A Change of Scenery

I have moved my office at least four times in 11 years. My last stint at one location lasted six years. We recently purchase a building and moved for the fifth and what I hope is the final time for at least another six years or so. This move is not only a significant upgrade in our facility, but an all around motivator for the entire company.

The last place was purely functional and lacked any real aesthetically pleasing attributes. I selected it because the rent was cheap and I wanted to plow profits back into growing the business and offer better benefits and wages to my staff. While that part of the plan made practical sense, I made an error in judgement when it came to creature comforts and what the space looked like to the staff and guests.

True, we did not get many visitors to our offices because we are mainly a production facility at Advantage Payroll Services, but the people that came must have thought we were a bit "small time". Maybe we did not get many visitors or I did not want to invite any because of the appearance and type of industrial/flex space we had. The staff never really complained, but they certainly didn't compliment our work environment.

Our new facility represents our growth as a company, commitment to excellence and a reward to our staff that endured the previous years at sub-par accommodations. We are now happy to have visitors and the staff has a more adequate work space due to the upgrade and face lift. Overall morale has improved and I believe it has had a subconscious effect on everyone about how proud they are to work for a growing, successful company. I did my best to make the staff realize that they played a big role in our ability to take us to the next level.

You can suffer with any location for a time, but a change in scenery helps in more ways than you may think. If you can't change your location maybe move the furniture around, paint and get some upgraded chairs or pictures on the wall. It will pay dividends you might not thought were possible.