November 19-December 2, 2014 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— Page 7AA
UNRIVALED
TALENT.
UNMATCHED
RESULTS.
With a passion for everything that makes our state so
special, our firm is the unrivaled leader in commercial
real estate services in Colorado. Strategic, forward-
thinking and results-driven, our 464 professionals are
committed to delivering the best to our clients and the
community we serve.
For more information on how CBRE can assist you with your
commercial real estate needs in Colorado, please contact:
Ray Pittman, Jr.
Senior Managing Director
+ 1 720 528 6357
Tim Swan
Investor Services
+ 1 303 628 1766
Kate Waggoner
Occupier Services
+ 1 720 528 6461
Spotlight
N
ew workplace
strategies are
revolutionizing how
companies do business and
how office space is utilized.
Companies throughout the
world are developing workplace
strategies designed to drive
improvements in employee
satisfaction and business
productivity. Businesses
are achieving this vision by
adopting a workplace strategy
that allows employees a choice
in workspace options and the
ability to collaborate with ease.
These strategies are driven by
aligning core organizational
goals with real estate solutions,
IT infrastructure, office
services and policy. Recently,
a sector of the Denver CBRE
office adopted new workplace
strategies based on an open
and collaborative environment.
The positive results have been
immediately apparent.
Organizations are increasingly
recognizing the importance of
providing a great workplace
for their employees in order
to make work more productive
and enjoyable. Companies
seeking to outpace competitors
are making an effort to
anticipate employee needs
in order to deliver the best
possible service to clients. CBRE
is no different; the 100 percent
free-addressing environment
the Denver office has created is
allowing our team to respond
faster than ever to our clients’
requests. We are able to
immediately communicate
with other team members
in the collaborative work
zone, allowing us to problem
solve as a team rather than
individually. It is allowing our
team to leverage different areas
of expertise with ease as the
administrative drag of setting
and rescheduling meetings
is greatly reduced, as team
members are more accessible.
Further, allowing team
members to choose a work
station near the individuals he
or she will be working with on
given projects, has eliminated
unnecessary logistics involved
with helping those individuals
collaborate. The team has also
realized a faster, more seamless
onboarding process with new
team members who sense the
team culture and brand quicker
than if other team members
were siloed behind hard wall
offices. Overall the ability to
choose our workspace needs
on a daily basis has increased
our team’s ability to respond
to clients and has helped
foster a more cohesive team
experience.
One major challenge the
Denver office faced, similar
to other companies trying
to adopt new workplace
strategies, was trying to find
the right balance between
individual focused space and
collaborative spaces. In the
past, organizations, CBRE
included, disproportionately
favored individual work
spaces to the detriment of
collaboration and overall
productivity. In order to change
this, CBRE collected key
information on employee needs
and the current workplace
environment. Numerous
polls were sent to employees
throughout the organization
to determine what the day-to-
day needs of employees were,
and additional polls were taken
by local management to make
sure local practices aligned with
larger organizational findings.
In addition, our local office
had the advantage of witnessing
the rollout of new workplace
strategies at CBRE’s Los
Angeles headquarters. These
studies allowed our local office
to pilot these new workplace
strategies with a better idea
of where the balance between
individual and collaborative
space needed to be. At this
point in time, the Denver
office moves closer each day
to a balance that will optimize
productivity and employee
satisfaction.
What convinced CBRE to
adopt these new workplace
strategies throughout its
organization? CBRE has based
its implementation of new
strategies on data reinforcing
workplace flexibility. One of the
many studies CBRE conducted
in its pursuit of new workplace
strategies was a study of 20,000
workers around the world. Two
major themes emerged from
the study: First, workers spend
less than 50 percent of their
workday at their desk and,
second, allowing employees
to self-select their workspace
improves employee satisfaction
by 10 percent to 15 percent.
Both pieces of the study have
held true for our local Denver
team. Half of our team is
away from their workspace
(traveling, meeting with clients,
developing business, etc.)
over 50 percent of the time,
while the other half of the
team utilizes the workspace
(responding to clients,
preparing business materials,
etc.) more than 50 percent of
the time, allowing the space to
be utilized in the most efficient
way possible. Additionally, our
team has genuinely enjoyed
the freedom of choosing the
workspace that will best suit
their needs in fulfilling daily, or
even hourly, tasks.
One of the major forces
driving changes in workspace
utilization is an increasingly
mobile workforce. The ability
to work mobile is especially
important in the commercial
real estate sector and new
workplace strategies are
forcing companies to make
this possible for its employees.
In order to make this a reality,
companies must improve their
technological infrastructure.
Melanie Fontenot
Senior Director, CBRE | Global
Corporate Services
