Sales Rain Starts New Partnership with Texas-based Company
Sales Rain continues to help businesses reach their goals as the company create a new alliance with a Texas-based company.
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US-based Marketing Company Adds 10 More Seats with Sales Rain
A partnership with a US-based marketing company that started recently positively developed as they add 10 more seats with Sales Rain.
Rethinking Offices and Workspaces: The Rise of Virtual Offices
The very idea of work is changing. Individual work is now mixed with collaborative work and the universal thought that the office is the most suitable location for our professional lives is becoming less and less bona fide.
The increasing amount of smarter, mobile devices, faster network access and the advent of online collaboration tools, telecommunicating have become more common. Anyone can be productive anywhere – resulting to a fewer number of people found in physical offices.
These unused areas are costing businesses around the world an estimated $1.5 trillion. Hence, it comes as no surprise that spaces per worker are shrinking. In a report done by Regus, allocated spaces dropped from 125 feet per worker down to 50 feet over the last decade.
Yet despite of all this, the ideologies regarding the importance of a physical office to a business remained.
Rethinking Offices
The increasing demand for cheaper spaces paved the way for flexible workspaces such as serviced offices, coworking spaces and even private offices. And as the number of remote workers increased, virtual offices came into their aid.
Targeted for entrepreneurs and startups planning to work from their own homes and other locations whilst maintaining a professional image to the public, virtual offices provides business postal address services as well as communication services such as virtual assistants, answering services and voice mailboxes. In addition to this, providers give complimentary access to private offices and conference rooms.
There are several benefits to virtual offices other than that of less operational costs. Today, more and more workspace providers are rethinking offices to accommodate the steadily growing demand for virtual office services.
Several studies have reported an increase in the productivity of those who do virtual work. In a recent survey conducted amongst 1000 business professionals, 67% have reported a significant improvement in their productivity. Such distractions like water cooler gossip, unexpected meetings and loud officemates are avoided. In addition to this, a separate survey done on 2,060 professionals aged 18-years-old and up, 86% of them would prefer to work alone in order for them to reach maximum productivity.
Other statistics in remote working show that 82% of the overall number of telecommuters report lower stress levels and these numbers is represent a good omen to both employees and companies. It increases their individual morale and reduces both employee turnover and absenteeism.
The younger demographic of today’s workforce demand options of working remotely. The Millennial generation value the balance between their professional life and personal life. In a survey conducted by AfterCollege, a US based career network for both college students and recent graduates, 68% of job seeking millennials have said that occasional telecommuting increases their interest in certain employers.
Older generations are also starting to favor the idea of flexible work hours. In the US, workers above the age of 64 are working more than before due to the inadequate retirement funds and increasing life expectancies. Older professionals are delaying their retirement and would like to be have the freedom to work from their homes.
And though admittedly, virtual offices remain to be unorthodox to some academics and critics, it’s a global workplace phenomenon.
It’s no surprise that the way we work is constantly innovating. Keep up with the rethinking offices trend and join us as we face the future with brand new workspaces.
The Sharing Economy and its Effects on Office Spaces
Spearheaded by Uber and AirBnB, the sharing economy is innovating the way people consume products and services. Slowly but surely, it’s also changing the market of office spaces around the world.
According to Investopedia, the Sharing Economy is an economic model that allows consumers to rent assets owned by a private individual and is most likely used when the cost of a particular asset is high but isn’t fully utilized all the time.
In retrospect, people have shared items with other people long before. We shared clothing with our family members, shared cars with friends and even unused equipment. And today’s technology – with the help of the internet – have created a bridge between the people who want to share their unutilized assets and the individuals who are looking for people willing to share it with them.
The Phenomena
AirBnB allowed homeowners to rent out vacant bedroom and homes to strangers and Uber allowed drivers to share rides with other people. And as people start to see the opportunity to make profit out of sharing, the market grew.
Around the world, people share spaces for car park, for storage and even for planting – all of which made possible by today’s technology and the growing knack to save money. It wasn’t long until the commercial real estate industry thought that its time join the sharing phenomena.
However, there’s more it than it seems. Brokers aren’t just jumping into sharing economies for no reason. Social and economic trends came into play. Now, companies are reshaping the ideas of modern office.
Experts believed that the traditional offices began to fade when spaces per work started to shrink. Space allocation dropped from 125 feet per worker to 50 feet over the last decade. Moreover, it was a global phenomenon happening from Asia to Europe.
In addition to this, the financial pressure are driving companies to look for cheaper offices with flexible workspaces. Experts have argued that the global recession that took place during the 2008 diminished cheap rent. Businesses couldn’t afford the idle capacity brought by large-scale office buildings.
Another factor behind the demand of shared spaces is the increasing number of remote workers. The premise of telecommunicating first came to the industry during the year of 1973 and with the advancement of today’s technologies, flexible ways of working have become popular.
The “Sharing Economy”
As the number of self-employed professionals and digital nomads rose and the commodity of business operations evolved, a demand for cheap and flexible offices came to be.
The idea of flexible workspaces was brought to life by serviced offices – now widely known as shared offices or executive suites. Companies started to lease large offices and dividing them into smaller offices. Furnishing it with desks, meeting rooms and all the facilities and equipment needed in a conventional office, they started renting these spaces out to different companies.
Later on, hosted services entered the market with a similar layout as serviced offices while providing back office functions such as information technology services, human resource staffing and accounting. These providers cater to offshoring business process outsourcers.
The movement of coworking then drove the hybridization of workspaces. Coworking spaces became the widely-popular flexible workspace. Offering open space layouts with trendy interior designs and variety of working environments to cater the different needs of tech startups and freelancers. Nowadays, they also offer private offices, conference room rentals as well as event spaces.
The synergy between the sharing economy and the evolving industry of workspace solutions paved the way for a new breed of offices that can benefit both the employee and the employer. Shared spaces caters to both the needs of the company and the needs of its employees.
Besides, sharing is caring. Ready to share your offices with the rest of the world? Talk to us today!
Office Design Trends To Watch Out For
2017 is almost over and we’ve only got a few more days left before we welcome another new year full of endless possibilities. This year, we saw our workplaces evolve into something new, from the rise of coworking spaces globally down to the development of flexible workspaces.
And over the past 10 months we’ve seem quite drastic changes in the trends of office design. We’ve seen businesses adapt flexible layouts that allows them to keep up with the changing requirements of operations. Architects and designers integrated technology into the local design and have embraced the impact of workplace design to the well-being of employees.
The landscape of workspaces continues to evolve in order to adapt accordingly to the needs of the business and to enhance the productivity and overall performance of those who work within its premises. Today’s generation of designers, architects and brokers are being taught to create commercial estates that are both sustainable and efficient. Conducting research and surveys to create offices that make people healthier and happier as they go to work each day.
As the year 2018 approaches us, experts are expecting these office design trends to dominate the market.
Alternative Workspaces
As coworking spaces take over majority of the market, offices from all around the globe are turning their traditional cubicles and desks into unconventional open plan spaces.
Spearheaded by the reigning demographic of today’s labor force, the Millenials, alternative workspaces came from the need for collaborative and flexible work environments. This specific design involves communal areas that allow for voluntary interaction to happen between members and a variety of work areas to cater their different preferences.
Incorporating vibrant colors and motivational artwork as well as rooms for recreational activities within the office, alternative workspaces make work fun and synergistic – factors that young professionals often look for in companies.
Comfortable Office Design Trends
More and more enterprises are finding ways to persuade their employees into staying longer by giving their office a homelike feel to it. The homestyle comfort design introduces comfort into the workplace through relaxed seating like couches, bean bag chairs and game rooms. Behind this trend is a growing awareness on the importance of environmental physical design to the overall well-being of its employees. Designers are now mixing fabrics, wooden finishing to give offices a cozy look and to elicit a warm feeling whenever you enter the room.
Dynamic Offices
The Dynamic Spaces trend has been around over the past two to three years. These offices offer continuous change apt for growing businesses. The aforementioned design are commonly moveable and flexible enough to allow employees to work in ways that best suit them. It gives them the freedom to choose where and how they want to work. One form of dynamic spaces that have become increasingly popular are coworking spaces. Offering a wide variety of work area as well as breakout spaces and even quiet spaces, more and more professionals are signing up for membership and access of all the aforementioned amenities whenever they please.
The traditional ideas we have about where we work and how we work are changing, its only fitting that companies are trying their best to stay on top of the trends. We’ll be more than glad to give you a sneak peek of the office design trends for next year, just set up a date with us!
The Most Beautiful Moment in Life
The twenties of someone’s life is often called as one of the most exhausting moments. Everything is complicated and the world doesn’t really give you a handout on how to successfully survive this frenzy. And though you have grownups to give you – at the very least – a rundown of what to expect, you’re still confused.
In summary, people often associate their twenties as this disorderly time of their life that they barely managed to survive. These are the years wherein almost everyone is frustrated and unsure of where they are heading, of what they actually want in life. It’s quite the chaos, really.
Chances are by the time you’re in your twenties, you want to learn how to stand on your own. You tell your family that as grateful as anyone can be that they aren’t cutting you off, you want to “make it” on your own. Or maybe they still haven’t let you live by yourself, so here you are, independent but not really.
It’s all complicated because everything has changed. You’ve entered a new territory without prior knowledge on how to do things correctly. You do what every person in your age do right after graduating, look for a job. Grownups make it look so easy yet here you are, trying you best to look as professional as you can be – thinking that maybe if you dress well enough, iron your shirt properly, you’d fool everyone that you have your life together.
And somewhere in the middle, there’s this uneasiness in your heart. Do I actually like my job or am I just fooling myself that I’m happy here? Am I doing this because I love what I’m doing or is this just for show? So that people won’t ridicule me that I’m being left behind. You wonder if you’re actually cut for this traditional office and think that maybe you should try coworking or be a digital nomad, isn’t that the trend nowadays?
It only gets worse when you’ve come to the point that you finally realize maybe this isn’t for you. You’re at a loss for words. You want to follow what your heart wants, work on something that you actually love, but they won’t let you. Because there’s another dilemma that you have to consider; expectations.
Society expect you to get a high paying job so that you’d pay back your parents for everything they’ve done for you or to finally get that college loan of off your back. The moment universities thrust you into the real world, you have to get yourself together – no time for travelling in hopes of finding yourself or figuring out what you want in life, that’s a complete detour from the road of success.
Don’t forget about your social life, they’d add. You need to have enough time to socialize with other people and have fun. A high-paying 9-to-5 job, a bursting social life and the intuition of doing the right thing is what they expect from you, a young person in their twenties barely having any idea on what’s happening.
But here’s the thing, there’s about a million of your generation who doesn’t have their life together. They may try to fool society with their Instagram posts and Facebook statuses, deep down, they’re just trying to live through another day.
花樣年華 or hwayang-yeonwha, that’s what your twenties is actually like. The most beautiful moment in life. It’s the only time you get to truly know yourself through and through. This is the only time that you get to decide for yourself; paying no attention to what anyone else thinks.
Admittedly, it’s the most tumultuous time of your life. At the same time, it’s the most adventurous one. It doesn’t have to be as hard as they make it out to be, don’t rush and live your life by your own pace. Soak yourself with every ounce of experience and life lesson you can get. Find your people – one’s that would help you grow. Join a community that will criticize not to pull you towards a downward spiral, but to aid you in soaring higher than you thought you can.
Make peace with yourself knowing that the most beautiful moment in life is a synergy of the good and the bad. You’ll pull through your twenties. A day will come and these hard times will be a distant memory of when you learned to accept everything that life offers you.
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Games Of Hard Work Can Also Be Games For Business
More often than not, whenever we see a colleague or office mate slouching in their chairs, immersed in a video game on their phone, we’d say that they’re wasting their time. We’d say that maybe they should stop slacking off and start working. Executives and managers would assume that games simply disrupt work. However, psychologists – and gamers themselves – would say otherwise. Contrary to popular belief, games help employees get through an entire workday.
Science says that games bring so much more to the table than just fun and amusement. They help relieve stress throughout the day and allows people to feel more in control of what they’re doing. And though having strategic game rooms in the office may seem too taboo for the companies that have been around for a while, there are a handful of organizations that have allowed their employees to have some play time. One of them being, Facebook, who has their own video game rooms. Tech solution company, Infosys, also created their own version of game room by having a bowling alley in their headquarters. Moreover, plenty of coworking spaces also offer varieties of games for de-stressing.
Though there is limited amount of research regarding the link between workplace successes and playing different variations of games, those who already experienced having game rooms at work, have said that the effects are pretty immediate.
Its Features
Organizations like Facebook, Google, Skype as well as LinkedIn have already embraced the idea that all work and no play results to a bored and disengaged employee. They all believe that allowing fun into your office has its perks. Playing games has been proven to reduce stress levels by relieving pressure; as well as producing Endorphins and Serotonins, all of which leads to competence and increased productivity. And it doesn’t have to be a full-fledged game room. You can have a single pool table or Foosball and still create a fun environment that encourages employees to relax every now and then.
It also allows for creativity to flow and stimulate the mind and it gives us the time to reset after dealing with complicated tasks. Moreover, engaged plays open new neural connections in our brain allowing for an increase in innovative ideas. And with new research showing that living a sedentary lifestyle can put you at great risk, it’s another way to lessen the time spent sitting down. Games that allows you to move around throughout the day can help lessen the risk of early death. Lastly, it opens a new avenue for team work to be enhanced. It can accelerate bonding and encourages connectivity between members.
Games for Business
Each variety of games have their different functions. Strategically choose which game you’d want to offer to your employees and start having fun.
For those who want to improve productivity and increase speed of decision-making, you might want to install your very first ping-pong table. A game of table tennis gets our blood pumping, improves and preserves mental ability. In addition to this, it enhances strategy and long term memory.
All the while, pool tables are good for unwinding after a long day. It helps fight ageing process, improves hand-eye coordination as well as cognitive skills. You can try having head-to-head or team games to end the day on a positive way.
Foosball and air hockey tables refreshes the mind and body, encourages team work and helps employees view problems in new ways. Friendly matches throughout the day to relieve stress.
Establishing the perfect work environment isn’t easy, and so is finding ways to keep your team motivated and engaged. But if one thing is for sure, it’s that work doesn’t have to be a chore. Find the right balance between fun and work, the happier we all will be. Ready to give playing games a chance? Well, why don’t we set up a playdate! Sounds good?
Health Drawbacks of Constantly Sitting in the Office
How often do you sit down in the office? Do you ever do any sort of work while standing upright?
Most of us today doesn’t know how to answer the following question. We leave our houses to go to work and end up sitting down most of our commute. We arrive there, take a seat in our desks and start working. The only time that we spend walking or at the very least, standing, is when we go for a break. If there’s one thing that we do more than anything else in the office, it’s sitting down. In fact, an average of 9.3 hours of our day is spent stuck in chairs; quite a large number compared to the 7.7 hours of sleep that we get. It’s an activity embedded in our daily life deep enough that we barely question how much we’re doing it.
A Harvard Business Review article released last January 2013 called sitting the smoking of this generation, further elaborating that we need to get up and start moving if we want to keep ourselves healthy.
Health Drawbacks
There are several health drawbacks to spending endless hours sitting down and it affects everyone, even those who are maintaining exercise routines. A recent study based on nearly 8,000 adults have said that there is a significant connection between risk of early mortality and time spent sitting. Those who sat for less than 30 minutes had lower risks of early death compared to those who spent more down time. In addition to this, the moment we sit down several functions in our bodies are easily affected. Electrical activity in our leg muscles shut off, the time we take to burn calories drop down by 1 minute and the enzymes in our body that burn fat drops down by 90 percent. The aforementioned study also reported that those who sit 3 hours or more per day watching TV are 64 percent more likely to die from heart disease.
Daily Movement
Experts says that for every 30 consecutive minutes of sitting, there should be an allotted five minutes for you stand up and walk around at a brisk pace to reduce its health risks. Moreover, moving around also helps in increasing productivity and allows you to focus to the task at hand.
Author of the HBR article from earlier, Nilofer Merchant, also discussed how she turned her usual coffee meeting to a walking-meeting. She said that after almost a hundred of walking-meeting, she surprisingly noticed other benefits. Walking also helps fight off dementia and Alzheimer’s according to a research by US neurologists. Paying attention to posture is also important. Take the extra step by making sure that you avoid slouching or hunching over the computer during your work hours. Studies have shown that poor posture when working increases feelings of depression and cuts off circulation.
In addition to this, there are certain things that we can do to convert our offices into healthy workplaces. Standing desks can be found in a handful of offices around the world, from communal offices like coworking spaces and even private offices. If allowed, switch to a standing desk every now and then. Look for a setup that allows you to adjust your workstation and gives room for a chair to be used when needed.
The activity of sitting is pretty unavoidable taking into account the nature of our respective lifestyles. Still, health should be a priority no matter how tedious it seems to be. And in any case that you have other ideas to lessen the time spent on couches and chairs, we’d love to hear it. Also, we’ll be more than willing to help you should there be a need for a healthier workplace.
