Australian startup Culture Amp is going all-in on the hybrid work model with its latest expansion in the United States.
Leasing office space in the Willis Tower, the employee analytics platform opened its first office in Chicago, and third in North America, as the company hopes to attract more tech employees who want the flexibility to work either in the office or at home.
“We didn’t really have office space in our Central time zones to be available for hybrid work so we really wanted to create a space where we do have a fair number of employees,” Reetika Motwane, vice president of North America for Culture Amp, said. “The most important thing that we look at here is allowing folks a space to collaborate and connect, and we are also looking to hire certain roles there as well.”
Culture Amp is hiring across the country, with hybrid positions available specifically in New York, San Francisco and now Chicago, as well as remote positions. In the first quarter of 2022, the company hired more than 300 employees and is looking to expand its team to more than 1,100 by the end of the year, with its sights set on Chicago in particular as the city continues to grow as a major tech hub.
Between January 2021 and June 2022, Chicago had a peak of 14,387 job postings and the second-highest volume in the nation behind only New York City, according to the latest Dice Tech Job Report, as the number of postings grew by 52% in the first half of 2022 compared to 2021.
Still, in conversations with some of the Culture Amp's local workforce, Motwane found that many wanted to connect with their office mates but still have some of the same flexibilities that they had come to enjoy over the course of the pandemic.
According to Kastle Systems, which tracks physical occupancy in buildings that use its access control systems, office occupancy remains under 50%.
As a way to attract more workers to the office, amenities such as the snack bar and mothers room were big draws of the new space, according to Motwane.
Culture Amp will be hosting an event on Sept. 29 — People Geekup Chicago — to celebrate the new space.
