Concierge Services in the Office Space: An Investment in Our Employees

GLENDALE, CA—Imagine being able to offer your employees services that go beyond free coffee and a desk, such as grocery shopping and laundry drop-off and pick-up. At the Masonic Temple in Glendale , a partnership with Caruso Affiliated , that’s exactly what we are doing. You may ask why a Fortune 500 company and a landlord such as Rick Caruso would offer hospitality services that are more commonly associated with a luxury hotel or a high-end residential building? The answer is easy: We are investing in our most important asset—people. CBRE was a pioneer in creating its paperless, free-addressing Workplace360 strategy at its Downtown headquarters and will again be the first company to move into this one-of-a-kind, forward-thinking office environment. Both of these types of work spaces are giving us an edge as an employer and competitive market player, helping us hire and retain top talent by offering an incomparable working environment. What we are building on in Glendale is what we have already accomplished at our Downtown Los Angeles office. Just like in Downtown, we are going to make the Masonic Temple a 100 percent free address and paperless environment with a focus on collaborative spaces and mobile technology. With the addition of hospitality services, CBRE will now also be able to provide valuable perks that are designed to cut down on the chores most of our employees typically have to tend to after their day jobs are completed. It’s a sentiment shared by  Rick Caruso,  CEO, Caruso Affiliated. “Our goal is to offer best-in-class service in whatever we do, and by providing these unique services, we are offering a transformational office experience and the gift of time. Time is the greatest luxury and our properties are recognized for unlocking new ways to give time back to our guests, and the concierge services we are extending CBRE at the Masonic Temple will do just that. We see this program as an opportunity for a business to truly invest in employee happiness and to make their employees’ lives easier by increasing efficacy at work and enriching their free time out of the office. A little help from us means more time for them.” While more companies in recent years have paid attention to offering perks to their employees such as yoga classes or free gym access, we feel providing help with tasks that keep a household going is another matter altogether. These services are designed to help shrink what has been referred to as the second shift—those hours spent post-work running errands and handling household chores—whether it’d be stopping at the market, arranging dinner or picking up the dry cleaning. Continues Caruso: ”Everyone has second shift responsibilities, no matter what their age and phase of life. When launching a similar set of services at Caruso Affiliated’s corporate offices, we commissioned an independent nationwide survey that found most people spend over four hours per work week handling this second shift, and that 94% of people admitted to using work hours to deal with personal errands and chores. Since we launched our services, we have seen instant results of increased productivity and employee satisfaction. In the first month, we saved employees over 540 hours of personal time. More importantly, we have received countless “thank you” notes from employees, describing how a refueling service saved them the stress of hitting the gas station before a meeting, or how having groceries waiting in the car means extra time with the kids.” In addition, the building’s hospitality staff will be able to assist with such items as in-office dining arrangements for employee and client meetings, making theater reservations at the Americana across the street, curating events and providing language services. Caruso’s team will also be able to use the luxury guest suites across the way at the Americana for our clients and out-of-town employees. All of these services and more can be simply ordered via The Masonic Temple app. “This hospitality component will reach into all areas of our employees’ lives,” says  David Josker , managing director overseeing the Los Angeles North region for CBRE . “Our personal and private lives are merged more than ever. These concierge services will be immensely helpful in accomplishing work-related tasks as well as personal errands that often fall through the cracks during our busy days.” We are convinced that this type of attention to our people will lead to happier, more productive employees. We conducted a study a year after we implemented our Workplace360 strategy in Downtown, and across the board people responded positively. All of them agreed that clients were very interested in our way of working. I can guarantee we will see the same positive results at The Masonic Temple. We believe this concept will be a game changer. It is catapulting us past any competitors in our continuous evolution as a 21st Century employer, and it is making our partner Caruso Affiliated a one-of-a-kind landlord. Lewis C. Horne is president of the Greater Los Angeles-Orange County region at CBRE, Inc. The views expressed are the author’s own.