The Leader - September/October 2008 - (Page 34) real e stat e maNaGemeNt Employee Retention: Designing for a New Kind of Work Environment BY BIll loNDoN aND aNDreW floraNce W orkplace interiors are often generic and uninspiring. Employees sit nested within high-walled cubicles, making collaborative work prohibitive and timely managerial oversight next to impossible. Within this maze of never-ending gray walls, window views are few and far between and artificial light is abundant. Wanting to avoid these kind of problems — the kind of problems exacerbated by poor workplace design — the CoStar Group enlisted design and creative services firm RTKL to envision their new White Marsh office space. Opened in October 2007, the new White Marsh office is a glowing example of how design can positively impact the way an organization engages with employees and communicates its message to the business community. Moreover, it reflects the energy and enthusiasm of CoStar’s corporate culture and fosters the kind of team-based learning that is the hallmark of CoStar’s work style. tarGetING the proBlem CoStar is headquartered in Maryland and is the leading commercial real estate information company in the U.S. and UK. It employs 1,300 people and manages a database of 2.7 million properties, or 67 billion sq. ft. (6.2 billion sq. m.) of commercial space. In 2007, CoStar reported an income growth rate of 28.5 percent and an employee growth rate of 21.6 percent. Unfortunately, the firm’s rapid growth has driven up staff turnover and created the need for it to refocus and strengthen its corporate identity. At the same time, CoStar is eager to attract and retain the best possible talent. Accomplishing this objective proves challenging in the real estate industry. While turnover is a problem for all employers, it can be especially problematic for companies within the real estate sector. In the month of May 2008 alone, the Department of Labor reported that 1.8 percent of all real estate sector employees voluntarily changed employers. On an annual basis, this translates to a 15.5 percent voluntary turnover rate — the second-highest turnover rate of all industries. Voluntary turnover is the result of numerous factors. As noted by Right Management in a 2008 study of American workplaces, 30 percent of employees quit to seek new challenges, 25 percent quit because of ineffectual leadership, 22 percent quit because of poor relationships with managers, and 21 percent quit because they feel that their contributions are not being valued. Since it costs nearly three times an employee’s annual salary to recruit and train a replacement employee, it is often in a company’s best interest to retain its work force. 2 0 0 8 th e le aDe r 34 septemBer / octoBer
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