H&R Block

H&R Block engaged Cushman & Wakefield in 1999 to manage their real estate portfolio in preparation for growth and efficiency. Prior to the partnership, the client’s real estate operations were highly decentralized. District managers or local office managers were typically responsible for all real estate and facilities functions, distracting them from core business matters. Additionally, H&R Block saw the opportunity for extensive growth in corporate stores, but lacked the in-house resources to support their expansion objectives.

H&R Block is unique in that tax season (Jan 1-April 30) is when the company makes more than 70% of its annual revenue. To meet this challenge, Cushman & Wakefield’s Facilities Management (FM) team fluctuates throughout the year. During tax season, the FM team is increased from four to 12 Facility Coordinators, a necessary move considering 53% of facilities incidents occur during this time. During non-tax seasons, coordinators are re-allocated to other non-FM roles, including transaction management, project management and portfolio management, while others are moved to other FM accounts within our Portfolio Services Center.

Integrating with other service lines also helps ensure that our FM teams are bringing H&R Block the best value. For example, no lease is signed until all facilities cases outstanding with the landlord have been resolved, providing our transaction management team with the ability to leverage an open ticket in the case of a renewal. In the case of a landlord in default or where an incident has left a facility non-operational, our portfolio administration team utilizes an automated report to confirm or deny rental payments

Cushman & Wakefield's solutions have been instrumental in providing notable facilities cost savings to the client, including:

• $350,000 in reimbursement checks collected from landlords;
• total savings equal to approximately 12% of total spend;
• 9% year-over-year increase in savings to the client.