By Steve Walsh
One of the key things that has allowed Jump to grow from a tiny acorn based in my spare, ‘box’ room when it started, to the organisation it is today, is that we’ve always been remote-first.
We’ve never hired based on location, and we’ve never insisted people be in the office. This allowed us to hire anyone we wanted to, without being beholden to the talent pool or skills on our doorstep.
So why, if we’re remote-first and living through the biggest shift in working patterns in living memory, are we moving in to a new space this week?
News: We’re opening an office in Harrogate – the Aim Higher Hub
I use the word ‘space’ rather than ‘office’ deliberately – the traditional office as we know it is dead. An office, where people come every day for the sole purpose of sitting at their work computer for eight hours, can’t survive.
A work location has to offer way more than that.
The offices/spaces of the future are collaboration and exploration spaces, which allow you to collaborate and create away from your desk.
That’s exactly what we’ve created in our new space – we have a couple of desks along with sofas, chairs, a whiteboard, TV, coffee machine… everything you want to break out from your two metres squared desk and chair, and work with people, and with your creative mind.
Extending from the above, whether it’s with clients or staff, sometimes you really do all want to come together and collaborate in-person.
That could be for a group brainstorm day focussed on strategy, or for an intimate day of one-on-one meetings to plan an event – remote first doesn’t mean remote only.
Having a space to come together and collaborate if that’s what’s needed is still as important as ever. And that’s why we’ve created one.
I’m a massive believer in work from anywhere. As a company it allows you to hire the best talent regardless of location, and as a person, helps you to build your best life, as you can live exactly where and how you want to.
But as I’ve already said, remote first doesn’t have to mean remote only.
If our people want to work at one of our physical locations or simply want to work from somewhere that isn’t home, it’s important they have that choice. Just like we’d be supportive of helping our people access co-working locations if they weren’t near to our physical spaces.
Coming from a sport background, I’ve always believed that environment dictates performance. Exactly which environments help you perform will be highly personal.
For me, I like to leave home to work regularly, to separate work and personal spaces and to be inspired by an environment that we’ve set-up to help us deliver amazing, creative solutions.
We’re immensely proud of all the spaces we have, and have had, at Jump, and how we’ve brought these alive for ourselves and for our clients to both enjoy and thrive in. One of the biggest compliments we get is when clients want to come to us, rather than us go to them.
We always name our offices according to our values. We have Jump Towers in Northampton (this started as a self-deprecating joke but everyone we work with loved it so much that it stuck, and we get letters addressed to Jump Towers on a daily basis 😆).
We had the Boom Room meeting space, and now we have what we’re going to call the Aim Higher Hub, which perfectly encapsulates what we want this space to be about.
It’s our largest premises so far, and the first time we’ve had our own self-contained unit with our own kitchen, shower and toilets. We’ve even got a terrace at the back where we plan to put an outdoor sofa for collaborating in summer.
We can’t wait to properly get our feet under the table and decorate our new Hub as we make it our own – we hope to welcome you through the doors at some point soon!
