How Tenant Reps Are Dealing with L.A. Traffic

L.A. traffic is one of the most well-known characteristics of the city, rivaling palm trees and sunshine—and it can be a particular burden for office workers and companies. L.A. traffic is a major obstacle for companies looking for office space or determining the best location for employees. Michael Arnold, EVP and director of the tenant consulting group at NAI Capital, says that his clients often ask: How important is the location in which we are operating? The answer: very important. He has worked with companies to overcome the challenge by running traffic and drive-time surveys to determine the best location for tenants.

“At the end of the day, there are two ways that this goes. One is that the C-suite-level executive says I am going to make the decision and then deal with attrition issues later. Or, and I am seeing this more often, the C-suite executive wants to do workplace surveys to really understand what is important to their employee base,” Arnold tells GlobeSt.com. “When employees feel they have buy-in, there is a much better culture that is created. Companies are trying to find talent, and talent is hard to find today.”

Recruiting quality talent and retaining quality talent has become a top goal for companies, and as a result, companies are looking for ways to increase the office and employee experience. Analyzing traffic patterns will help determine the office location and help to ensure a better employee experience overall. “If you are a Westside company, and most of your employees live in Hollywood and your CEO lives in the Palisades, all of those people are not going to want to shelp from Hollywood to Santa Monica,” adds Arnold. “There needs to be a balance, because you don’t want to move your employees.”

Arnold has done several traffic and drive-time studies, most recently to move a company from Santa Monica to West Hollywood. The study first groups employees by level of relevance to the company and then where employees live to determine if the move would cause a burden on employees. “I just moved a media company from West Hollywood to Santa Monica and we did a drive-time study to determine where their employee base is located,” explains Arnold. “There are different levels of employee relevance at a company, and there are people that you can afford to lose. If the company were to lose people that can be backfilled, there isn’t as much of a concern. In L.A., it isn’t how many miles that you are from the office; it is about how long it takes you in traffic. We do traffic studies at different times of day to understand the drive time.”