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ManpowerGroup
World leader in innovative workforce solutions turns its buildings into drivers of differentiation and business growth

At a Glance
- $32 million — Savings generated over the last ten years from centralized management of real estate, operations and maintenance, and facility project management.
- 750 — Branch offices improved in North America through contract with Johnson Controls.
- 3.5 million — Employees placed in permanent, temporary and contract positions in 2010.
The challenge: Developing office space that supports the experience ManpowerGroup provides to colleagues, clients and candidates.
ManpowerGroup is a $19 billion global leader in innovative workforce solutions and services. It has 3,900 offices in over 80 countries and territories, and serves 400,000 clients each year. And it is currently ranked 143 on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest companies.
Facing intense competition and pressure on margins, the company needed to manage its 750 North American field offices more efficiently and free field representatives to fulfill the company’s vision: to lead in the creation and delivery of innovative workforce solutions that enable clients to win in the changing world of work. It also needed to consolidate headquarters offices which were split among four sites around Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In transforming its real estate, ManpowerGroup wanted its office spaces to become critical components of its brand, helping to attract and keep the best and brightest people for its own staff and for clients.
The solution:
Centralizing real estate portfolio management and facilities transformation
Over the past ten years, ManpowerGroup has worked with Johnson Controls to manage the design, construction and maintenance of 750 field offices across North America, making them, highly efficient and strongly appealing to prospective employees. Under a Global Branch Experience program initiated in 2009, the company established a new look and feel that supported the ManpowerGroup experience for its offices, designed to make immediate and lasting impressions on newer generations of workers.
Johnson Controls:
- Guided the selection of more attractive office locations in mostly retail settings
- Built business cases for the level of investment in remaking each space
- Helped create design standards for the interiors, from the layout of reception areas and interview and testing rooms to the furnishings, lighting, colors, artwork and decorations.
Johnson Controls also centralized ManpowerGroup’s real estate and facility project management, including bidding and procurement, lease administration, office space design and construction, procurement of goods and services, and facilities services.
Processes and expenses across the real estate portfolio are tracked on the Johnson Controls Sequentra® web-based management system, a single tool for multiple functions: budgeting, accounts payable, lease management, project cost tracking, and trending and reporting on key performance indicators.
Consolidating offices and business lines into new world headquarters
In addition, Johnson Controls led the consolidation from four corporate sites to a new 280,000-square-foot world headquarters facility, including a connected 1,200 stall parking garage, working with ManpowerGroup to:
- Build a complete business case based on greater energy, operating and staff efficiency
- Select the site in downtown Milwaukee
- Design world-class reception area and interior for optimum use of space and quality work environments
- Ensure readiness of building to facilitate movement of 900 employees without business interruption
The new headquarters was completed in 22 months, on schedule and on budget. Johnson Controls now provides complete corporate facility management for the new building.
Results and benefits
With an efficiently managed real estate portfolio and spaces that create a clearly defined brand experience, ManpowerGroup is strongly positioned to compete and grow.
Centralized real estate management has generated $32 million in savings on operations, maintenance and leasing in the last ten years. More specifically:
- The Sequentra tool saved more than $100,000 per year and cut real estate reporting time by two to three days per month.
- New construction standards reduced spending on change orders from up to 20 percent of project costs to less than one percent.
- Integrated construction management shortened cycle time from 12 months to nine months, increasing speed to market.
The headquarters consolidation reduced office footprint by 27 percent and substantially boosted efficiency by eliminating employee travel between sites. With daylight and outdoor views accessible to 90 percent of workspaces, it has earned raves from employees and visitors and has won construction and design awards. It achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® (LEED) Gold certification in 2010.
One major advantage to having a single provider responsible for our real estate, project management, design and construction, and facilities management is that we now have a single point of accountability and can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with having a trusted partner to manage all of these business-critical functions.
– Mara Swan, Executive Vice President, Global Strategy and Talent, ManpowerGroup
Learn more
Johnson Controls can help you develop a corporate real estate strategy to make your buildings work more efficiently, sustainably, and profitably. Contact us to learn how, or try our operational and energy savings calculator today.