People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1 - 60

PERSON

As companies look to improve their environments and attract the best talent,
there's been a focus on promoting organizational health and wellness. Alison
Romney Erying, Ph.D., met with Laura O'Brien, global director of client care
and development and head of sales management for the Americas at CBRE, to
discuss CBRE's workplace strategy initiative, Workplace360, and its effect on
employee well-being and overall workplace satisfaction.

Health and Well-Being at CBRE
Alison Romney Eyring, Ph.D., in conversation with Laura O'Brien

Alison Romney Eyring: What should our readers know about CBRE as a company?
Laura O'Brien: CBRE is a Fortune 500 and
S&P 500 company and the largest commercial
real estate and investment services firm in the
world. Our company has approximately
44,000 employees and serves real estate owners, investors, and occupiers through approximately 350 offices worldwide. We offer
strategic advice and execution for property
sales and leasing; corporate services; property,
facilities, and project management; mortgage
banking; appraisal and valuation; development services; investment management; and
research and consulting. As a company, our
strategy is to produce distinct advantages for
our clients, employees, and shareholders by
creating real estate solutions that drive value
and growth.

ARE: It seems that health and well-being at
CBRE has more meaning than in most multinational corporations. When did this become
a part of your company's culture?
LO: World-renowned doctor and best-selling
author Dr. Deepak Chopra has said that "our
environment is an extension of our body." As
the global leader in commercial real estate, we
have taken that philosophy to heart by creating and implementing workplaces designed to
optimize health, wellness, and productivity as
part of our innovative workplace strategy initiative called Workplace360. In addition to
wellness, each of our 21 Workplace360 offices
60

PEOPLE & STRATEGY

around the world features a balance of private
and collaborative workspaces designed to
support the way employees work through
enhanced flexibility, mobility, technology,
and productivity.

ARE: For the last few years you have served as
CHRO-in addition to heading Global Facilities and Workplace Strategy for CBRE. What
influence did your workplace strategy role
have on the evolution of your thinking about
health and well-being?

and wellness play in a happy and successful
work life.

ARE: You led the implementation of a cuttingedge workplace transformation in your Los
Angeles headquarters office and many other
offices around the world over the last couple
of years. What were you trying to achieve?
LO: When we began planning the implementation of Workplace360 in our L.A. office-our
first in the U.S. and, up until recently, our
largest in the world-wellness wasn't one
of our primary focuses. As we delved deeper
into some of the core elements of our
Workplace360 initiative-like "free addressing," where no one has an assigned seat-we
started thinking about things like the transfer
of germs and how we were going to ensure a
healthy environment for our employees. From
there, we established a health and wellness

Human Resources is about attracting, developing, and retaining
great talent, and our workplace is about providing a productive
environment for people to flourish.

LO: I see HR and workplace strategy as being
inextricably connected. Human Resources is
about attracting, developing, and retaining
great talent, and our workplace is about providing a productive environment for people to
flourish. As a professional services and investment firm, our most important asset is our
people, so providing a workplace environment
that improves the way we work today, while
enhancing our overall health and well-being, is
a top priority. By incorporating these features
into our workplace, we are sending a message
to our employees that we value the role health

committee and, as we researched and learned
more, health and wellness became increasingly
important to our employees who would be living in the space and to our leadership. In a
very short amount of time, we became avid
believers that promoting the health and wellbeing of our employees through our offices
was of primary importance.
Based on Delos research, insight, and improvement methodology, we committed to the implementation of more than 50 health and
wellness features in our downtown Los Angeles office, including circadian lighting, hydra-

People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1