Dannon”™s $1 million-plus office renovation will accommodate 50 to 60 new employee positions at its headquarters in White Plains.
Bülent Bayram, talent acquisition director for Dannon, said the total number of jobs created companywide, including headquarter positions, will be about 120.
“They”™re moving our R&D (research and development) department from Texas to here, so there will be some R&D positions coming up ”¦and in sales and finance, and as you grow, you have to be really efficient and lean,” he said. “If we want to grow our business three to four times within the next three to five years, we have to be lean and efficient in terms of growing our head counts.”
Michael Neuwirth, senior director for public relations, said the square footage Dannon encompasses on the top and first floors at 100 Hillside Ave. stands at approximately 70,000 square feet and holds about 250 employees currently.
Most prominent in the renovations was the knockdown of walls to create an open layout and the conversion of windowed offices, namely held by senior level executives, into group meeting and “innovation” rooms.
In short, no one can close their door anymore.
Initially, Neuwirth said, “There was a lot of trepidation.
“But it”™s an amazingly self-regulating environment,” he said. “The loud talkers learn that when they have a conversation that”™s going to last for 4 to 5 minutes, to go use a meeting room or go outside. And, it”™s a culture where if you see something, say something. A glance goes a long way.”
As part of the office upgrades, Dannon installed several red, English-style working phonebooths for conversations of a more private nature that do not lend themselves to the open atmosphere.
Bayram said the open-door idea first began as a realization of the company culture, and ultimately manifested itself in how the company looked at its tangible space.
Construction began around November 2009; C.W. Brown Inc. in Armonk was retained to do the job.
Neuwirth noted the renovated space goes hand-in-hand with productivity.
“If you have a closed door, you”™re more likely to send an email to someone you can”™t see rather than poke your head up, see if they”™re there, walk down and have a conversation with them,” he said. “Nobody likes seeing 357 as your inbox. And in doing so and reconfiguring the space from a business perspective ”¦ we have enabled our people to have the same if not more space with greater accommodation, so we can put more people in our existing lease space, because we”™ve taken out walls, doors, etc.”
