IT Pro by Nikkei Computer (September 25)

http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/watcher/14/334361/091900061/?ST=cio

The Kind of Workplace People Want

The Genuine Office of a World-Leading Leasing Services Company

Byline: Toshihiro Ihara

The list of issues forcing changes to traditional work styles is endless, not only

enhancing the productivity of white collar work—one of the goals of the Abe

administration—but also the decline in the working population stemming from the low

birthrate, aging society, and the social empowerment of women.

Amid such challenges, the Japanese office of CBRE, the world’s largest commercial

real estate services firm, including leased offices, warehouses, and stores, relocated its

Tokyo offices in April 2014, and took advantage of the move to create a cutting-edge

office with an intense focus on making work easier. (Photo 1) Although it’s been less

than six months since the move, the office is becoming increasingly popular, receiving

more than 4,000 visitors.

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Photo 1: The Tokyo office of the U.S. firm CBRE, which moved to the Meiji Yasuda

Seimei Building in Marunouchi, Tokyo

The main feature of the new CBRE office is a full “free address” working style utilizing IT,

based on “activity based working” (ABW), a new work system for enhancing productivity,

and adopted by such organizations as a major Australian bank and an accounting firm.

ABW is a workplace system centered on the content of the work, allowing employees to

select the place best suited for a specific activity. It is similar to ordinary free-address

systems, but is distinguished by its focus on providing a variety of different spaces

suited to specific work content. For example, the new CBRE office has ordinary work

spaces, as well as collaboration spaces for informal meetings. (Photo 2)

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Photo 2: A collaboration space near the windows. It can also be used as a relaxation

area when unoccupied.

There are also various other types of spaces, such as telephone booths (Photo 3) for

confidential calls or conversations, and concentration spaces (Photo 4) where phone

use is prohibited, and employees are required to be quiet, like at a library.

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Photo 3: Telephone booth for calls or conversations you wouldn’t want others to hear.

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Photo 4: Concentration space created for focusing on work, with rules such as bans on

phone use, among other rules.

All employees are provided a laptop computer and iPhone 5s. In addition, a wireless

LAN covering the entire office, and IP phones installed at work desks create an

environment allowing work to be conducted anywhere. Employees can select a work

desk without a monitor, or with one or two monitors. For example, for informal meetings

employees can take their notebooks to collaboration spaces, while more serious work

can be conducted by combining the notebook with two large-screen monitors. (Photo 5)

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Photo 5: Serious work can be done at work desks with two monitors.

Creating an efficient office based on detailed surveys

To enhance office productivity, in the year preceding the relocation of the Tokyo office,

CBRE conducted a detailed survey of how work desks, meeting rooms, and other

facilities were being used. The results of this survey were the basis for creating an

efficient office.

For example, the survey showed that the rate of desk use was 61% on average, and

just 74% during peak times. With assigned seating the company provided every

employee with a work desk and chair, but found that in fact they were not all being

utilized effectively. They decided to do away with assigned seating for all employees,

and create shared workspaces instead.

As a result, the amount of floor space was reduced by around 18%, from 1,390 tsubo

(4,595 m2) prior to the move, to 1,145 tsubo (3,785 m2). Even so, no matter where one

looks around in the office, it does not give the impression of being cramped, and in fact

the office space apparently felt more confined prior to the move. At the same time, the

amount of shared work space increased 3.3 times compared to what existed before the

move.

The survey results showed that a typical employee spent 25% of their day concentrating

on work of some sort, so over 20% of work desks were placed in concentration spaces.

Also, based on the survey, 75% of the 23 meeting rooms in the new office are for four or

six persons.

IT is used everywhere to support the full free-address system. For example, to prevent

the problem of not knowing where anyone is, the company uses Office Communicator,

an integrated communications tool from U.S. firm Microsoft. The in-house built office

reservation system links with Outlook’s mail and scheduling software. (Photo 6)

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Photo 6: Reservation terminal linked to the meeting reservation system, developed

in-house

The meeting rooms have motion sensors, and if no one is using the room the

reservation is automatically canceled. Sensors also turn the lighting on and off, helping

to conserve energy.

CBRE also made a push to go paperless following the move. All of the meeting rooms

are equipped with one or two monitors. Projecting materials on the monitor reduces

paper usage. The company’s survey also found that one printer per 40 employees is

sufficient, and reduced the number of printers from 37 to 10. (Photo 7)

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Photo 7: Newly installed printer. Printing requires a company ID, and logs are kept of

who prints how much.

Because of the full free-address system, employees are unable to leave their materials

on a work desk. Storage lockers are also small, forcing employees to be conscious of

reducing the amount of printed material. (Photo 8)

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Photo 8: Storage lockers. They are extremely small, making employees naturally aware

of reducing printed material.

Paperless system saves ¥30 million in costs

CBRE set a target at the time of the move to cut the volume of paper documents by 90%,

and in fact managed a 92% reduction. CBRE’s IT Director Manzur Mahtab (Photo 9)

says regarding the paperless system that “The reduction in the number of printers and

printed documents lowered our costs by ¥20-30 million annually.”

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Photo 9: Director of Information Technology Manzur Mahtab

CBRE also took steps to create a comfortable environment, and provide a space suited

to working women. There is a full-fledged café in the office that provides a relaxing

atmosphere and meeting space. The company even provides such amenities as

showers and a lactation room for breastfeeding mothers.

The office is divided into several areas, with names such as New York, Tokyo, Sydney,

and Paris. Each area has a mural matching its name. (Photo 10) When an employee

sends a message saying where they are, they know immediately where they are by

looking at the wall. This is another example of measures to prevent problems caused by

the full free-address system.

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Photo 10: Each area has a mural matching its name.

Move managed in-house, led by six members of the IT department

The company’s IT department managed the move itself, taking the lead in coordinating

the IT infrastructure, including installing wireless LAN access points, and purchasing

and setting up notebook computers and monitors. “Initially six members of our

10-person IT department were in charge of work related to the relocation. About 10 days

just before the move our offices in Hong Kong and Sydney sent support staff. We had 11

people conduct the final testing and other confirmations, and the move was completed

successfully.”

The IT department prepared manuals on such topics as how to use the reservation

system, and held many training sessions for users prior to the move. This allowed the

relocation to take place without any major problems. After the move, the company set

up a help desk manned full-time by two IT department members as support staff. (Photo

11)

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Photo 11: Support desk manned full time by IT department staff

The successful completion of the company-led relocation project also had a significant

effect on the IT department. “The IT department not only gained a considerable sense of

achievement from this project, they also enhanced their skills,” says Mahtab. “We are

planning to implement new projects in the Kyoto and Osaka offices, and this has given

us the confidence to plan everything ourselves.”

Mahtab says that the next upgrade in IT functionality they are considering is making

smartphones compatible with IP phones. “Currently, IP calls can only be made with

notebook computers or the IP phones at work desks, but we are testing an app that will

permit IP calls over VPN with an iPhone 5s or Android phone. This will allow an

employee visiting the Hong Kong branch, for example, to answer the phone as if they

were at the Tokyo office. We want to expand utilization of smartphones to make

telecommuting easier.”

The new CBRE office is not necessarily a model for all companies, but the ABW

concept of providing spaces according to work content and permitting a free work style

is probably a good reference. I left the CBRE office thinking that I could make better

progress writing articles if the Nikkei BP office where I work had a place like the

concentration space.