Our new office: OfficeHome instead of Homeoffice
As you may have read somewhere else (we informed all our customers and contacts via email) we recently moved to our new office. Fortunately, the way was not far, the newly built ITC2+ was built right next to our old home, the ITC2. Nevertheless, a change of address was necessary - the street is now "Hans-Obser-Straße 12".
But beyond the mere formality of the change of address, I would like to tell you here about the background of the move:
We were in the fortunate position of being able to hire 12 new colleagues during - let's call it Corona time. Fortunately, this was not due to compensating for departures; no one left our team during that time either. We are very pleased about this, for a number of reasons: On the one hand, it shows, when you look at the non-existent fluctuation, that we offer good framework conditions as an employer. On the other hand, we had been able to record good organic growth even in challenging times. We are very grateful for both.
We were faced with the situation at the beginning of 2020 that the existing office was not sufficient to offer all employees enough space five days a week. On the other hand, we immediately switched to 100% home office at the beginning of the pandemic. However, this did not simplify the decision we were faced with when we were offered the opportunity to move to a new office building, which was scheduled for completion in 2021, and if so, how large would be the space we would like to occupy there. I have already anticipated the result in the first sentence of this article: We have clearly decided to continue to rely on an office concept that places a lot of emphasis on space, ergonomic workstations and the best technical infrastructure, and above all an absolute focus on a communicative, varied, social environment.
Ergonomic aspects include high-quality office chairs and height-adjustable desks, as well as spacious soundproofed cubicles that allow quiet work or concentrated web meetings, even with several people. From a technical point of view, state-of-the-art hardware, mobile computer systems in combination with, in some cases, several large flatscreens form the basis for professional screen work - digital flipcharts, mobile conference systems for hybrid meetings and a set of projectors to which you can connect wirelessly, independent of hardware, round this off in combination with an up-to-date server landscape and good Internet capacity for cloud applications.
Picture 1: Telephone cabin
Picture 2: Social Area
The rooms and thus workplaces are more than generously sized, but the heart of the office is the "Social Area" as we affectionately call it: An area at the heart of our company that, at just about 100 square meters, is the hub of our teamwork. Here, we were not concerned with placing a pool table, a table football set, 2 sofa corners, a wine fridge and a Dolby 7.1 system somewhere, but rather with creating an area that provides opportunities for relaxation, but also for an exchange on professional topics, the reception of guests, team events after work, joint home cinema and karaoke evenings and much more.
In summer, access to the similarly dimensioned roof terrace, which - perhaps with a glass of wine - offers a view over our city of Deggendorf, is the opening of our office to the outside. Details like green oases, a creative space without any technology, a VR room and many other features complete the office concept.
Despite the fact that we continue to integrate home offices firmly into our concept - also because some colleagues do not even live locally, but support us throughout Germany or Europe and visit us regularly - we rely on the fact that the office will continue to play a central role as the hub of our value creation in the future. So to bring us back to the title, OfficeHome instead of Homeoffice. We are delighted to have been able to realize this dream of a new-work concept in our new office and are excited to see where this journey will take us.
We would like to share this enthusiasm we feel with you. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, the pandemic has made an open house impossible this year. However, we will definitely include this in the planning for 2022 and will be very happy to welcome you to our new professional home, of which we are very proud.
Picture 3: Corridor with our "dab-Wall of Fame"
Picture 4: Entrance area
Picture 5: Creative space without technology
Picture 6: Kitchen and dining area