CBRE: “Office Space is Meant to Inspire”

Several years ago, our Global Real Estate and Facilities team came to the realization that over the next few years nearly 40% of all CBRE corporate office leases were set to expire. If there was ever an opportunity to think differently about the space that we occupied, now was the time.

What emerged were three primary goals.

First, we wanted to create a healthy workplace that would enable our people to work smarter and more efficiently, in a more personally customizable space. Second, we wanted to optimize the operational value of the space that we occupied. And third, we wanted to lead the industry into the future by encouraging our people to communicate and collaborate better across business and service lines.

By going “all in,” we believe that CBRE has shaped a new approach to designing and servicing work environments that inspires our people and our clients and has transformed the industry’s traditional view of space utilization.

In the last three years, we’ve opened more than 30 Workplace360 offices around the world. More than 7,000 of our employees, including nearly 40% of our top producers, call a Workplace360 office home.

Our people have become a driving force in changing our culture as well, with Workplace360 offices that enable greater collaboration, build a stronger sense of community and create a deeper connection between employees and the organization. It was this connection that Forbes cited as one of the key reasons CBRE was listed as #15 on its list of the Best Companies to Work For. Our post-occupancy surveys demonstrate how fully our employees have embraced the initiative, with 93% indicating they are highly satisfied with the new environment – and 90% stating they would not return to a traditional office.

Importantly, we’ve achieved these organizational gains while minimizing employee space requirements, optimizing our resources and reducing our impact on the environment. Most pleasing to me is how our people recognize the investment that leadership is making, reinforcing CBRE’s commitment to their long-term success as well as that of our clients.

For CBRE, Workplace360 has been transformative. In a “work anywhere, anytime” world, it has demonstrated that there remains a vital role for place – one that supports professional mobility while enabling ideas to grow, and communities to form, in the spontaneity of a collaborative space.

To me, this is the story we are now able to tell: that office space is meant to inspire people through meaningful connections. And thanks to these connections, we now have a whole new lease on the way we do business.

Georgia Collins, Senior Managing Director
Global Research and Consulting
Workplace Strategies

Learn more in CBRE’s 2015 Corporate Responsibility Report.