By CASEY NEILL
THE new Ermha headquarters is more than an office space – it’s a community.
And the Dandenong South space is increasing staff productivity and the not-for-profit’s ability to serve people in need throughout the south-east.
Ermha supports people facing challenges resulting from a disability, mental illness, homelessness, or experiences of trauma or substance use to live the life they choose.
Its 200-plus team members had been running between four buildings on Robinson Street in Dandenong to find space for a meeting, chat to a colleague or pick up a document.
At the end of June they came together in a new head office in the Estate One precinct on the Princes Highway.
“It’s actually been quite exciting for all the staff,” Ermha marketing and communications executive director Christine Thornton said.
“It’s created a new environment that’s more of a community, more of a family feel.
“With the different sites we didn’t get that chance to integrate with all the other programs.
“I feel like we have so much more productivity.
“I feel like I’m much more productive having everybody around and being able to see where people are, so you can go have a conversation with them right away instead of being hidden in little spaces.”
Ermha took the move as an opportunity to introduce hot-desking.
“The exciting thing about that is all different levels of the organisation are working with everyone,” Ms Thornton said.
“Because they’re sharing hot desks and they’re all in the same area, there’s a lot more cross-communication between the programs.
“I feel like we’re providing more co-ordinated services.”
She said the new space was bright and open, but had breakout rooms for when staff needed quite time or a client meeting.
“The clients absolutely love it. They’re starting to feel very welcome,” Ms Thornton said.
She said Ermha had been expanding at a rapid rate and outgrew its spaces.
“It was never our plan to have four leases in four different buildings. It was just meeting demand,” she said.
“We couldn’t just go out and move our head office every time we got a new contract.”
So Ermha signed a seven-year, $411,445 per annum lease for a 1349 square metre space at 81-125 Princes Highway.
“We are still maintaining our drop-in space at 65 Robinson Street,” Ms Thornton said.
“We knew we still needed to maintain our representation in the CBD of Dandenong.”
