In monetary companies, the workplace has all the time carried weight. It indicators credibility to shoppers, stability to regulators, and ambition to potential expertise. That mentioned, at this time’s monetary workplaces function in a really completely different setting and are being requested to do greater than impress. They have to help hybrid work, allow fast development by acquisitions, and assist groups transfer quicker with out sacrificing belief or confidentiality.
For CRE leaders in finance, office design is not nearly aesthetics or sq. footage. It’s a strategic lever, one which straight impacts expertise attraction, consumer confidence, and deal velocity.
Key takeaways
- The workplace stays a strategic asset in finance, supporting belief, confidentiality, and excessive‑stakes collaboration even in a hybrid world
- Knowledge‑pushed design is crucial, guaranteeing workplaces are proper‑sized, versatile, and aligned with how staff really use area
- Standardization accelerates transformation, enabling quicker determination‑making, smoother integrations, and constant experiences throughout places
- CRE groups at the moment are strategic companions, utilizing unified information and processes to draw expertise, optimize portfolios, and help enterprise development
Why the monetary workplace nonetheless issues in a hybrid world
Regardless of widespread hybrid work, the workplace stays central to how monetary establishments function. Excessive-stakes conversations, advanced collaboration, and consumer conferences nonetheless profit from in-person interplay.
On the similar time, staff count on flexibility, environment friendly use of area, and workplaces that really feel purposeful quite than compulsory.
This creates a balancing act for CRE and office groups:
- Appeal to high expertise who count on trendy, versatile environments
- Assist client-facing work that requires professionalism and privateness
- Adapt shortly throughout mergers, acquisitions, and portfolio modifications
- Optimize prices whereas making sensible, data-backed actual property choices
Reaching all of this requires greater than good design instincts. It requires visibility into how area is really used—and the flexibility to behave on that perception.
From design imaginative and prescient to data-driven actuality
Monetary workplaces typically span dozens (or tons of) of places, every formed by native laws, legacy techniques, and historic design requirements. Over time, this complexity makes it tough to reply primary questions:
- Which workplaces are underutilized?
- The place do groups want extra collaboration area?
- How can we combine newly acquired places with out disrupting operations?
- Are we designing for how individuals work at this time, or how they labored 5 years in the past?
With out constant information and standardized processes, even well-intentioned design methods can stall.
That’s the place CRE expertise turns into a differentiator—not only for operational effectivity, however for office expertise.
How BMO unified office design at scale
A transparent instance of this shift comes from Financial institution of Montreal (BMO), one among North America’s main monetary establishments.
Following the acquisition of Financial institution of the West, BMO confronted a well-recognized problem for big monetary organizations: merging two portfolios with completely different drawing requirements, processes, and techniques. Whereas each organizations had robust office practices, inconsistencies in information and area documentation created friction.
These drawings weren’t simply static information. They have been foundational to occupancy evaluation, area planning, transfer administration, and future design choices. With out alignment, CRE groups lacked the strategic visibility wanted to maneuver shortly and confidently.
Standardization as a design technique
Somewhat than treating the problem as a one-time integration process, BMO approached it as a long-term office evolution initiative.
By increasing their current partnership with Eptura, BMO standardized portfolio drawings throughout places and centralized area information inside Serraview. This allowed occupancy and planning information from the Financial institution of the West acquisition to combine seamlessly into BMO’s broader office ecosystem.
The outcomes have been vital:
- 60 floorplans added from the acquired portfolio
- 1.3 million sq. ft consolidated in Serraview
- 5,000 complete workpoints aligned throughout 50 workplace places
Extra importantly, the CRE workforce gained a single supply of reality—enabling constant design choices, quicker planning cycles, and higher collaboration between office, actual property, and management groups.
As Tera Oswald, Head of World Portfolio Technique & Office Evolution at BMO, shared:
“There are such a lot of different elements we are able to use the Eptura system for, which has been nice to see because the workforce has been settling into all of the modifications from the mixing.”
What this implies for monetary workplace design
BMO’s expertise highlights a broader shift in how monetary establishments method workplace design. Probably the most profitable methods share just a few frequent traits:
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Design begins with trusted information
Engaging workplaces aren’t simply visually compelling—they’re right-sized, purpose-built, and attentive to how individuals really work. Dependable occupancy and utilization information guarantee design choices are grounded in actuality, not assumptions.
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Consistency allows velocity
Standardized drawings and processes make it simpler to scale office modifications, particularly throughout acquisitions. When groups converse the identical “area language,” choices transfer quicker and with much less threat.
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Flexibility builds confidence
For each staff and shoppers, well-designed workplaces sign preparedness. Areas that help collaboration, privateness, and seamless motion between groups reinforce belief—a necessary forex in monetary companies.
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CRE Is a strategic accomplice
When CRE leaders have visibility throughout the portfolio, they’ll proactively help enterprise targets: attracting expertise, enabling development, and optimizing prices with out compromising expertise.
Designing workplaces that work as onerous as your groups
In monetary companies, the workplace stays a strong asset—however solely when it’s actively managed and thoughtfully designed. As portfolios develop extra advanced and expectations proceed to rise, instinct alone isn’t sufficient.
By unifying office information, standardizing processes, and aligning design with actual utilization patterns, CRE groups can create workplaces that do greater than look good. They assist monetary establishments compete—for expertise, for belief, and for the offers that drive long-term development.
Often requested questions
By Amanda Meade
Amanda Meade is a content material creator at Eptura, specializing in office expertise, assembly productiveness, and rising traits in workspace planning and customer administration. With a background in content material advertising and web optimization, she crafts clear, actionable content material that helps groups work smarter by in-office collaboration. All through her profession, Amanda has labored throughout industries, together with dwelling companies, healthcare, actual property, and SaaS, growing a novel means to distill advanced matters into sensible insights.
