Darren Hill, Managing Director of UK and Ireland, has been a critical member of the EMEA HqO team for over two years, but today he is using his over a decade of experience to help launch the Best Spaces To Work Program in London. 

Tell me a little bit about your career history

I’ve spent more than 12 years in the commercial real estate space having held countless roles across nearly every asset class – I have even been involved in buying and selling data centers across the EMEA region. One significant chapter in my professional story was my time at WeWork, where I played a pivotal role in the Enterprise sales team during a period of hypergrowth. This experience not only finely sharpened my skills but also provided me with valuable insights into the dynamic (and tumultuous) landscape of CRE e and enterprise-level engagements.

What made you want to join the team?

I have always had a strong interest in real estate technology. Traditionally CRE is not a tech-forward sector, but I have always found that when organizations invest in this space their success and growth exceed expectations. That said, HqO first caught my attention when they introduced Digital Grid (the original name for our Analytics product) a few years ago, and from that moment, I knew I wanted to be part of this innovative environment. The pivotal moment came after the successful Series C raise, and I eagerly seized the opportunity to connect with the team. Fortunately, in September 2021, I was welcomed aboard. 

In your role, what are you responsible for?

In my current role, I drive revenue growth across Europe, with a primary focus on the UK and Ireland. Even though I’m in a traditional sales position, what sets it apart is the opportunity to collaborate cross-functionally and spearhead the development of innovative sales enablement strategies. Lately, I’ve been deeply involved in a collaborative effort with our marketing team, contributing to the creation of the Best Spaces to Work program. This experience has proven to be incredibly enlightening, and although it’s still early days, the results we’ve achieved so far are nothing short of impressive.

What are you most excited about right now?

The Best Spaces to Work in London list! This innovative program aims to revolutionize real estate by highlighting exceptional properties, offices, and amenity spaces in Central London based on tenant and employee experiences. It’s a unique initiative that will create a groundbreaking sentiment dataset, potentially changing the industry. The opportunity to be market makers in this transformative process adds an extra layer of excitement, and I believe it has the potential to reshape how we perceive and engage with workspaces.

And to wrap up, a couple of quick rapid-fire questions for you:

Are you an early bird or a night owl? 

• Neither! I have two young kids – generally, I don’t sleep much!

What is your go-to productivity trick? 

• Set three goals at the start of each day (anything from personal to professional). They have to stretch you but be achievable. Try to complete the most challenging one in the morning.

What football team do you root for?

•  Liverpool FC. 

If you could have only three apps on your phone – what would they be? 

• Amazon, X, Hodinkee… and HqO(!)

The post Darren Hill, Managing Director, UK & Ireland appeared first on HqO.

Colleen, who joined HqO in September of 2021, has recently taken a new role on the marketing team, and is now heading up the marketing efforts for the Boston market.

Tell me a little bit about your career history

Following the completion of my college education in New Hampshire (Saint Anselm College), I returned to my roots on the North Shore of Massachusetts and began working in marketing/events for a leading radio cluster in Boston. I worked in radio for several years spanning across a number of different stations from music, to sports, and then finishing at a nonprofit station. Throughout the years I was responsible for strategic listener-building efforts, increasing brand awareness, live events, and promotional efforts. In 2021 though, I was ready for a change.

How did you come to find yourself a member of the HqO team?

Two and a half years ago, I joined HqO as an Engagement Manager after a friend highly recommended the company as a fast-growing startup making waves in the CRE industry. In this role, I was responsible for shaping and expanding our client event function. My days included working with partners (internal and external) to curate and execute events that not only elevated the user experience within the app but also significantly enhanced workplace satisfaction for our clients. Events enhance the user experience through making the connection between the physical event and the digital experience within the app.

What made you want to join the team?

Although not everyone shares the same sentiment, I have always had a deep appreciation for working in an office environment where I can engage with the people and spaces around me. I believe doing so has played a vital role in my professional development by allowing me ample opportunities to learn from those around me. When I joined the HqO team, it happened to be during the height of the pandemic when remote work was prevalent. During its peak, employees reported feeling disconnected from each other, and as one of them, I craved a sense of normalcy again. While I appreciated flexibility, I felt passionate about getting actively involved in the process of rebuilding the office and redefining the value of physically entering a workspace. I saw, and still see, HqO as a catalyst for this rebound.

In your role, what are you responsible for?

My role is to spearhead the field marketing efforts that will take place within the Boston market. The all-encompassing effort invested in this project is indicative of its potential to be a game-changer for properties and offices that secure a spot on the list. In this position, I develop an annual engagement strategy to bring industry thought leaders together to discuss and iterate around the ever-changing Boston market. I partner with cross-functional team leads to drive program strategies around Boston’s Best Spaces to Work.

Additionally, I oversee the company’s global event presence as well as HqO’s customer events team. I’m responsible for HqO’s involvement in trade shows, customer-facing events, webinars, and more. On behalf of our clients, I manage onsite tenant events through collaborating with partners to design and execute high-impact customer experience initiatives.

What are you most excited about right now?

What a timely question! Last month we launched HqO’s new Best Spaces to Work program – the only recognition and certification program that scores and validates end-user real estate experiences in spaces across cities. Based on REX data from tenants and their employees gathered through our proprietary Intelligence products, being on a list has proven to help retain and attract tenants and employees, and allow leaders to see how their space stacks up against the best in their city.

First up we launched the program in Boston, but other cities across the globe are following in short order. Truthfully, getting this off the ground, while it has been all-consuming, has been one of the most exciting things I have done in the last few years. This tool will be a game changer for properties and offices on the list – they will be able to actually prove how great they are, not just claim it. In a time where occupancy is at an all-time low, and rent rates are decreasing, for landlords to be able to prove their value and ROI is critical.

And to wrap up, a couple quick rapid fire questions for you:

• Are you an early bird or a night owl? Prior to the birth of my son in 2022, I would have told you I was a night owl in a heartbeat. However, life with a 1.5-year-old doesn’t quite allow for the luxury of sleeping in. Mornings have become my time to shine with my little guy bright-eyed and bushy-tailed by 7 am.
• What is your go-to productivity trick? Sometimes I just need to move! Whether it be a quick ride on my spin bike or taking our dogs for a walk outside, movement helps get my creative juices flowing.
• If you could snap your fingers and become an expert on something, what would it be? If I could become an expert on something I would want to step up my cooking by becoming an expert chef. Currently, my husband handles all of the cooking responsibilities, so I would love to surprise him occasionally by showcasing my culinary skills by giving him a run for his money in the kitchen.
• If you could have only three apps on your phone – what would they be? Email, Starbucks, and camera. It’s challenging for me to completely disconnect from work and important messages, so I strive to stay updated on incoming communications regardless of my location. The Starbucks app is essential for me as it assists in fueling my caffeine addiction through convenient online ordering and rewarding loyalty points that keep me coming back. Lastly, my camera is an indispensable app seeing as I capture no less than 50 photos daily of our two beloved dogs and 1.5-year-old son doing literally anything.

The post Colleen Reichlen, Senior Experiential Marketing Manager appeared first on HqO.

Jake Eisenhard joined the HqO team this fall as our Workplace Experience Manager. With a passion for building and fostering inclusive, connected, engaged workplaces, Jake’s addition to the HqO team will help us further elevate our culture and employee experience.

Let’s start off first by talking about your career history.

For the past two years, I’ve been part of the dynamic team at Toast Inc, where I helped implement and execute global and functional-level employee experience initiatives during a period of rapid growth, going from less than 2,000 to over 5,000 employees across the globe.

What does your role at HqO entail?

My primary objective as the Workplace Experience Manager is to ensure that HqO is a place where every team member feels deeply connected to our core purpose and values. We want our employees to witness the tangible impact of their work and, most importantly, provide them with opportunities to achieve some of the best professional work of their careers. Achieving this goal requires a dedicated team effort across our organization, but I focus on two critical areas to make it happen:

1. Optimizing Physical Spaces: At HqO, we believe in creating physical spaces where our employees and teams are set up for success. This means ensuring that our office spaces are thoughtfully designed to accommodate different types of work and provide essential amenities. We want our employees to focus on their tasks without being distracted by the hassles of daily office life.
2. Effective Communication and Programming: Communication is the glue that holds our teams together. I will work to keep our employees informed, aligned, connected, and engaged in the work we’re doing across the organization. This not only fosters a sense of unity but also encourages cross-collaboration.

What do you hope to achieve in this new role?

I am committed to helping lead the charge on our journey to becoming one of the best places to work. HqO is focused on the well-being, happiness, and success of its employees, and now, with a role like mine, I am the dedicated resource to ensuring this comes to fruition across all our offices. If we do this right, we will continue to attract and retain top talent that supports the growth of our organization.

What does workplace experience mean to you?

Workplace experience is about the big picture. It’s about how an employee feels when they walk through the office doors, how engaged they are in their work, and how inspired they are to contribute to the company’s mission. It’s a fundamental element of our organization’s success, and my responsibility is to ensure its ongoing strength and continuous improvement.

And to wrap up, a couple quick rapid fire questions for you: 

• Are you an early bird or a night owl? I aspire to be an early bird, especially with two young kids, but a night owl at heart.
• What is your go-to productivity trick? For deep focus work my go to is a quiet space with an instrumental cover playlist on in the background.
• If you could snap your fingers and become an expert on something, what would it be? Ability to play any musical instrument at the highest level!
• If you could have only three apps on your phone – what would they be? 1) Spotify – for music and podcasts 2) Strava – activity tracking 2) Zillow – avid Zillow surfer

Want to learn more about joining the team? Take the next step in your career with HqO and check out our Careers page.

The post Jake Eisenhard, Workplace Experience Manager appeared first on HqO.

Sarah Wright

Customer Success Manager, HqO

As Customer Success Manager, Sarah provides continual support to HqO customers to ensure they have the tools and tactical strategy needed to achieve their workplace experience goals. Prior to joining HqO, Sarah worked in customer and client-facing roles within the financial technology industry. She’s been with the company for over a year and a half.

Thanks for joining us, Sarah! Could you start by describing your role here at HqO? And, related to that, what does your day usually look like?

Absolutely! I work as a Customer Success Manager (also known as a CSM), and I’ve been with HqO for over a year and a half. To be honest, part of the reason I enjoy my role is that my day-to-day varies substantially, with no two days ever being the same. On any given day my schedule is filled with a combination of strategy and educational sessions with customers, preparation and execution of new technology releases, customer education, and a whole host of other customer-based activities.

As a member of the customer success team, I have the unique opportunity to assist in every stage of the customer journey with HqO. From pre-sales to implementation to engagement growth, we have a hand in it all! The members of our team are experts in creating best-in-class workplace experiences and we pride ourselves in the level of care we are able to provide for our customers. We are relentlessly focused on delivering top-tier technology and workplace experience that can meet and exceed our customers’ expectations.

Every day we work to provide ongoing consultation on workplace experience best practices to ensure that customers are reaching their desired outcomes with the help of HqO’s product and services. We utilize feedback, native functionality, third-party integrations, and numerous additional types of functionality to help us achieve these goals.

Can you talk a little bit more about how you handle feedback from customers and end users?

Customer success is interesting because, for many customers, we become the face of a company’s products and services, which means that we get a lot of feedback. In general, that feedback comes from two different groups of stakeholders: one being our application end users, the other being our customers.

When it comes to customer feedback, it typically takes the form of feature requests and ideas for future iterations of the product. This type of feedback is extremely important to us as it helps to inform our internal roadmap and understand the reasoning behind areas of importance for our customers. Every time a new piece of feedback is received, the customer success team ensures that it is reviewed by the appropriate teams and is responded to in a timely manner. We understand that every customer has individual use cases and being able to provide direct feedback helps both parties ensure mutual success throughout the partnership.

When looking at the feedback we receive from app end users, it is commonly collected via our in-app support messaging system or through surveys. If the feedback is a question or feedback related to their workplace then it is routed to our main customer contact to provide further clarification. If the feedback is regarding the app and its functionality, then our customer success and support teams assist in providing a response to the user. In both customer and end-user instances, the solution can vary depending on the nature of the feedback but regardless of where we are collecting the feedback, it goes a long way in supporting HqO’s path forward as we endeavor to make workplace experience the best it can be for all participants.

I know that our customers also receive feedback on their workplaces through the HqO App. Can you tell us a little bit more about how that works? And what’s the value of that feedback, in your experience?

Definitely! When it comes to helping our customers achieve their goals, feedback tends to play a large role in helping to inform strategic decisions for their workplace. While customers gather a variety of different types of feedback, we frequently see customers using HqO’s Tenant Satisfaction tool (also referred to as TSAT) and our micro-feedback surveying functionality to create continuous feedback loops with their end users. These feedback loops first utilize HqO’s TSAT process to pull analytics about tenant or employee sentiment, identify areas of improvement versus high satisfaction, and enable our customers to take action and ensure they are appropriately meeting the needs of their unique tenant base.

From there, we recommend implementing regular micro-feedback surveys to measure the success of the chosen solution. These customizable surveys empower customers to gather feedback on all areas of their workplace.
One thing I have noticed in the industry is that, in many cases, commercial real estate (CRE) landlords and corporate employers have fallen into a one-way communication channel with their tenants or employees. And what we’ve seen is that, ultimately, this can lead to reactive decision-making with little to no data and less effective budget spending.

The value in having a resource to collect regular feedback lies in customers’ ability to gather insights in real-time, so they can maximize workplace investments and better understand employee and/or tenant sentiment. Both TSAT and Micro-Feedback Surveys allow customers to be proactive in their decision-making, ultimately leading to a better understanding of what’s important and insight into retention drivers.

It sounds like you collaborate with a number of teams here at HqO. Is there one team or department you collaborate with the most?

I don’t think I could narrow it down to one particular team! Being in customer success means that I have the chance to work across all departments throughout the various stages of the customer journey with HqO. For example, the Customer Success team works really closely with our Engineering, Product, and Design teams when it comes to new features and app releases. This type of collaboration is super useful for someone in a customer-facing role, as it enables us to share technical knowledge with our customers and help to advocate for their feedback and feature requests internally.

In addition to Engineering, Product, and Design, we also work closely with the Implementation and Sales teams. With Sales, we work in tandem to bolster the customer relationship and promote HqO in the greater industry. When it comes to partnering with the Implementation team, we work to support them in the process of getting a customer from purchase to launch and organizing the addition of new integrations within a customer’s app. Combined collaboration between all of these teams is essential to helping Customer Success provide value to our customers and serve their needs more effectively.

You have a lot of experience working with a number of different stakeholders in the industry. How do you see technology changing or informing the future of commercial real estate?

One of my favorite parts of being in a customer-facing role is that I get to interact with a number of different industry stakeholders, and each one probably has a different opinion on the future of CRE and CRE technology. That being said, it is clear to see that new technologies are dramatically changing the CRE landscape. Within this particular industry, property technology (proptech) is bringing to reality a number of exciting concepts that used to be purely speculative. Incorporating advanced technology into daily operations positions CRE companies to reap the benefits of enhanced operation efficiencies, cost savings, and retention drivers.

When it comes to HqO and our technology, I think that one of the most interesting pieces is the bridge that we’re able to create between digital and physical experiences. Obviously, historically, these used to be thought of as two separate spheres of life, but the pandemic really forced everyone to reconsider the way that they interact with their workplace. This rethinking of the modern office has led to a large boost in proptech development as employees and tenants begin to ask for more sophisticated foundational offerings. Overall, what I am seeing is an immense number of people in commercial real estate acknowledging that, with the rise of hybrid work, there needs to be some kind of bridge between the digital and the physical. That’s where HqO comes into play. Our product is able to bridge the gap between workers and their workplace.

What’s your favorite part of working at HqO?

I think I have to say the culture. The culture was extremely important to me when I was looking for my next opportunity and I could tell right away, even during the interview process, that HqO had a strong, value-driven culture. The values people at HqO embody show in everything; from the way we interact with each other and our customers to the product we put forth in the market. Working with a company that has such a positive workplace culture has provided me with endless motivation, allowed me to work side-by-side with experts in our field, and supported me as I grow in my career.

Interested in learning more about HqO? Consider downloading our new HqO Difference guide to gain a better understanding of HqO’s product. 

The post Sarah Wright, Customer Success Manager appeared first on HqO.

Nick Whalen

Director of Engineering at HqO

As Director of Engineering, Nick leads HqO’s Platform Integration teams and the Delivery Management organization. Before joining the company, he was an Engineering Manager at Bitsight, a Boston-based startup. Along with his work experience, Nick has a Masters of Science in Computer Science from Northeastern University, and a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from the University of Nevada – Las Vegas. He’s been with HqO for almost three years.

Thanks again for joining me, Nick. Could you start things off by describing your day-to-day for us? What does your work usually involve? 

Absolutely. Some portion of my day is spent working with Product Managers to understand our customers’ needs and business priorities. I also spend a lot of time working with Team Leads and Engineering Managers pushing for iterative development, continuous delivery, and architectural excellence. On the metrics side, I make sure that we’re measuring the right things to ensure that features ship quickly and with high quality. I also devote significant time developing and coaching up the next set of engineering leaders in HqO.

Did you have any previous real estate experience or knowledge before coming to HqO?

I didn’t have commercial real estate experience when I arrived to HqO, but I have worked in a number of really different offices all around the world — I think that experience has helped inform the work I do here. I’ve worked in physical spaces at startups in Boston, Tokyo, Raleigh, and Vegas, for example, and those different cultural experiences have given me an interesting perspective on the value of physical spaces. In particular, my experiences working in these different kinds of offices and environments have helped me get a really clear understanding of the value of physical spaces for doing team-based work.

I’ve realized over the years that collaboration, trust, and overall enjoyment of work increases when we work near each other, and our technology is important to our customers because it helps people do just that.

But physical proximity isn’t the entire equation, right? On a basic level, the goal of our product is to help people connect more effectively with each other and with the world around them. So, our technology doesn’t just help increase the number of personal connections an employee might have, it also helps improve the quality of those connections, which ultimately helps our customers achieve their long-term goals.

The company has grown immensely over the course of your time here. What are some of the major changes you’ve witnessed?

Frankly, it’s bananas to think about how much growth I’ve seen here. When I started, we had three engineering teams, no microservices (an architectural pattern that breaks large “monolithic” systems into small, single-function, encapsulated services that can be individually deployed), and I think we were shipping to production manually every two weeks or so. That was hard.

Now we have 11 squads, which is a dramatic increase. We also ship to production multiple times a day (this is also known as a continuous delivery, a process that emphasizes automating testing, building, and deploying to production safely, quickly, and easily). We’ve also managed to build out an impressive collection of microservices and micro-frontends — so there’s just been a huge amount of growth.

One of the most important lessons I think that I’ve learned has been to embrace this idea of an adaptive, lightweight, agile process. Our framework for Engineering, Product, and Design (EPD) is agile to ensure that we deliver the right features on time with high quality. It is lightweight because our software development life cycle (SDLC) has just enough structure in terms of the ceremonies, the artifacts, and the expectations needed to ensure that we ship successful features without the additional bloat — or process for the sake of process — that slows down a lot of other engineering teams. And then it’s adaptive because it allows our teams the flexibility to suit their specific needs. Periodic retrospectives push each team to continually identify new ways to improve our speed, quality, and predictability sprint over sprint.

Can you talk a little bit about how your teams collaborate with folks in other departments? Is there another department at HqO that you collaborate with the most?

I think the right answer here is that we really collaborate with most teams. So, if I’m doing my job right, I’m interacting with most departments.

I believe a healthy engineering organization should work very collaboratively with several other departments to succeed. So that means all elements of EPD — that’s Engineering, Product, and Design — and I think we should throw another D in there, which is Delivery, because they’re super important to what we do in EPD. So those four organizations are all partners on a mission to better understand exactly what our customers need and what they want, and how they want to use our product and features. With that knowledge in hand, we can scope and hopefully de-scope projects to deliver the exact right solution. Our EPD teams plan and execute together with a focus on continuous delivery, which is one of my favorite things about the way that we operate.

We’re also big on this idea of “MVP and I” — those first set of initials are “minimum viable product” (MVP), and then the “I” at the end of the acronym just stands for “iterate.”

A MVP is essentially the basic standard that a product needs to get to market. So, the idea with “MVP & I” is to build the smallest feature that still satisfies the customer needs. And then, based on customer feedback and the response to that feature, we iterate over time to make it bigger, better, faster, and stronger. We try to get the best possible product to our customers as quickly as possible, with the quality of the product improving over time to address ongoing customer needs and concerns.

That’s excellent. Can you talk a little bit more about your recent projects? Anything particularly exciting you’ve been working on?

About a year and a half ago, my teams embarked on creating what we were calling mini-apps. Basically, this entailed breaking down our front-end monolith into smaller micro-frontends that are easier to test and maintain, and that also result in faster and less risky ships to production. That’s great for us because it allows our teams to release independently without impacting other teams. “Kill the monolith” is a popular phrase here, and that’s exactly what we get to do with these projects.

I love engineering projects like these. They allow our business to move as fast as it needs to win, while also giving our teams the agility to respond to customer feedback quickly and effectively.

A year and a half later, our mini-apps now give individual users the ability to book flex spaces, register for gym memberships, book appointments, and register for events and classes in the office. They also offer expanded opportunities for submitting help requests for things that break or need attention around the office. This was such a successful pattern that we’ve since baked it into a lot of our new features like feedback and wallets as well.

Can you think of any unique ways that landlords or corporate employers are using HqO’s product?

Absolutely. We recently added a feature to our product that allows for two-way communications on help requests. So, if something’s wrong in the office and needs to be fixed — like a leak with a pipe, or a problem with the elevator — you can use our app to send a request to your landlord to fix it, and then you can even open a conversation with back and forth communication, which helps to streamline the whole service request process. So, it brings this new level of collaboration, where people can really work together instead of just creating a request ticket and throwing it over the wall. I like that we’re able to facilitate this kind of contact to bring people closer together, which is one of our overarching goals as a company. 

On a very macro level, our objective is to reinforce the existing social infrastructure with technology that makes physical experiences more meaningful and less chaotic. This aspect of our product is just one of many different ways that we’re working to achieve that goal.

In your words, how is workplace experience technology shaping the future of work?

As most companies move towards the hybrid model of in person work, they immediately run into really hard problems with things like coordinating in-person team meetings, given everyone’s flexible schedules, or they run into issues with booking “flex” space like desks and conference rooms. They might also have problems getting insights into how amenities are being used differently, now that employers have embraced the hybrid model. 

These are all problems that I think technology — specifically our technology — can help solve. I think we, at HqO, are aiming to empower the employees and the companies to make better, more informed decisions about where and how they work together.

Inside HqO pulls back the curtain and introduces you to the people who make HqO the undisputed leader in workplace experience technology. For more information on HqO, click here. If you’re interested in joining Nick and the HqO team, check out all of our current openings here.

The post Nick Whalen, Director of Engineering appeared first on HqO.

Annmarie Anderson

Workplace Experience Manager at HqO

As a Workplace Experience Manager, Annmarie coordinates HqO’s Central Programming, which consists of all of our content available to anyone in the app, on behalf of HqO customers. Before coming to HqO, Annmarie worked on the Undergraduate Admissions Marketing team at Northeastern University. She’s been with the company for just over a year.

Thanks for joining us, Annmarie! Can you talk a little bit about what you were doing before HqO?

Before coming to HqO, my background was mainly in marketing; I’ve done some marketing and communications work in higher education, and I’ve also done some business-to-business (B2B) public relations work. I didn’t have lots of real estate experience before coming here, but some of my PR experience was actually with a real estate PR firm. That started to open my eyes to what a fascinating industry real estate can be. 

Some people look at real estate from the outside and assume that it’s mostly about buying and selling land. But, of course, there’s so much more to it. HqO’s work, for example, is critical to many different companies in a number of different areas of the economy. So, while our product is obviously linked to office buildings and physical spaces, our reach extends well beyond the brick-and-mortar office. As an organization, our goal is to position our product as a robust form of social infrastructure, which means that we really touch everything. That’s one of the things that makes it exciting to work here.

How does your marketing and PR background inform your current work?

I find myself utilizing my marketing and PR skillsets on a daily basis. With Central Programming, for example, my team needs to work cohesively to create meaningful workplace experiences for our customers. That means research, lots of customer interaction, and lots of creativity. All of that requires strategic communication, as well as in-depth working knowledge of how sales and marketing teams operate. I find myself drawing on my past experience frequently in my current role.   

Can you talk a little bit about what your day-to-day look like?

It’s different every single day! Depending on the time of month or year, it might involve creating in-app trivia questions for the next quarter, coming up with fun events for our users, or working with other HqO teams to come up with new and innovative ways to serve our customers. 

One of the things that sets us apart as a company is our emphasis on the importance of the customer in workplace experience, which means that feedback from customers is really important. A lot of my day-to-day is built around improving those offerings so that our customers can have the most positive experience possible with our product. 

I know you do a lot of work with our partners. Can you talk about how we leverage those partnerships to better serve our customers?

We work closely with our partners to use their expertise in their fields to inform our processes and best practices. For example: we recently entered into a partnership with OccasionGenius to help us create new in-app lifestyle content for our customers, and were actually able to change our existing lifestyle content plan based on expert feedback from that partner. Obviously, our staff members have a lot of expertise to offer in their specific areas. But that doesn’t stop us from going further to optimize our platform and product capabilities for our customers. 

Similarly, how does HqO use customer feedback to improve our product and offerings?

We gather customer feedback from several different sources, but a lot of it actually comes to us through the app. Customers are able to use the app to tell us what’s working and what they want more of (and, of course, they can also tell us where we need to improve). This allows us to tailor our offerings to meet their needs. 

On my team, we regularly use feedback from customers to change our in-app trivia topics and improve food and events offerings, among other things. We also try to use the feedback we receive to help us figure out why things are working or not working so that we can use that knowledge proactively in the future. We’re always iterating to improve the customer experience.

It sounds like you work with a number of different teams. Is there one team you work with the most?

I’d say we collaborate with the Customer Success team the most out of anyone. They get a lot of direct feedback from our clients, and they really understand how our customers use our app, so their input matters a lot. We’re constantly iterating to optimize the customer experience and improve the lives of our users. Feedback from Customer Success is a big part of that. 

A close second in terms of collaboration is definitely our Product team. We speak to them frequently to deliver customer feedback, and we also check in with them to make sure that we understand and are accurately communicating our product capabilities. Collaboration is key to our overall mission, and I think we do a great job of executing that on a daily basis.

Can you think of an interesting project you’ve worked on recently? 

One project that actually involved both the Customer Success and Product teams was our rollout of deep links and deep link notifications. Essentially, this function gives users a push notification that — when clicked or scanned — brings them directly to a piece of content within the app. It also allows them to create QR codes for the same purpose, but by utilizing physical or off-app collateral to drive engagement/users to the app. This was something that we created in direct response to customer feedback, which Customer Success communicated to Product. This is just one good example of how we use customer feedback to improve the user experience within our app.

Is there a way a customer is using HqO today that you think is particularly innovative?

I think the numerous ways that our customers are using the app — both in-person and online — have been really interesting to see, in part because of how many different ways the app can be used. For example, we’ve seen someone actually hide a tile within the app, and as people click on it and enter, they get a bonus — maybe a $10 reward or something fun — which functions as a nice team-building activity. Another one, believe it or not, has actually been scavenger hunts; because we deep link QR codes, you can actually hide the codes within the building and create a real scavenger hunt where you sort of search the building to win a prize. It’s been fun to see some of the ways that different tenants have created different ways of using the app. 

It was also incredible to be at some of the first on-site, in-person events that we started hosting with our clients — it was just great to witness the level of excitement that every employee brought to the table. Obviously, people were excited to participate in our events, but I think we were also addressing a deeper need that people have to actually engage in a meaningful way with their peers. And, on a basic level, that’s what HqO does: we bring people together, and we help them create more meaningful connections with those around them.

How do you see technology (like HqO’s) affecting the future of real estate?

Companies value property technology because it gives their tenants the power and autonomy to use their existing spaces with maximum efficiency, which boosts customer satisfaction and improves net operating income (NOI). It’s no secret that the commercial real estate (CRE) sector has been hit with a lot of uncertainty recently, and I think that we’re going to see property technology like HqO’s continue to expand for exactly this reason. It really allows landlords and property teams to weather the current wave of uncertainty, and opens up new avenues for future success.

What’s your favorite part of working at HqO?

From the very first day I started here, it’s always been the people. It is so exciting to work with all of these smart, driven, dedicated individuals who truly care, not only about working with each other, but also the company. We all want to do our best to produce a great product that services our customers in the best way, and it is so much fun to come to work every day with all of these talented, passionate people. The added bonus, of course, is that we get to work in this innovative field with a great product. There’s always something exciting just around the corner.

Inside HqO pulls back the curtain and introduces you to the people who make HqO the undisputed leader in workplace experience technology. For more information on HqO, click here. If you’re interested in joining Annmarie and the HqO team, check out all of our current openings here.

The post Annmarie Anderson, Workplace Experience Manager appeared first on HqO.

Juliana Medeiros

People Operations Associate at HqO

Juliana joined HqO in December 2021 as a People Operations Associate. Working on the Human Resources team, she collaborates regularly with professionals from other departments to ensure a seamless and positive experience for all new employees. Her day-to-day primarily involves onboarding and benefits enrollment. 

You started at the company relatively recently. Could you begin by describing your role at HqO?

Sure. I’m the People Operations Associate on the HR team here at HqO. I’ve been here for about six months. I came from a healthcare background, so the real estate world is new to me. It’s really interesting to see how a startup functions, especially in terms of onboarding and from an HR perspective.

It’s interesting that you came from healthcare. What inspired you to make that switch?  

I graduated from college with a degree in social work, and I knew right away that it wasn’t for me. I got into HR in the healthcare field because I felt that it was somewhat relevant to social work. I made the switch out of healthcare because I was feeling pretty burnt out and decided I was ready for the next exciting thing that would keep me more motivated.

We’re so glad you came to HqO! Can you talk a little bit about what your day-to-day looks like here?

My day-to-day involves handling all of the onboarding and benefits enrollments for new hires. When a candidate signs an offer with the Talent Acquisition (TA) team, they’re handed over to me for onboarding. This includes sending them welcome emails, getting new hire swag bags put together, making sure all of their documents are signed, making sure we’re in compliance from an HR perspective, and really setting them up for success for their first week.

From that point forward, and for the rest of their time here, I’m the first point of contact for them for all things benefits related. I make sure that the whole process is smooth. Then, when and if it comes time for an employee to leave the company, I’ll conduct exit interviews, gain feedback on their experience at HqO, make sure they’re properly off-boarded, and connect with managers on how to make things better in the future.

So it sounds like you naturally have a hand in many different parts of the company. Is there one team or group that you collaborate with the most? 

Definitely the TA team. Once the TA team provides an offer to an employee and the employee signs that offer letter, they’re then handed off to me. So, I connect with the TA team almost daily to gather information on upcoming new hires, and to make sure I have all the information that I need so I can set up their onboarding. I really enjoy it because it’s nice to see all of the new faces joining the team. I can meet and talk with people I probably wouldn’t normally interact with on a daily basis. 

What’s it like to work in HR at a workplace experience company? 

Working in healthcare wasn’t as fun. At HqO, we definitely put the emphasis on workplace experience or, in my case, the employee onboarding experience — making sure that employees feel well taken care of from the moment they step in the doors.

And again, we’re a workplace experience company, which means that the products we build are designed to enhance the employee’s experience in the workplace. So we try to look at that from an HR perspective, and we’re constantly trying to improve. How do we get the best interactions with candidates when we are reaching out to them for jobs? How do we make sure they feel excited to join this company?

And since I’ve started, we’ve looked at the way we onboard employees multiple times and thought, “How can we make this better?” Signing an offer letter and starting a new job is really exciting and I’m happy to be on the other end of that. Even if it’s a custom welcome email with all the information you may need or making sure your first day is great, it’s all part of the employee experience.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. On a higher level, what do you think the role of an HR department is or ought to be in improving workplace experience? 

Well, recruiting and retaining talent is the number one priority for HR. So, we want to get people in the door, and then we want to keep them happy. To do that, we make sure everything is seamless from start to finish, and that they’re happy throughout their time here. 

Personally, I won’t ever work for a company that doesn’t value the workplace experience again. We spend way too much time at work to not have a positive, fun, and welcoming environment where you feel valued and taken care of.

Totally agree. What about the tech — is there a piece of workplace experience technology that excites you the most?

I think particularly speaking for HqO, it’s definitely exciting and very convenient to have an app. We all have apps on our phones that have multiple different purposes, but there really isn’t anything like HqO for the workplace. With the HqO app, everything is on my phone; my access badge to the elevator and suites, upcoming events within the company and around Boston, etc. The app really encompasses everything. So I think it’s pretty exciting.

Agreed. How do you see workplace experience technology shaping the future of the industry? 

I think people realize that there’s a lot of remote work out there. Like, I could find a job tomorrow where I don’t have to be in the workplace, right? But why do I want to be in the workplace? It’s because I’m working for a company that’s taking the time to make that workplace experience better. Again, maybe it was the pandemic. Maybe it’s just a lot of the workforce going remote, but there’s now a lot of pressure on companies to think strategically about how to get employees excited about being in the office, and our app just makes things easier. 

What’s your favorite part about your job? 

In the six months that I’ve been here, I’ve already seen such a growth in the company. I’m definitely excited for the future. From an HR perspective, I get a different view because I get to see all the new hires coming on board. And it’s really exciting to see how much experience they bring to HqO, how fast they hit the ground running and make a meaningful impact on the company no matter what department they’re in. 

And I think at the end of the day, the people that we hire and the people that we retain here, they make the company culture. And so far everyone’s really friendly. They very much embody the HqO values, which are very important. I’m excited about the work I do, and the people that I meet make it that much better.

The people make the place! The point about expansion is interesting, too. What’s it like to work at a company that’s experiencing this kind of growth?

I would say it’s exciting and motivating. We’re all working towards a common goal, and I feel like everyone’s really hungry for success. It’s really exciting to see that. Coming from healthcare, it’s kind of stagnant. It’s the same thing all the time, and that’s definitely not the case here. So, it’s really motivating to be here.

Based on your experiences at HqO, what do you think the future of workplace experience should look like? 

Workplace experience (WX) is going to look different from one company to the next, but essentially it’s important to build a workplace experience that will keep your employees engaged and empowered to do their best work, since engaged employees are more likely to remain with the company. Having a designated WX leader/team that advocates for employees is also crucial when it comes to gathering feedback that can communicate the needs of employees to leadership. Having someone in this role ensures that companies are staying on top of what will help provide the best environment for employees. Employees’ needs are constantly evolving, and their workplace experience should evolve with it.

Inside HqO pulls back the curtain and introduces you to the people who make HqO the undisputed leader in workplace experience technology. For more information on HqO, click here. If you’re interested in joining Juliana and the HqO team, check out all of our current openings here.

The post Inside HqO: Juliana Medeiros appeared first on HqO.

Samuel Warren

Vice President of Sales, Europe, at HqO

Sam started at HqO in 2019, as the company’s first international hire. In his new role as a Vice President, he can be found having regular meetings with customers, HqO’s Go-to-Market team, and many other internal groups across the organization to ensure alignment and expand HqO’s global presence.

Your HqO beginnings are pretty interesting. When did you join the company? 

I joined in June 2019, so it’s nearly been three years already. When I started, HqO had around 32 or so employees — a true startup. Now, we have an established global team and over 200 employees. I also happened to be the first non-American hire, which is quite remarkable to look back upon.

Let’s talk about that. How did you first learn about HqO? 

I was actually approached by a Boston-based recruiter who was looking for somebody to set up HqO over here in London. I’d just spent the previous two years setting up another international real estate company in London, so the request was similar. Having spent 12 years in real estate and with an underlying desire to move into the technology side of the industry, the match was perfect. 

That’s incredible, I’m so glad you joined! Fast-forward to working here for three years: What does your day-to-day look like?

It’s certainly quite varied! I have regular meetings throughout the week with the entire Europe Go-to-Market team. So, for example, on Mondays I’ll meet with our sales teams in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Munich, as well as reporting into Boston. 

Alongside the welcome increase in in-person meetings, I’m also able to do a lot more travel as the world has pretty much returned to normal. I’ve recently been to our Amsterdam office to meet with an enterprise customer and spend time with the team there. Next week, I’m off to Germany to meet with Steve [Grundmann] — HqO’s Head of Sales in DACH — and visit a number of customers there. I go to Paris the week after. There isn’t a regular weekly schedule for me, which is exactly why I love it so much.

That sounds like a very dynamic, but exciting role. Out of all the projects you’ve worked on here, which has excited you the most?

There have been a number of different customers that are really exciting to work with. We recently closed a significant deal with Bruntwood. It’s been great working with a customer that has such a vision to deliver world-class workplace experiences and looks to us for support in this. Besides that, the biggest project I’ve worked on was our acquisition of Office App. The summer prior, I was involved in leading a small part of the due diligence. It was great to shape part of HqO’s considerable investment into Europe, significantly expanding the footprint that we had grown organically. 

The acquisition was an exciting time! Tell me more about your role in that process.

Of course! I was tasked with looking at the existing customer base. It was really interesting, because I had to understand our geographical alignment so the strengths that we delivered thus far in the U.K. and French markets were complemented by our new strengths in the Netherlands, Norway, and Germany. I got to see that all come together as I led a team that reviewed all the sales information and processes. We got to meet our new colleagues in September in Paris to discuss the merger before it was announced, a truly great coming together of teams.

I can only imagine how much work went into the merger! When it comes to our clients, what is one of the most important things you’ve learned from them?

Our clients have taught me a lot about the human connection that we bring. We always tell our customers that we will both learn something that we didn’t previously know about the people in your spaces. There’s just a degree of human connection that always comes out. The anecdotes that show where people have felt connected and informed are often far more powerful than just the technology solutions that are delivered — and that’s what we’re here for of course. We create technology to build those connections. That’s the most important part of what we do.

Speaking of technology, how is workplace technology changing the industry as a whole?

It’s hard to decide if it’s becoming a differentiator, or the expected standard of the leading owners of real estate. The way I look at it is — without doubt — those that will win in the sector will be the best owners and providers of space-as-a-service. They will not only have a suite of services and amenities available to their occupiers, but they will also be using data-driven insights to learn more about the people in their spaces and make more informed decisions about what they need to deliver in the future. 

Workplace experience technology demonstrates the power of what we do. It gives customers the edge they need over their competition so they can further focus on the needs of the people in their spaces. People will actually know what their customers want now. I’ve heard it so many times: ‘We don’t know what amenities people want,’ or ‘We don’t know how much space to provide.’ The fact we’re taken seriously in the data space means we’ll be able to shape a view for our customers that will set them up for success.

Very well-spoken. Finally, what excites you the most about HqO?

The future. When I reflect on the growth we’ve had, and what we’ve achieved, I’m always astonished by how our culture remains intrinsically tied to everything that we do. It gives me confidence as we continue to scale, not only in an efficient way, but in a way where we won’t lose our values. We remain true to the ethos of our company, just the same as when we started. The mission that we’re here to do — which is building technology that strengthens social infrastructure and grows social capital in our communities  — is always top of mind. It’s becoming realized now, and as we power out of the pandemic, it will only further accelerate.

When I joined, the Sales team was small, just about four people (including our CEO, Chase). Those same people are still with the company, and the way that team worked back then is the same way our Sales team works now. We may look totally different as an organization now, but we’re staying true to our culture and our ethos. We rely on those values and we’re getting it right. Therefore, we’re helping the industry get it right. We truly mean it when we say ‘If you succeed, we succeed.’

Inside HqO pulls back the curtain and introduces you to the people who make HqO the undisputed leader in workplace experience technology. For more information on HqO, click here. If you’re interested in joining Sam and the HqO team, check out all of our current openings here.

The post Inside HqO: Samuel Warren appeared first on HqO.

Jenny Clark

HqO Tenant Engagement Specialist

Jenny Clark joined HqO in 2020 as a Tenant Engagement Specialist to help HqO’s dedicated services team create world-class workplace experiences. Prior to HqO, Jenny held positions in marketing, and she draws upon this experience to write and create content as well as collaborate internally and externally with all stakeholders. 

You have a really important and unique role here at HqO. What does your day-to-day look like? 

My day-to-day routine varies depending on the time of the month, year, or day of the week. However, one of the main things that I do on a daily basis is create custom content for our clients in the HqO Workplace Experience App. This content can be static, such as building information and waivers, or more dynamic like event information and RSVPs that encourage people to register for different experiences. 

Other things I do include writing and scheduling in-app messaging for the properties I work with, typically in the form of push notifications and email templates. I help with marketing collateral such as posters and PDFs for our clients, as well as postcards and banners for our clients to engage tenants on-site or digitally. And, finally, I submit support tickets for product bugs that we come across in our back-end platform. 

That seems like a lot of moving parts – how do you coordinate these activities with our clients? 

It is! I participate in frequent client calls, where we talk about recurring monthly content, custom content, and what’s going on at their building in terms of COVID-19 and foot traffic. We discuss occupancy as well as general industry trends to get a feel for their current needs.

Within our monthly content schedule, I primarily work on our strategy for giveaways in the app. For those, we’ll brainstorm and plan what each monthly giveaway series will be, then we draft the content, build it out in our platform, and send it to end-users. The giveaways vary frequently; sometimes they are daily, sometimes weekly, but we try to coordinate the prizes based on what time of year it is and the trends we’re hearing about. 

When you are creating content for the app, is it primarily based on what you hear from clients, or ideas your team comes up with on its own? 

Great question, it’s definitely a mix of things! Sometimes we get ideas from our team doing research on what’s popular right now with our customer base of professionals in the workplace.

We also collect feedback from our end-users. As part of the giveaway flow in the app, there is an optional question at the end that asks for people’s feedback. A lot of times we get suggestions there, so we’ll take them into account when creating new content. The property teams that we work with also often have ideas that we implement, so it’s really a mix of influences. 

That’s awesome. Who do you find yourself working with the most?

The number one team I work with is our Customer Success (CS) team. We partner with CS on the post-launch product life cycle, so that after a building launches we work in lockstep with them indefinitely. We partner on daily tasks and attend client calls together, and do a lot of our planning for different accounts together. Another team I work really closely with is our Implementation team, on everything from onboarding our clients to launching buildings. We coordinate with Implementation on any integrations that we have. Our Ritual integration is a great example of this.

We also work really closely with our Product team. We keep in touch about any updates to our Workplace Experience Platform and help them test new functionalities.

That’s great, I didn’t know that you worked with the Product team so closely, but it makes a lot of sense when it comes to understanding our clients’ needs. 

Yes, we’ve really been striving to cultivate that closer relationship with Product so that we can really understand all aspects of our product, effectively communicate that information back to our clients, and see what we can do for them to improve their experience. 

It’s so important. Can you tell me about a project that you’ve worked on that has really excited you? 

The number one thing that I’ve been most excited about working on is giveaway planning and structuring. It’s changed so much in the past year since I’ve started working on it, in terms of the end-user flow and making it an easier process to enter the contests. Brainstorming the actual prizes and customizing it to each property has been really exciting, because it’s quite fun and changes frequently.

In conjunction with that, it’s been exciting to gather and codify all of our end-user feedback. I’ve been working on cleaning up the data we get so that we can effectively share it externally with our customers and property teams. This has been really exciting because we are able to show them what tenants at their buildings are saying about their experience, app, and sponsored programming. It’s so important to know what people like and don’t like, and the feedback we get on giveaways is oftentimes more geared towards the overall app experience.

We’ve received some great testimonials from users that explain that they came to the app to enter a giveaway, but also ended up signing a waiver and checking out an additional feature in the app. It’s been really cool to hear from the actual end-users and learn from these testimonials first-hand. 

Hearing that direct feedback is really important to not only understanding the impact of your work but also to improving our product in the future. Can you share any examples? 

Yes! In response to a recent volunteer opportunity, we got some really positive feedback from participants: 

“Very cool. Thanks for making it easy and providing a human connection!”

“This was an awesome experience. Thanks for making my morning with this activity and giving me a chance to step out of my daily bubble to think of someone else.”  

That really speaks to the success of the experience! Have our landlord and property team clients told you that this feedback has been helpful for them to inform their technology investments? 

Definitely. One client was so excited about this project that they shared all of the testimonials with all of their property teams. Overall, I’ve heard super positive feedback on the project. Our clients believe in the product, and hearing it directly from their tenants themselves is a really powerful thing. 

Because of this, I codify the feedback alphabetically by the landlord and building so that the information is super easy to find. I share the data internally with our CS team as well as our clients so that they are able to pull any quotes that they want from that document.

Tell me about what it has been like to work with clients that are adapting to hybrid work schedules and trying to meet everyone’s needs.

The variety of clients that are going back to the office and the changes in foot traffic have been really interesting, because I’ve gotten to see the way that our app can work for so many different scenarios. Certain functionalities are essential for working in-office, but we also have the ability to create a ton of content for a building that is remote if we need to.

Our programming is not just contests and local deals, but also important building information and updates. The app has basically served as a one-stop-shop for everything that they need to know about the process of coming back to the office.

Everything is changing so much in terms of the workplace, and when tenants are working at home or in the office our technology allows them to feel more connected to their co-workers. Honestly, a lot of the testimonials we get are thanking us for bringing some excitement into people’s work day. Simple giveaways can seem insignificant, but these little things can make such a difference.

Are any of our customers using our product in a particularly innovative way?

Yes! Some of our clients are really using the platform to its fullest; they have built out their app to give users not only basic building information, but have gone above and beyond to create tons of content themselves. We offer a lot of national deals, but these clients connect with local retailers, source their own deals with them, and highlight them in the app.

I have one client who tries to do a monthly giveaway by herself, and always gets her prizes from local businesses. The teams that localize their apps have really found their niche because it’s customized and helps build a community. In turn, they’re able to create more loyalty and bring people back to the app.

When our clients implement their own unique ideas, like nominating an Office MVP or highlighting pet photos on National Pet Day, it gets people really excited and we see a lot of users coming back to enter in these fun contests and activities. 

From working at HqO, what themes have you seen that you think are particularly important for the real estate world?

Generally, retail and transit are really important themes because they encompass things that apply to all aspects of our daily lives. Mobile access has also been one of the biggest changes to the commercial real estate (CRE) space: being able to hold your phone up to a reader and enter a door has been something that our customers are really asking for and definitely makes us stand out. 

Health and fitness is another popular theme I’ve seen, whether from our integrations with different fitness providers or highlighting virtual fitness classes. Our number one most popular giveaway in 2021 so far had a fitness-related prize, which really demonstrated the growing popularity of fitness and health offerings. 

How do you think workplace experience technology is shaping the workplace?

Workplace experience technology builds a sense of community. We all go to work every day and spend a majority of our week with our co-workers. Having these different ways for people to meet each other and engage in collaborative activities helps develop a sense of community that is really important.  

The technology, in and of itself, enables connections. Before, tenants would only receive information through emails, newsletters, or physical signs at buildings. Workplace technology brings it to their fingertips and makes it easier for them to participate in the community, wherever they are. I think that’s vital.

It definitely brings a lot of clarity to building operations and helps foster communities where they couldn’t before. We apply these same culture-building strategies to working at HqO.  

We do have an amazing company culture. Everyone that you work with, regardless of department or how long they’ve been here, has this similar dedication to what they do. Everyone is really driven and team-focused in the sense that you’re not just working as an individual, you’re working to help your co-workers and help the company any way that you can, which I think is a really unique experience.

It’s also so fast-paced; things are constantly changing and it’s super exciting. Having this team of amazing people behind you in this really exciting climate with this product that’s constantly changing and becoming better and easier to use, and developing more functionalities. It’s a really amazing job to have.

Inside HqO pulls back the curtain and introduces you to the people who make HqO the undisputed leader in workplace experience technology. For more information on how HqO empowers your office, click here. If you’re interested in joining Jenny and the HqO team, check out all of our current openings here.

The post Inside HqO: Jenny Clark appeared first on HqO.

Palmer Simpson

HqO Account Executive, Canada 

Palmer Simpson joined HqO in July 2021 to oversee all Canadian accounts and help grow HqO across Canada. Prior to HqO, Palmer worked in Global Investments and Asset Management at Manulife. Focusing on the Canadian market, Palmer oversees HqO’s Canadian accounts and leads its growth across Canada.

You have quite the background! Tell me about your real estate experience before HqO.

I graduated from the Queen’s University School of Business and joined the commercial real estate world to work in Global Investments and Asset Management for three years. I was fortunate enough to learn on a very large scale, because I was conducting and analyzing deals in Canada, the U.S., and the Asia-Pacific region. 

I did a lot of different things and worked across a variety of divisions, whether I was dealing with acquisition and dispositions, asset management and portfolio optimization strategies, development projects, or lease deal negotiations and modeling. I describe my real estate knowledge as that of global real estate management with a plethora of different initiatives. 

You’ve certainly done a lot! How does that background help with your current role at HqO? 

Everyday I wake up, it’s a whole different day, and it really depends on what I’m trying to accomplish or where I’m trying to go. I oversee all Canadian accounts, and I’m here to help grow HqO across Canada.

As more of the Canadian workforce returns to their workplaces, I’m super excited to introduce them to HqO (and vice versa). We are already expanding in the Canadian market, with great partnerships like our work with Slate Asset Management and Cadillac Fairview.

Is Canada behind the U.S. in reopening public places? 

Unfortunately, yes. That being said, there has been an uptick in activity downtown Toronto, which is exciting! Right now, I’m having initial discussions and contacting companies who I think would be a good fit for us, whether it’s their asset size, their portfolio optimization strategies, or their investment strategies. Whether it’s reaching out to a potential client or a potential brokerage, for example, to try and open up other doors for us and work in a synergetic way.

We’re helping them solve their clients’ problems by creating technological advancement and competitive advantage, and it’s also been helping us out by getting us in the door. During these initial discussions, I do a little bit of consulting on the return to office and help companies plan for what the future workplace may look like. 

As you navigate the fluctuating market, which teams do you collaborate with the most?

At HqO, I want to engage everyone I possibly can to help them understand the Canadian market and for them to help me understand how to enable technology here. I work with Marketing to get a broader image of HqO in Canada out to the market, and I also work with the Sales, Customer Success, and Executive teams as well. 

Everyone wears a bunch of different hats here, so everyone is the master of their own craft but also is very helpful in other domains. 

So far, what projects have you worked on that excited you the most?

I’m really excited by our focus on creating the safest, most productive, and engaging workplace for our client’s tenants. We help landlords and owners make smarter, more calculated decisions on how to do so, by making live and actionable data available to them. 

In the backend in HqOS, you can see the data and analytics side to really help a client make a more customized approach. In terms of capital budgeting, a lot of companies are doing guesswork as to where they should be investing their money, but HqO allows them to really make more calculated decisions. No longer is it a guessing game for our clients that their conference room is always overbooked, or their gym is too small. 

What is the most important thing you’ve learned from an HqO client?

A new technology hub is being formed across the waterfront in Toronto and one of the coolest things that I’m seeing is how technology is evolving the workplace to help people feel safe and motivated to go into the office every day.

Some of our clients are creating offices that offer these technology and transit hubs to tenants, that in turn help them attract high-quality talent. 

People actually want to be in the office, and I find that there’s a new shift in mentality from preferring remote work to now craving that social interaction. One of the things I talked about in my recent Observations blog is that the workplace that people left in 2020 is not the same space they will return to. The office is now viewed as a place that you want to go to, to collaborate and socialize with your colleagues. 

That’s really interesting — part of what’s innovative about how people are using HqO is that they’re using it as a recruitment tool for talent.

Totally, and it’s technology that enables the attraction of new, higher-quality talent to the building. 

One of the things I keep thinking about is that companies aren’t really downsizing their spaces. Some are actually upsizing. No longer are offices going to have minimalistic square footage per person, they are already increasing the square footage per person because they are going to make more creative and open spaces. 

For example, a workspace may need to expand to another floor to make space for a mental health and wellness hub, or a maternity room.

What kinds of technologies are you seeing being used today that you think have a place in the real estate world?

Modular construction, for sure. Modular construction is widely used in parts of Asia where there is not a lot of available space to build a new building in downtown areas. So instead of trying to shut down streets, they will build pieces of the building beforehand and then transport them to the site to build them. Think of it as building a lego set, but the individual lego pieces were built off-site. 

That way you can control all aspects of the construction, so you don’t worry about things like the weather. You don’t have to worry about external factors such as natural disasters or traffic. In that sense, you’re using 3D printing and climate controlled centers to build pieces of the building, and then essentially putting the pieces together while on-site.

I also think that using blockchain technology as a method  of transacting business using smart and secure contracts is really interesting. Instead of the contracts going into escrow, you essentially have companies using blockchain technology such as Ethereum to have a secure network and a smart contract. 

Those are  innovative ways that technology is changing operations in the real estate world. How do you think technology is shaping the future of the workplace from a tenant experience perspective?

It is connecting tenants to the building in a way that has never been possible before. Tenant experience technology is especially critical to entice tenants back to the office when they’ve been accustomed to this new version of working. How do you entice them to drop the pajamas and put on a suit, or sit in traffic for an hour to come back to the office?

The way that you engage your tenant population in the building is so crucial, and part of it is enabling technology to do that. Connecting your tenants to the community that surrounds their building is a huge part of this process, to help invigorate the local businesses that have been so hard hit by the pandemic. 

Have you seen tenant experience technology in workplaces in Canada before? 

In a lot of buildings in downtown Toronto, the buildings are very antiquated and don’t have a lot of amenities. A lot of companies are now spending money on new amenities like bike rooms, shower rooms, gyms, and mental wellbeing spaces. Having these spaces dedicated to helping the transition back to the office is where I think a lot of companies are going to become successful.

There are so many ways that technology is making life in the office easier. For example, if an employee has to call down to the building manager every time they want to book a conference room, it’s a hassle when compared to simply pressing a few buttons on their building app. 

If it’s a headache to get into the office and do all these things, then why come back in? That’s where tenant experience is changing the workplace and allowing for new technologies to come to fruition. 

Great answer! Finally, what excites you the most about working at HqO?

When I worked in global asset management in my prior role, I had a variety of proptech companies pitch me on tenant experience and proptech initiatives. I asked a lot of questions like: What’s the implementation process like? Do you integrate with different services? How many Customer Success representatives do you have? 

The engagement numbers I saw at many of these companies were very low. As a business person, when you look at an engagement score of 15% to 20%, why would you put your money into that? When you see a much higher percentage in our buildings, that’s where I believe in HqO. 

When I was unsatisfied with the pitches and information I received, I talked to someone at HqO and all of my questions were answered. I had great conversations, saw high engagement scores, and had a plethora of Customer Success team members I could speak to. What excites me most about the growth of the company and the future of HqO is the people, the culture, and the results. If you don’t have the engagement, why invest? That’s where HqO separates itself from the competition.

Inside HqO pulls back the curtain and introduces you to the people who make HqO the undisputed leader in tenant experience technology. For more information on HqO, click here. If you’re interested in joining Palmer and the HqO team, check out all of our current openings here.

The post Inside HqO: Palmer Simpson appeared first on HqO.