Level27 is growing and moving (once again)

Time flies when you're having fun, as the saying goes. Indeed, time flies... It feels like just yesterday when we moved into our beautiful office on Kunstlaan in Hasselt. More than 400 square meters, that should be enough for a while, right?

Well, indeed, just for a while. After a little over 2 years, we have come to realize that it's time for a change.

Over the past year, we have worked tirelessly to propel Level27 to the absolute top. With two partners, a professional management team, and, of course, all the employees, we are ready to continue the unstoppable growth of the past years. Naturally, this strategy also means that the number of employees will increase.

Recently, I attended a keynote by Jo Peters (Upspace) titled "How Fish Drown." Although I'm always skeptical about such original titles, the content appealed to me greatly. They have developed an approach to create a vision for our current and future office environment. Emmanuelle led the process, which provided us with valuable insights.

One significant realization was that we are already doing well - and if that's the case, we should take pride in it, right? When we initially designed our office, we focused on creating a beautiful and intelligent space with plenty of room, greenery, and relaxation opportunities. We firmly believe that a pleasant working environment is essential for healthy and happy employees. Literally, everyone who visits us immediately senses the pleasant Level27 atmosphere. See for yourself:

Another insight is that we constantly interrupt each other. After all, everyone is different; some need more focus, while others require constant interaction. Moreover, these preferences change depending on the role and activity being performed. The Upspace study immediately made it clear that we need to separate certain activities and reorganize ourselves in the future. Emmanuelle also calculated what the future growth in employees would mean for the required space.

The conclusion was evident: we need more space. Much more.

We have always enjoyed working in the city center. In Bilzen, we were right in the heart of the city, and even on Kunstlaan, we are just a stone's throw away from the beautiful center of Hasselt.

However, in our current environment, it's a battlefield: there's a daily struggle for that one scarce parking spot. I know, we should focus on sustainable mobility, and we are doing that. We encourage bicycle commuters and support them with all possible means, but that doesn't entirely solve the problem. Additionally, we've been ordering only electric vehicles for some time now, but charging them is a challenge as Fluvius informs us that there isn't enough power supply in the city center.

This brings us to the second conclusion, for which we don't need much science and studies: there is no space in the city center for an SME with 50 future employees.

Less than 3 years after the previous search, we found ourselves searching once again. This time, we were looking for an office space that is at least 3 times larger. People thought I was crazy. "You're not going even bigger, everyone can work perfectly from home." "Come on, that's not up-to-date anymore, don't you do remote work?" "Building a new office now? In these uncertain times? With interest rates so high?"

Valid remarks, of course, but we persisted! Because we already practice remote work, which is ideal for focused tasks (if you have the possibility to do so at home). However, this doesn't change our conviction that we can only build a team with people who also physically meet each other. So, sorry, 100% remote work is not an option at Level27. Instead, we aim for a healthy balance between remote work and coming together in a pleasant and inspiring workspace.

The challenging search led us through various possibilities - old and new, building and renting.

And, as they say, where there's a will, there's a way... we found an iconic building that deserves a future:

That's great news! Level27 is settling in at Via Media in Hasselt! We're going to give the TV Limburg building a substantial update (read: complete renovation). It will become an inspiring meeting place for our employees, customers, and partners. The first steps have already been taken: Sofie from Deusjevoo has created a floor plan based on the previous Upspace study. Now it's time to start the construction project, so we can move in on January 1, 2024!

Okay, the building is 5 times larger than the current one. So, plenty of space to innovate and continue growing. We are already excited about it!