The team at Roku is used to being ahead of trends – the US company pitches itself as the “pioneer” when it comes to streaming via television. Now, as it opens its new office at Manchester’s 1 Circle Square, it is trying to be similarly forward-thinking about what a modern workplace should look like.
The firm, which makes streaming devices and reported a global revenue of almost $2.8bn last year, is preparing to move into the building in the coming weeks – its fourth office in the UK after London, Cardiff and Cambridge.
Roku’s lease on the 115,066 sq ft of space was the largest office deal across the big six regional cities last year, according to JLL, adding to an impressive year that saw Manchester attract the highest level of demand for workspace out of those locations.
Tech ecosystem
The Manchester move comes amid the firm’s expansion, which requires constant recruitment of talent.
Alastair McGeoch is Roku’s director of software engineering, with a LinkedIn profile that says he is “building a major engineering hub in Manchester”. The choice of city and building, McGeoch says, is crucial in doing that – and it helps that company founder Anthony Wood was born in Manchester.
“[1 Circle Square] puts us right in the heart of Manchester’s tech ecosystem, diverse talent pool and all those aspects that come with it,” he tells EG. “It’s a great spot within the city, with breathtaking views.
“It was quite exciting to see the reaction of the team seeing it for the first time.”
Roku is currently in the early stages of fitting out the office space, and its focus so far has been on the layout options for the team and making sure that it will have enough collaboration space.
Staff are expected to be given flexibility in terms of time spent in the office, with a hybrid working policy that will see many spend three days in the office and two working from home each week.
“The work I’ve got to do with the team in Manchester now, as we will grow over the coming months, is how do we ensure that our office on Circle Square has a local identity, but also how does it reflect Manchester,” McGeoch said. “All our UK locations have an element of that kind of local DNA within the [office] environment.”
Key trends
The Circle Square scheme is a joint venture between Bruntwood SciTech and Vita Group. Its offices have become home to several tech firms, including Xera and Hewlett Packard.
Bradley Topps, commercial director at Bruntwood SciTech, said flexibility, quality and collaboration are now the key trends among those hunting for office space. “When we reference a flight to quality, that means that customers are now spending more when fitting out their space and making it more experiential – so that when they come to office, the office is really enjoyable. It’s a pleasurable experience,” Topps said.
In addition, Topps highlighted that there has been an increasing requirement for the provision of collaborative spaces post-pandemic. “The office is the environment where teams can be brought together, and that really drives team culture,” he added.
“More and more individuals are less comfortable with working from home. They want to come to work more, amid the ability to collaborate with their colleagues and to get the downtime from day-to-day life disruptions.”
Back to work
Topps nonetheless expects hybrid working to remain a permanent fixture of working patterns. And workspaces that support wellbeing and social connection, collaboration, and sustainability are seen to be in the highest demand.
“Workspaces need to evolve more than they were previously, and there’s got to be a reason for people to go to the office,” Topps said. “I think we’re creating that reason and those environments and driving people back to the workplace.”
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