Site Selection Process Key Activities
The site selection activity follows a four step process and includes the following key phases:
· Step 1. Develop the Baseline
· Step 2. Develop Scenarios
· Step 3. Develop Strategy and Plans
· Step 4. Develop and Execute the Implementation Plan
Develop the Baseline
The fundamental drivers for occupancy are then number of employees, the space per employee and the type of tasks completed by the employees that require additional space considerations (conference rooms, server rooms, laboratory space, warehousing, call centers, etc.)
For an office requirement, key factors are the number of employees, their adjacencies, and the number of employees who would qualify for a hoteling concept (when in the office they plug and play, but spend most of their time on the road).
NAI Market Analytics needs the home address of employees and categorization of employees by criticality. For example, engineers, designers, business unit and marketing employees may be critical; however administrative assistants and technicians may be less critical. With they type of coding, NAI can plot the drive times for employees and provide insight into the risk of losing employees for each potential location.
Current space guidelines are a key determinate of future occupancy costs. NAI will review these guidelines and working with the architect identify opportunities to improve the furniture systems, provide additional teaming spaces yet reduce the overall occupancy footprint.
Finally, issues related to both headcount growth and reductions are reviewed to be sure all the key inputs have be considered in the establishment of the baseline. The deliverable is an opportunity analysis for consideration and approval before proceeding to the next step.
Develop Scenarios
Step 2 of the process is the development of scenarios that fulfill the requirements defined in the first step. This involves a marketplace search for local real estate, surrounding areas and more distant areas.
Market Analytics will analyze the labor pool in each potential location to identify if there are adequate sources of labor to fulfill requirements by the client. For the local and surrounding areas, drive times are identified and risks are quantified related to employee turnover. Finally, tax implications and incentives (by others) are identified to develop a full scenario analysis.
Develop Strategy and Plans
The number of locations is reduced in this step in the process. If incentives are important to the analysis (they are often tiebreakers), then there is a simultaneous set of negotiations held between competing locations.
One time relocation and set up costs are identified, lease vs. buy and lease vs. lease analyses are completed and the output is a set of short listed locations with complete financial analysis and incentive grants identified for management approval.
Develop Implementation Plan
The implementation plans are established as management is considering the alternatives. This step includes the actual presentations to management for approval and the give and take resulting from these discussions. Once direction is established, the team then identifies a detailed set of steps, timelines and responsibilities to make the necessary changes in location. The time to develop the plan is about one week, however, the implementation of the plan can consume many months to allow for design, construction, fit out and relocations to occur.