Innovative workplace technology, data, and strategies are redefining the Corporate Real Estate (CRE) landscape with powerful new opportunities for organizations to enhance the value of their real estate investments.
Just as technology is enhancing the data and processes that drive space optimization, CRE leaders are discovering exciting ways to align offices with the real needs of employees. Unfortunately, most organizations aren’t taking advantage of these new opportunities, and billions of dollars are being wasted in the process.
In our e-book, Ultimate Guide: How to Optimize Your Space and Maximize Your Real Estate ROI, we outline how technology can be used to right-size your footprint around the needs of your people. Here’s a preview:
Organizations Face a Problem in Wasted Space
We already know organizations are letting more than 50 percent of their office space go unused at any given time. However, we’ve identified what’s causing swaths of space to go unused and where organizations are missing out on real estate ROI. Here’s what’s stopping most modern offices from reaching their full potential:
- A lack of accurate data
- A lack of insight into how space is used
- A lack of transparency
- A lack of accountability
- Lack of autonomy/flexibility
In order to address these common misalignments, we’ve outlined a step-by-step approach to optimizing space and maximizing real estate ROI:
A Look at How to Optimize Space and Maximize Real Estate ROI
Improve Data to Evaluate Needs
Accurate data is an essential part of determining not just how much space is needed, but what kinds of spaces are needed. Accurate space data is also essential to both employees and CRE leaders alike being able to navigate and make the most of what space they already have. Pulling accurate data can take different forms depending on organizational needs, so we have isolated several key areas that organizations can focus on for improvement:
- Standardizing and automating data validation
- Conducting space audits
- Tracking real-time utilization data
- Taking advantage of chargebacks
Raw data in and of itself, however, is only half the battle. How that data is represented and how easily it is accessed is absolutely key to how it translates into better decision-making.
Target Inefficiencies with Better Metrics
CRE Leaders rely on a bedrock of core metrics that represent how efficiently they are using their space. Modern technology has enhanced the quality of the essential metrics that have long-guided CRE decisions, and also introduced real-time utilization metrics into the mix for organizations taking their optimization to the next level.
For many organizations, ability to right-size their footprint is directly correlated with their ability to accurately measure:
- Occupancy and vacancy
- Density
- Cost per seat
- Peak utilization
- Utilization ratio
These metrics unlock new possibilities for both higher financial returns and better workplaces optimized for employee needs.
Empower Employee Autonomy
Employee empowerment means both increasing choice and flexibility in the workplace, and connecting employees to spaces so that available spaces don’t sit unused and undiscovered.
- Automated booking and wayfinding
- Agile spaces
- Smart offices
Optimize Scenario Planning
Modern space planning software pulls real data into a sandbox, where employees can create different space scenarios and measure their impact on costs and occupancy. Effective scenario planning can help organizations optimize their footprint by:
- Consolidating vacant spaces
- Reclaiming hoarded space
- Repurposing underused space
- Going agile and increasing capacity ratios
Key Findings
Discover how leading organizations are leveraging data, technology, and strategy to generate powerful results.
- Suncorp: This organization switched from manual, paper-based plans to a centralized software solution. Not only did it shed light on occupancy, but it also united the team and dissolved silos that once formed around departments.
- Illumina: This biotech company was adding personnel at a rapid, 30 percent rate. A renewed data collection process allowed the group to deploy an agile workspace, and it doubled its real estate capacity.
Ready to read the full report and learn how to up your organization’s value? Read the Ultimate Guide: How to Optimize Your Space and Maximize Your Real Estate ROI.