The TELUS decision to consolidate 15 locations into a single office tower in Toronto was designed after seven years of employee-led work-scheduling. When it was done, employees reported 45% more access to quiet space, 45% better access to collaboration and 40% more access to meeting space for a 5% increase in productivity overall.
The results were even better than the 2% productivity gain the company hoped for and helped increase the pace of similar real estate renewals across Canada.
“We’ve moved away from the notion that everyone needs a dedicated work space,” said Andrea Goertz, TELUS senior vice president of strategic initiatives and communications. “We have a goal to get 70% of our team working on a mobile basis by 2016.”
Goertz has found that real estate renewals also surpass environmental accountability targets. The integration of a major network switch into the new million-square-foot TELUS Garden in downtown Vancouver, for example will save the company 80% in energy costs. “We have access to very fast speeds and it had an additional benefit that we didn’t think of at the outset,” said Goertz. “We’ve been able to recycle excess heat from our switching centre to heat our office tower.”
Goertz says that workspace renewal enables the company to respond with more flexibility to their customers, thereby reinforcing their brand. “We’ve seen the benefits of real estate as a key component of realizing how our brand can come to life.”
Note: This article appeared on page 40 in the Spring 2013 Real Estate Forum magazine, which can be read in it’s totality at: http://www.realestateforums.com/crefm/docs/!_REF_SPRING_2013_Montreal.pdf.
