NorthShore’s New Headquarters is Elevating Company Culture
When you think of company culture, what comes to mind?
Some may think of fitness classes, ‘feel-good’ Fridays, dream boards and team outings. For NorthShore Care Supply, company culture is about collaboration, comfort, health as well as performance. NorthShore, which just barely moved to a new headquarters location this spring before COVID restrictions were put in place, doubled its previous space to accommodate contact and fulfillment centers and a testing lab.
The design is meant to increase communication and interaction among employees with an ideation room, huddle rooms, alcoves with functional couches and chairs, massage chair and lunchroom with marketplace offering a wide selection of food, drinks and even hand sanitizer. The open and flexible space features tall windows and lots of natural sunlight as well as a moss wall spelling out #NorthShoreCares.
“As we grow as a company, I wanted a setting that reflects our vision for the future where employees have a space that encourages collaboration, which is one of our values,” says NorthShore President and Founder Adam Greenberg. “The new space accommodates our current group of employees but is designed to expand with us as we grow and continue to meet our customers' needs for premium incontinence products and accessories.”
The Importance of Office Culture
Company culture is synonymous with employee engagement. Company culture symbolizes a company’s internal well-being and impacts how employees perform at work. According to an article on Smarp, companies with high employee engagement are 21% more profitable.
Studies show successful organizations are ones where employees are treated as stakeholders in the company. Greenberg welcomed input from employees regarding the new building. He invited everyone to give feedback, from selecting fabric for the lunchroom booths and office wall colors to workspace furniture design.
"We were asked if we wanted more or less storage, if we wanted shelves and if displaying personal items was important," says Belinda Sanmiguel, Content Marketing specialist. "I am a big fan of all of the windows and especially the moss wall. Our work environment is so much more fluid now."
Welcome to 1 Confidence Drive
The company’s logo colors of blue and gray are seen throughout the new headquarters in wall colors, carpeting and furniture. The brand is also evident in the address – 1 Confidence Drive – which was Greenberg’s idea.
“We provide life-changing products for individuals managing incontinence that give them the confidence to live full lives,” says Greenberg. “Since we are the first business to move into this new development, the local village agreed to let us use Confidence Drive. It’s now on our monument sign.”
Welcome to 1 Confidence Drive
“NorthShore® Adult Diapers” is on outdoor building signage, which can be seen from the I-94 tollway nearby. Due to COVID19, Greenberg recently added touchless hand sensors, foot-operated door openers, plexiglass ‘sneeze’ shields in the lunchroom and automatic hand sanitizer dispensers to minimize contact with surfaces and increase safety for employees.
Upon entering, employees and visitors are greeted by signage touting the company’s values. The first-floor moss wall was a big hit with staff when it was first proposed. Moss walls are growing in popularity in office spaces and offer various health benefits. Studies show moss walls improve air quality, reduce stress and enhance focus. The one at NorthShore now occupies most of the wall leading to the Lunch Room and proudly displays the company’s popular social media hashtag, #NorthShoreCares, which symbolizes its commitment to helping improve the lives of individuals managing incontinence.
The first floor includes a product display room, customer consultation spaces, ideation room, open lounge area, huddle rooms as well as Greenberg’s office, Human Resources, Finance and Marketing.
Huddle Area
Lunch Room
The first floor also is where the lunch room is located, featuring a loft-style setting with industrial-looking lighting as well as mixed booth, chair and high-top seating. When all staff return to work on-site again, Greenberg has complimentary ice cream ready. It also includes a Marketplace with cashless kiosk offering employees an array of snacks, food, beverages and other items.
Lunch room
Through the kitchen is access to a back patio that faces north where employees can enjoy lunch and/or breaks.
Testing Lab
Down the hall from the Lunch Room is NorthShore’s newest addition, a Testing Lab that will be used to test incontinence products and provide performance benchmarks.
Customer Care & Service
Take the stairs or elevator to reach the second floor, where NorthShore’s Customer Care & Service and IT Departments are located. Like most e-commerce companies, customer service is essential to NorthShore’s reputation, success and growth. Customer Care & Service Experts undergo extensive product education and every employee must be compassionate, caring and helpful in meeting customer's needs for products and services.
The personal touch they bring makes all the difference in meeting the needs of customers. That is why their space, on the second floor, is calm, serene, collaborative and accessible. Sunlight filters through large windows overlooking a pond, workspaces feature electric standing desks with ergonomic chairs and shelving for personal items. The goal is to improve mood, increase back and leg health and boost productivity.
“The new Customer Care & Service space is more spacious, bright and open than our previous office,” says Julia Jen, customer service supervisor. “We now have breakout spaces, dedicated conference room as well as a high-tech training room to help us meet, talk and collaborate.”
Customer Care & Service
Warehouse/Fulfillment Center
The Warehouse at 1 Confidence Drive is designed to help employees fulfill customers’ orders as quickly and safely as possible. A new conveyor system, which moves boxes from pallets into a truck, is efficient and keeps the warehouse staff safer during loading.
Technology and AI play an important role. AI-driven robots collaborate with Warehouse staff to help move usually heavy carts of products from different areas of the warehouse quickly.
“In the new building, the Warehouse has quickly become a high-tech Fulfillment Center with Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) and conveyor automation to help employees organize, store and package orders as well as reduce some of the physical stress of lifting and loading,” says Taka Takaki, Warehouse manager.
Warehouse & Fulfillment Center
NorthShore’s Exciting Future
It is an exciting time for NorthShore. Its new headquarters reflects the company’s brand and mission, which is ‘to improve the quality of life for those managing incontinence by offering life-changing products and helping #EndHealthStigma for Incontinence through caring, discreet delivery, partnerships, education and awareness.” NorthShore’s new headquarters offers staff the perfect setting to meet customer’s needs. A calm, upscale color palette of blues and grays with a touch of warm golden yellow and comfortable meeting areas offers it all. The new address, 1 Confidence Drive, signals a new chapter for NorthShore's employees and customers.
“Additional add-ons such as the moss wall, coffee and tea stations on each floor, massage chair in the Lunch Room and other items are things employees at one time or another said would be ‘great to have’ so I made them happen," says Greenberg. "NorthShore's organizational culture, just like our new office, is open, collaborative, proactive and positive. We are successful thanks to our staff so I want to make sure they are happy when they come to work to serve our customers.”