimizes signal interference, reduce downtime, and ensure consistent high-speed connectivity.

3. Simplified Troubleshooting

This makes it easier for IT professionals to identify and address problems quickly, minimizing disruptions to business operations.

4. Cost-Effective

Investing in a quality system lowers costs over time with ease of maintenance, scalability, and reduced downtime.

5. Adaptability to Technology Changes

Structured cabling ensures that businesses can integrate the latest technologies and upgrades without the need for extensive rewiring, providing a future-proof solution.

Create Spaces provides structured cabling services. Contact us for help with your system today!

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Explore the advantages and disadvantages of open office layouts to help you decide if they are the right choice for your own business environment.

In the basement of the BRS Architects office, there is a wall of tightly wound plan sets. They are set stacked atop each other with small tags dangling from the ends delineating which project they contain. A good eight feet tall, these stacks of plans represent only a portion of the projects the company has participated in over the last 50 years. It is an architecture firm’s legacy in plain view if there ever was one. The projects within these pages span everything from commercial and community spaces to retail and government buildings and celebrate 50 years of business. BRS Architects principals Andrew Davis, Trent Koci, Joe Thompson, and Mark Anderson share the story.

As with any good story, you must start at the beginning. In 1974 Billy Ray Strite started an architecture firm in what used to be a turkey coop. He and partner Clinton Yaka cleaned out the old coop, put in a wood stove for heat, and got to work. What began as a small firm between two men in Idaho would grow to a seventeen-person operation covering the western United States, Alaska, and Hawaii. During that time, the firm collected what it regards as family members rather than employees. Principal Trent Koci has personally been with BRS for 37 years; having started there in high school. Many others have made the firm their home and plan to remain for the long haul. 

During the last 50 years, the principals reflected on some of their favorite projects including the JA & Kathryn Albertson Foundation Building, the Arid Club, Barbacoa, and numerous TIs in the 11th & Idaho building to name a few. Each of these buildings has brought something unique to Boise. 

As to projects that currently excite the principals, there are many. Joe Thompson has enjoyed working on the Children’s Museum addition in Meridian because it is so community-focused. Andrew Davis is working on an exciting restaurant in Star that will have multiple different dining and bar experiences in one location. Trent Koci shares how fulfilling it has been to see Spitfire Tacos open for business in Eagle as it took years in the making. Finally, Mark Anderson highlights Stuerman’s Wine and Cigar in Eagle as his recent favorite project to work on. 

Such a diverse group of projects gives a glimpse into how BRS Architects has remained successful over the last half-century. “No project is too small,” says Joe Thompson. “We take very diverse projects from retail and multifamily to government and industrial. I think that diversity is what has helped us maintain the company for so long. We can do a large BSU project or a small restroom remodel if that’s what the client needs.”

Our tagline is ‘Ideas. Advice. Solutions.’ and we take a lot of pride in that. We provide the best advice we can and implement the client’s decisions to ensure their building works for them.

Andrew Davis | BRS Principal & Owner

As to how they approach these different projects, Andrew Davis shares their philosophy. “Our tagline is ‘Ideas. Advice. Solutions.’ and we take a lot of pride in that. We provide the best advice we can and implement the client’s decisions to ensure their building works for them. Whether they follow our advice or not, we want to help them move forward and ultimately provide solutions that leave them with a successful project.” How they approach each project can vary greatly, so BRS pivots when necessary. Based on the client’s experience with building and designing, they will offer a different level of involvement. Ultimately, they determine their client’s needs and tailor their services to fit those needs.

Part of their recipe for success is their team approach. No matter the project type, their approach is to look at it as the owner, the contractor, and the design team in addition to officially being on the architect and engineering side. They collaborate with multiple teams to find solutions that will lead them to a successful project.

And how do they measure success? With repeat business of course! BRS has extremely loyal clients who don’t want to work with anyone else. That is a major reason they have expanded their licensure into so many states. BRS will begin a project in Idaho and then have the client bring them in on an out-of-state project. The same is true in the Boise market. “A relative of mine works at TOK,” says Thompson, “and he says that when digging through the various buildings they manage, it seems like every other one is a BRS drawing.” You just can’t fake that kind of quality.

While there is no question BRS Architects has had a significant impact on the Treasure Valley, what they will do in the next 50 years is yet to be seen. Whatever the future holds, you can be certain that they will continue to tackle diverse projects. After all, no project is too small for some big ideas, great advice, and ingenious solutions from the BRS team.

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