82.1 F
San Fernando
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Intuit Creates a Silicon Valley Atmosphere in Woodland Hills

When Joe Kaplan sold Innovative Merchant Solutions to Intuit in 2003, he was responsible for 95 employees. Today he is overseeing the move of more than 750 workers into a brand new Warner Center office building that is chock-full of amenities. He loves this place, and as he tours visitors through, it is clear that the employees who are just beginning to trickle in love it too. Witness the big grins on two men who are touring the fully-equipped gymnasium on the ground floor. “Do you love it?” Kaplan asks, rhetorically. What’s not to love? In addition to the gym, which has equipment in it that isn’t even on the market yet, employees can also avail themselves of a full outdoor basketball court with special rubberized mats; a full-service cafeteria complete with pizza oven and salad bar; and a coffee shop outfitted with nice comfy chairs like your neighborhood caf & #233;’ and pouring Peet’s coffee and serving pastries. A juice bar, of course, is planned. Don’t forget the break rooms on each of the four floors, each of which has the requisite microwave ovens and refrigerators, and also offers Xbox video game systems, pool or foosball tables, dart boards and other stress-relieving, employee-bonding devices. Vending machines on each floor dispense sodas for a mere 25 cents along with other low-cost treats. But don’t worry that Intuit is getting distracted by all of these services. They’ve outsourced the food service operations to Sodexho, and the gym facilities are also being operated by an outside group. So how can a publicly-traded company justify the cost of these types of amenities? “How can it not?” replies Kaplan. “It makes them more productive and cuts down on the cost of training new employees. If they’re happy, the customers are happy, and that means more customers and more money for the shareholders.” Intuit was named as one of the Top 100 places to work (coming in at #43), by Fortune magazine in its 2008 survey. The majority of the workers in the building are hourly-wage employees, working for the Innovative Merchant Solutions division of Intuit, said Kaplan. That group processes electronic bank card transactions for Intuit and for others. The facility is in operation 24/7, with three full shifts and then a smaller night crew to keep things humming. Most are involved in answering customer service calls; engineering, marketing, IT, product development, risk management and others round out the roll call. Every one, regardless of pay grade, goes through six weeks of “foundation training,” and then they also receive another 60 to 80 hours of training in their specific job or in cross-training so they can pick up the slack in other areas. Multiple training rooms of different sizes and configurations are on the ground floor; outfitted with large monitors that allow sessions to be conducted from remote locations, or in conjunction with several Intuit offices. In a twist on old-school corporate office planning, managers’ offices are in the middle of the space, with cubicle occupants getting the great window views. The corners don’t have big management suites but rather are filled with conference tables of different sizes and configurations. Kaplan calls them collaboration rooms. The layout was deliberate, he said, and the managers signed off on it. “It made more sense financially,” Kaplan said, to lay out the space in that way, plus it just suits the character of the company. Intuit finally completed its purchase of Electronic Clearing House, better known as ECHO, earlier this year. The move to Woodland Hills means that the 250 or so ECHO employees who have been based in Camarillo will finally be under the same roof with their Intuit Innovative Merchant Solutions compadres. It also means that more than a few people are going to have a significantly longer commute, Kaplan acknowledged. “About 80 percent of our positions were impacted by the move,” he said. For the non-ECHO folks, the difference will likely be negligible, as the new building is just six miles from the Calabasas offices they are vacating. But Kaplan believes the new location’s proximity to the Metro Orange Line station will allow Intuit to reach out to more potential employees the company is on a growth curve, he said who want to use public transportation. The company will also be setting up carpools and vanpools, Kaplan added.

Featured Articles

Related Articles