CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fuze, the leading cloud-based communications solution provider for the modern global enterprise, today announced its move to a new Boston-based headquarters effective May 15, 2017. The new Boston hub, which includes collaboration spaces and flexible individual workspaces, signals continued momentum as the global UCaaS platform scales operations to meet market demand, prepares for its next phase of growth, and invests in the success of the modern, mobile workforce.
Located at 2 Copley Place in Boston’s Copley Square, the 51,000-sq-ft Boston hub will house an initial 300 Fuzers with room to accommodate twice as many Boston-based workers as the company grows. The new office design features approximately 20 flexible, collaborative spaces equipped for global video conferences, including a mix of larger meeting rooms and smaller huddle spaces. The layout echoes Fuze’s EMEA hub in Reading, England, and provides a convenient location for visiting employees, customers, and partners. The Boston hub also consolidates the company’s operations, management, sales, and customer services teams, creating greater efficiency and the ability to provide a superior customer experience.
“We conducted a thorough evaluation of options across the Boston area incorporating feedback from employee surveys, workplace studies such as our own, and commuter data. We heard from our employees that 70 percent were already working from home at least one day a week and many would like to work from home more using our tools instead of commuting,” said Steve Kokinos, co-founder and Executive Chairman, Fuze. “We realized that both the location and amount of space we thought we needed was completely off versus how our employees’ work habits had changed using our voice, video, and messaging tools themselves, as well as what those changes meant for what they wanted in an office.”
According to global research from Fuze’s latest report, Breaking Barriers 2020: How CIOs are Shaping the Future of Work, 83 percent of workers surveyed do not believe they need to be in an office environment to be productive. At the same time, despite a desire to work more from home and personalize their work experience, neither current workers nor future workers want to do away with the office: 86 percent of current employees say face-to-face interaction will always be important and 71 percent of future workers agree on the importance of connecting with coworkers in person.
“We found that the most important reason people choose to come to the office is for what they deem to be important face-to-face interactions, and to spend time in person with their teams,” said Mary Good, Chief People Officer, Fuze. “That meant they wanted different kinds of collaboration and meeting spaces, the ability to move around throughout the day, and make the most of their in-office networking time. This all made sense given how productive our people view their work from home time. The office really does become a hub to them, and designing it around employees in a way that brings together teams and sparks conversation ultimately creates the best ideas.”
After meeting with employees, the Fuze executive leadership team completely reevaluated what its teams wanted from – and required in – a headquarters. The result emphasizes:
- Accessability: A location close to public transporation and easily accessible, not only for Fuze’s local team, but for its global customers and employees;
- Flexibility: Fluid workspace options, such as sit/stand workstations and small configurable collaboration environments throughout; and,
- Team Building: Events to convene regionally based employees in the office for networking activities across departments.
Timed with the company’s move into its Boston hub, Fuze also unveiled it’s new “Work from Anywhere” policy to employees, encouraging teams to collaborate with their managers to design personalized, flexible programs for where and how they can do their best work. The goal of the policy is to enable a customizable workplace for employees through the use of results-focused leadership and Fuze’s technology.
According to Gartner, “by 2020, organizations that support a choose your own workstyle (CYOW) culture will boost employee retention rates by more than 10%.”*
“We are committed to enabling a personalized, customizable work environment, which is obviously a lot easier for us with our technology,” continued Good. “For some that means time in a traditional home office but for others it could be a local coffee shop. We have to trust that our employees know where they do their best work on any given day. I would say for any company looking to attract the best talent over the next five years, that should be a critical part of their approach to stay competitive.”
Mary Good shares more thoughts on Fuze’s new Boston hub and what it means for the future of the company in her latest blog here. Also hear from Fuze General Counsel Laurie Harrison on her #FuzeLife embracing remote work.
Citations
* Gartner Predicts 2017: Boosting
Business Results Through Personal Choice in the Digital Workplace, Paul
Miller, et al., 14 November, 2016
About Fuze
Fuze is a global, cloud-based unified
communications platform that empowers productivity and delivers insights
across the enterprise by enabling simplified business voice
communications, flexible video conferencing, and always-on
collaboration. Formerly ThinkingPhones, Fuze allows the modern, mobile
workforce to seamlessly communicate anytime, anywhere, across any
device. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, Fuze has additional locations
including New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Ottawa, London, Amsterdam,
Aveiro (Portugal), Paris, Munich, Zurich, Madrid, Copenhagen, and
Sydney. For more information, visit www.fuze.com.
