Nevertheless, many senior managers believe that employee productivity is linked to facilities that reflect a corporate culture. Employee comfort is a critical part of that corporate culture for many top companies. We even like to have places where, if need be, employees can bring their dogs to work with them. Better decisionmaking The corporate culture can also include issues outside the facility as well. A wise real estate investment that meets all the obvious criteria is first and foremost on the mind of Steve Binder, vice president and director of global planning for CitiBank.
Productivity is a close second priority, however.
If a site has all the ingredients for a solid real estate investment and also has, for example, a drive time differential for employees that means a shorter commute to work and readily available mass transit, Binder says, then he would prefer that site over another, which doesn't have that employee advantage. I don't know. But we think as a corporation it will have a positive effect. Since both Jemmelian and the president of WorldVision, Carol Bartz, believe the corporate culture of WorldVision is and should be about bringing people together, Jemmelian says, the move from their decentralized offices in Southern California to the new facility they built outside of Seattle, did more than save money by consolidating office space. In terms of productivity, this new atmosphere has engendered an atmosphere for better decision-making.