Transforming where work happens: Shifting investment in real estate to technology enablement and employee mobility

Abstract

Between 2000 and 2012, Accenture's global headcount grew by 300 per cent but its real estate portfolio grew by just 150 per cent. Besides having a significant bottom-line effect — costs for facilities operations in the USA alone fell by 45 per cent — the Accenture Workplace Model that drives its internal real estate transformation also contributes significantly to lowering Accenture's carbon emissions (by almost 35 per cent) and improving employee satisfaction and productivity — all strong outcomes of the ongoing internal workplace and technology evolution. Accenture's complex business and varied workforce created a unique opportunity to design a game-changing real estate approach. The company's expanding client offerings, globally emerging markets and young employee population require it not only to embrace a progressive, flexible, workplace model, but also look towards the future to shape the next one — and the one after that. This is the story of how Accenture transformed ‘where work happens’ by shifting investments in real estate to technology enablement and, ultimately, empowering employees to choose where (and how) they work every day.