Welcome back to Collective Bookmarks. This week’s newsletter is 1,389 words and a 5 minute read.
As always we’re bringing you our usual mix of information, a wonderful human, and a product we love. On top of that we’re excited to celebrate meeting each other in person!
That’s right, we’ve never met each other in person until this week. We met when Kayla reached out on LinkedIn to talk about having our own consultancies and we stayed in touch for a long time before we started working on the idea that became Collective. Having met in person now, we’re even more excited than ever to keep building this dream to enable all our friends in workplace.
In This Week’s Issue:
- Three Things You Should Know
- A Person You Should Know: Henry Massey
- A Product You Should Know: Epoch
As always if you have feedback, want to sponsor, support, or partner with Collective you can reach out at the link below. Let’s dive in.
Three Things You Should Know
From The World of Work and Place
1.Converting Offices to Housing in San Francisco
In a recent study SPUR (in coordination with Gensler, HR&A, and ULI) found that roughly 40% of the offices assessed could be converted to housing from their current use. That’s much higher than the potential conversions of office spaces in other cities that hover around 20%. If these conversions could move forward around 11,200 housing units could be created. They do, however, outline the major obstacles that could block conversion as well. Those obstacles are feasibility from an asset owner perspective and local planning / code requirements.
What We Think: Many major cities around the world continue to have a large amount of under utilized and vacant office space. This problem coupled with a severe lack of housing supply in the U.S. makes conversion a smart choice. Removing the obstacles in the way of conversion from office to housing will take cooperation from all parts of the local government and industry. We’re hopeful that the extreme need and economic context will push parties to work together.
2. Parental Leave Benchmarks
Parental leave in the United States is complicated. For many new parents it can be a confusing and very scary time. For young companies trying to set these policies it can be equally confusing. Cocoon, a leave management platform, recently published a blog with the anonymized leave data of 224 ventured backed tech companies. In it they break down the differences in leave policy by stage / scale which will provide some very helpful benchmarks for any size company.
What We Think: As companies grow and hire more employees in different states across the U.S. they can quickly become overwhelmed with the complexities of leave policies. For anyone making a case internally to create their leave policy, you need benchmarks to help ensure you’re providing best in class benefits to your employees. We’re always happy to see companies that are not only providing solutions, but also helping workplace folks build better business cases. Check out the full report below.
3. WFH Sets Sail
Would you work from a cruise ship? Well now you can! For 30,000 per person / year you can set sail and live on the MV Gemini. The ship is charting a 3 year journey with stops at places like the Pyramids of Giza, Taj Mahal, and much more. Wifi is obviously included and the ship will also have an expansive business center. Condé Nast Traveler does a fantastic job of outlining all the details of the offering in the link below.
What We Think: This idea definitely takes Work From Anywhere to a whole new level. We actually like the concept but 3 years of cruising might be a bit much for even the most die hard of cruise enthusiasts. There are certain to be some legal implications of stopping and working in all of those countries as well. Either way we’re intrigued to see how this turns out. If you are booking a spot on this cruise, we’d love to chat with you and hear more.
One Big Thing
“In the United States employees are not even guaranteed a single day of paid leave under federal law, leaving any wage replacement up to companies and the state. ” – Cocoon Parental Leave Benchmark Report
Someone You Should Know
In The World of Work And Place
Henry Massey is the President & Founder of Trellis, a technology consulting studio based in Tucson, AZ. Trellis Consulting provides tailored guidance and support to decision-makers, end-users, and occupiers on how to leverage digital tools to streamline the gathering of crucial information. Trellis helps you successfully adopt and deploy solutions that align with your corporate goals and mission, while also maintaining and optimizing your current solutions. Their approach ensures that you select the right tools, use them effectively, and integrate data in a way that makes sense for your business. With Trellis’ support, your leadership team can make well-informed decisions that drive measurable bottom-line results.
In His Own Words: The story of how I got into our niche market is no ordinary tale – it was destiny! I was born into the family-owned business of Asbuilt Information Systems, which was one of the first pioneers to consult and implement cutting-edge technology solutions like Archibus. From a young age, I was drawn to the world of built structures and fascinated by how technology can solve complex problems. By the time I was 8, I was already translating hand-written measurements from plotter paper to AutoCAD by command prompts. By the age of 16, I was already setting up large Medical RE portfolios in Archibus, including the IRS.
Today, with over two decades of experience in the tech industry, I am an executive leader and a renowned expert in workplace and emerging technology. I have a passion for staying ahead of the curve when it comes to planning, development, and implementation of cutting-edge technologies. My unique ability to identify and leverage new and current technologies to drive business growth and improve performance has helped businesses streamline their operations and unlock new levels of productivity and efficicency.
My journey to becoming a tech industry leader has been incredible. I have been on the forefront of innovation, constantly exploring ways to use technology to solve problems and drive progress. I have been on the occupier and service-provider side, allowing me to understand both sides of the business. I speak the occupier language and understand their frustrations. But most importantly, I understand their technology and know-how to paint their story. My experience and expertise have been invaluable in helping organizations of all sizes harness the power of data and technology to achieve their goals.
So, if you’re looking for someone who truly understands the transformative power of technology and can help your business stay ahead of the curve, look no further! Get to know me and discover how I can add value to your organization.
A Product We’re Into Right Now
Epoch
About Epoch: Epoch is an all in one employee experience platform that allows teams to create, manage, promote, and measure their internal programs all in one place. Their mission is to help people teams deliver impactful employee experiences and create world-class culture across their organizations.
What We Think: Epoch’s all in one platform makes it really easy for employee experience teams to do their job well. When we first saw it we were really impressed by just how much work it takes out of planning and hosting some of these complex programs. The reduction in the need to switch between apps and context switch all day is definitely also a huge plus. We also love that Epoch is walking the walk by bringing their community of users together to share insights and inspiration.
That’s It For This Week
We Appreciate You
As one of our over 200+ weekly readers we appreciate you being an early subscriber. We’ve reached over 5000 humans already and can’t wait to reach even more of you. Together, we believe we can enable teams at the intersection of work and place to move beyond conversation.
Until next time – Omar and Kayla