When Level was approached byLunio for help finding the ideal workspace, it was immediately obvious that this was a company going places – fast.

The technology they were building and the emotional intelligence displayed by how they treat their people showed that Lunio was something special.

For Lunio, becoming a unicorn isn’t just reliant on perfecting their product. From our first chat Lunio’s co-founder, Segev Hochberg, made clear that he wanted to create a workplace which fostered a happy and collaborative culture every day.

By doing so, he hoped to create an environment where people chose to come in even when they didn’t have to,rather than feeling forced to.

Why does Lunio want to get people into the office?

Before beginning our search, we sat down with Segev and the Lunio team to understand their motivations for finding a new office, and why it was so important to the company to get people into the office.

For Segev, it was all about collaboration and the benefits it can bring both professionally and personally to the team. One of Lunio’s values is ‘Communicate Clearly’ and the expectation to spend some time in the office is made clear to each employee. However, he was aware that people need a reason to come into the office.

He said: “Let’s be honest, people don’t think, ‘Oh, I’ll wake up in the morning and commute to the office. I’ll do all of that just because I like the chairs or the coffee in the office.’

“People want to be in the office because of the environment and culture that’s been created.”

So what exactly was it that Lunio was looking for?

Key characteristics of the ideal Lunio office

Following our initial chat to understand why Lunio were looking for a new office in Manchester city centre rather than staying in Chorley, we wanted to know what features they needed to achieve their ambition of creating a workspace which people actively wanted to attend.

The new Lunio office needed to offer:

·      Spaces fit for group work and efficient collaboration

·      Desks and workspaces that accommodate different personality types and diverse people so everyone can be their authentic selves in the workplace

·      The ability to hold office social and team bonding events

·      Functionality that enabled hybrid working and co-operation between people in the office and at home

Segev says: “When you force people to come into the office 3, 4 or 5 days a week, to them, it’s like a task or a chore.

“But you can position it in a way that says: ‘The office is there, and the expectation is that you will be utilising the office, as and when you require for collaboration. And also for fun reasons such as connecting with colleagues socially'

“Then if you build the right culture, people will come to the office on their own. We’ve seen it ourselves.

“Our team are contracted to work two days a week in the office, but we see that they were coming into the office three and four times a week.”

Finding the right space for Lunio

With the above requirements in hand, we set about our search for an office space that had the tools for Lunio to create the collaborative, inclusive, efficient and social workplace that they wanted.

By doing so, we would help the company create a culture and environment that had people coming into the office even when they weren’t required to do so.

Following a comprehensive search, the Hyphen building on Manchester’s Mosley Street provided the perfect solution and Lunio moved into the building in July 2023.

Building the Lunio culture

It’s safe to say that the move has been a success. By using Level, Lunio found a workplace that hit all their criteria and led to a 162% increase in office attendance!

How did Lunio achieve such a huge increase in office attendance? Segev says: “You do that by building an inclusive culture that encourages people to form great relationships, have a laugh and do what they need to do to be themselves. What’s the point in having a graveyard of desks where people are just working and no one is allowed to laugh or speak?

“We’ve structured the office working days so that all teams are in on a Thursday which gives people the opportunity to socialise after work outside of their immediate teams and form stronger bonds.

“Even more than that, we have seen true friendships being formed throughout our teams; people going on hikes together, attending concerts and festivals, even living together as a result of the culture that’s been created at Lunio.”

Choosing the right workspace following consultation with Level has paid off for Lunio in a big way. By harnessing the daily collaboration, efficiency and happiness that comes from inspired employees choosing to work in the office each day, Lunio can keep taking steps towards becoming Manchester’s next tech unicorn.

Joe Averill, Managing Director at Level, said: “I had so much fun on the project working with Segev (COO), Neil (CEO) and Simon (CFO). It’s always great to see when the leadership team care so much about their people and getting their workspace environment spot on!

"Lunio is a scale-up that seems to instinctively get how to make hybrid working work. It makes me extremely happy that we have another exciting scale up business choosing Manchester as their HQ office.”

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