Christine Barber, Director of Research, Andrew Garnar-Wortzel, Principal, Consulting Practice Area Leader, Gensler and Trex G. Morris, Global Real Estate Leader, EYG Services Procurement, Ernst & Young
Abstract
Technology has long been the catalyst for challenging traditional workplace practices, since its capabilities have the power to transform the way people live, work and communicate. Some companies recognised early on that technology would have a profound impact on their business models, productivity and cost structures, and they became the pioneers of mobile work practices. Heavily represented by the technology and consulting industries, whose business processes and work product made it easier to transition to mobile work, these early adopters still encountered the same cultural barriers faced by any company trying to implement a mobile work programme, regardless of industry. Today, mobility programmes are becoming more widespread, predominantly among finance, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, which are responding to a new business landscape that is driving the pursuit of mobile work. This is also fuelled by the availability of more sophisticated tools, technologies and processes that make it easier to identify real estate opportunities in relation to mobility, along with tools that can prepare an organisation for a mobile work programme. In this paper, the mobile work initiatives of hoteling pioneer Ernst & Young are compared with those of more traditional companies which represent a second wave of early adopters. It not only outlines an approach for successfully implementing a mobility programme, but also illustrates best current practices, and makes a business case for mobility that quantifies the benefits for both companies and employees alike.
Keywords
mobility, space utilisation, hoteling, mobile technology, sustainability, human capital, real estate cost reduction, worker productivity
Christine Barber is Director of Research at Gensler, responsible for original research initiatives which are designed to deliver strategic insight to clients and provide a larger context for design direction. Her expertise spans a broad range of topics including business, organisational and workplace trends. Recent research projects focus on design and business performance, trends and issues in global real estate portfolio management, and mobile workplace practices. Christine is a published writer and has lectured at corporations, universities and business associations in North America, Europe and Asia. She holds a degree in business from Baruch College, City University of New York, and studied organisational development and the social sciences at Columbia University.
Andrew Garnar-Wortzel is Principal, Consulting Practice Area Leader with Gensler in New York City and a leader of Gensler’s firmwide consulting practice. He specialises in real estate and facilities strategy, workplace strategy, information solutions for real estate management, change management and strategic communications. Recent projects have involved developing design guidelines for high performance work environments on a portfolio scale, mergers and acquisitions related portfolio optimisation and strategies for mobile work. Andrew works with companies across many industries including financial, pharmaceutical, publishing, advertising, technology and insurance. He graduated from FIT with a BFA in interior design.
Trex Morris is Global Real Estate Services Leader for Ernst & Young (EY), the first accounting and consulting firm to pioneer the hoteling concept. A seasoned executive with more than a decade of experience in the planning and implementation of hoteling strategies, Trex joined the firm as the Americas Real Estate Director in 1995 from IBM, a company that was working on its own remote work strategies at that time. Compelled by the innovation taking place at EY, Trex left IBM to continue developing the hoteling strategy that had begun with EY’s Chicago office in 1992. Today, all of the firm’s offices in the Americas utilise alternative workplace strategies where hoteling is the cornerstone. Trex is now focused on leveraging these similar strategies in other EY offices around the world.
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