Making Moves

You heard right; the Des Plaines, Illinois building that has been home to ASHI headquarters since 1998 is up for sale. It’s a reason to be excited, as leadership at ASHI plans for an even more exciting future.

The building itself dates back to 1986, and it’s showing its age—with considerable cost of maintenance. By moving, ASHI can invest that savings into more member programs. Plus, the ability for remote work continues to contribute to increased productivity and talent recruitment, while future state-of-the-art offices with shared reception areas and conference rooms are more perks to look forward to. ASHI will ultimately move to a more modern workplace, and the team is currently looking for flexible, rentable workspace options.

“By not focusing on the maintenance and upkeep of an aging building that is too big for a modern hybrid workforce, ASHI can move into a right-sized building,”
said ASHI Executive Director James Thomas.

“This move will allow ASHI staff to continue to focus on members’ needs and prioritize the projects that will impact them. ASHI can continue to hire talented individuals from around the country while finding a smaller space for those who will work from the office to do their job successfully. By not spending time and resources on facility management, the team can invest in education projects and other member-facing priorities.”

The new space will also be more energy-efficient, and its configuration will allow for independent workspaces while affording opportunities for collaboration. All the current printing needs for badges and other materials will happen on-site more effectively as ASHI moves away from focusing on printed materials.

“By being forced to work in a hybrid environment for the past year-and-a-half, we quickly determined that this was feasible with today’s technology,” Thomas said. “We came to this solution as we saw ASHI continue to operate without difficulty. Everyone came together during this time to make this possible. As we saw what we could do, we knew that it was the right time to sell this current building and move into a more modern approach regarding workspace and allocation of our resources.”

As the staff moved into a remote work situation that started now more than 18 months ago, ASHI leadership had no idea how quickly everyone would adapt and adjust to the new environment. They started following a model they’d begun a few years ago, allowing the team to work from home as needed, considering Chicago’s unpredictable weather. “We didn’t want to have snow days limit our ability to work,” Thomas recalled. “We started to investigate collaborative software, remote phones, etc., as part of that process.

Based on that familiarity with the setup, we could jump into the current situation without too much difficulty. Some of our members’ needs require ASHI staff to go into the office to handle certain items, but most of the team continues to work from home. The staff was fantastic about embracing what would work best to meet the needs of our membership and adjusted accordingly.”

Many companies—including Google, Microsoft, JPMorgan, and Zillow—have expanded their work-from-home programs during the pandemic.

Seven of 19 (at the time of this reporting) ASHI employees currently do not live in the Chicago area, and remote work allows flexibility to recruit better talent at a potentially lower cost, Thomas said.

According to a recent study from the Pew Research Center, more than half of employed adults who say that their job responsibilities can mostly be done from home (54%) say that, if they had a choice, they’d want to work from home all or most of the time when the coronavirus pandemic is over. A third reported that they’d want to work from home some of the time, while 11% reported that they’d want to do this rarely or never. Some 46% of those who rarely or never teleworked before the coronavirus outbreak said they’d want to work from home all or most of the time when the pandemic is over.