Business

New Office Space Allows For Growth and Collaboration

The new Emergency Nurses Association headquarters will not only enable the group to grow and cast a vision for the future but also provide its staff with opportunities for better collaboration.

Last week, the Emergency Nurses Association moved into its newly designed headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Illinois.

“In 2020, we’ll be 50 years old,” said ENA Executive Director Nancy MacRae. “Over the course of those years, we’ve built a really strong foundation of services and resources to advance emergency nursing, and the practice of emergency nursing. And we’ve grown to the point where our facility in Des Plaines—we had just outgrown it.”

At about 44,000 square feet, its new space is more than double the 20,000 square feet ENA had in its previous office.

“It served us well for many, many years, but we were really looking for space to grow, the ability to attract and retain talented staff, and a new home that would allow us the opportunity to really build a strong presence to reinforce our culture and build our staff teams around that,” MacRae said.

ENA kept those organizational priorities in mind in the design of the new space, which was the former headquarters of the American Academy of Dermatology. For instance, all staff have access to natural light coming in from windows, and each workstation is fitted with sit-to-stand desks. Although staff members have assigned workstations, they aren’t separated by tall walls like they were previously.

The association also went from just a few meeting rooms to 26 different types of meeting rooms and breakout spaces. “We know how people are working these days, and one size doesn’t fit all, and we really wanted to encourage interaction and that individuality so that people can have that opportunity to work differently depending on the needs and individual personalities,” MacRae said.

And knowing that it wanted its new office to allow room to grow, MacRae said there is still about 5,000 to 7,000 square feet left to build out.

In addition to creating more space for its staff to work the way they want, ENA also wanted its office to reflect its mission and members. For example, there is a graphic timeline in the lobby of ENA’s history, which started with two emergency room nurses back in 1970.

“They had a vision to create an organization and society where the profession of emergency room nursing could continue to develop and advance,” MacRae said. “From a very humble beginning of two emergency room nurses to almost 50 years later, we’ve built an organization that is very strong and growing with a great vision for the future, so we really wanted to celebrate that.”

The inside of the Emergency Nurses Association's new Schaumburg, Illinois, headquarters. (via ENA's Facebook page)

Emily Bratcher

By Emily Bratcher

Emily Bratcher is a Contributing Editor for Associations Now. MORE

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