Orbitz Worldwide online travel company presents workplace strategy
November 19, 2007 - Front Section
If the corner office is the top perk for baby boomers, then collaborative workspace is how companies will attract Gen Y employees in the future. That tack, taken by online travel company Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW), takes center stage at the CoreNet Global Summit in Atlanta this month. The Global Summit is themed, "Finding, Getting, Keeping Talent: Defining the Future Face of Real Estate."
Orbitz, whose representatives will speak on October 29th, use their new space as a recruiting tool. They'll speak about how they consolidated seven cumbersome floors down into three contiguous levels of a Chicago high-rise. The new space, totaling 141,000 square feet, has proven alluring to applicants and instills a sense of Orbitz Worldwide's unique brand and culture immediately upon entering the space.
Orbitz Worldwide designed a workspace that empowered its employees to develop new product offerings, personalized customer service measures and create ways to drive consumer traffic.
"Orbitz Worldwide employees have an uncommonly strong commitment to the company, and the new space projects the brand prominently," says Dr. Prentice Knight, CEO of CoreNet Global.
Dr. Knight adds, "Using the physical workspace as a magnet for new talent is a growing trend among companies with younger staff. And it's working to attract employees with unconventional work patterns who keep odd hours, especially for Internet companies like Orbitz Worldwide."
Katherine Andreasen, Senior VP of Human Resources will discuss Orbitz Worldwide's strategy and how it measures it at the Georgia World Congress Center on October 29th at 10:30 a.m. Ms. Andreasen will also discuss how finding and keeping talent through innovative workplace strategies can be a powerful recruiting tool.