International. The Spanish Association of Facility Management chose, with the help of a committee of experts, Microsoft's corporate headquarters in Madrid, Spain, as the recipient of the Good Practice award in Facility Management. This recognition is granted to innovative projects that have been implemented during the last year.
In that sense, the new corporate headquarters of Microsoft, designed by the company 3g office, stood out for its philosophy focused on reducing traditional workspaces and instead offering flexible workspaces.
In statements to local media, Fernando Carneros, Real Estate & Facilities Manager of Microsoft Spain, Portugal and Italy, explained that the new headquarters in Madrid is a reflection of the work that the company has implemented around the world during the last 10 years with the WPA (Workplace Advantage) program in those offices that are in the process of reform or relocation of headquarters.
"WPA is a corporate solution that is committed to the application of flexible ways of working that promote innovation, communication, collaboration and effectiveness of employees, based on the company's own standards focused on improving space and making the way of working a tool for optimizing the exploitation of spaces, of productivity and talent retention," said Carneros.
He added that "the program is based on the freedom of Microsoft employees to go to the office or work from another place, and once in the office, choose the workplace based on a wide catalog of spaces."
The new design of the headquarters allowed to reduce the area occupied in jobs, freeing up 3,000 of the 9,000 square meters that the company occupied, and thus allowing to condition a new area for customer service.
The result, as explained by company spokespersons, is a quality space for customer experiences, without increasing the surface area that was already had, having a space in which to celebrate 90% of the company's events, obtain a space aligned with the real needs of the company and the new ways of working, in addition to reducing the operating budget by approximately 15%.
