Wounded Warrior Project’s workspace enables the org to help veterans in need

Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) was founded in 2003 as a grassroots effort to provide care and comfort items to wounded service members returning home from post-9/11 conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and has since evolved to provide direct support to wounded veterans and their families.

Over the last 20+ years, WWP has revolutionized the support system for America's veterans, enhancing their empowerment, employment and engagement within their communities. Through their direct service programs, which emphasize connection, independence and holistic wellness—spanning mental, physical and financial aspects—they offer comprehensive care and support. This all-encompassing approach enables warriors to cultivate fulfilling lives, fostering resilience, coping abilities and peer connections, which are crucial in reducing the risk of veteran suicide.

Today, WWP employs nearly 900 people, referred to internally as teammates, who come to work each day eager to do their part to further the organization’s valuable mission. To do that, they need to have the right workspace.

Headquartered in Jacksonville with multiple offices nationwide, WWP is faced with a unique challenge of ensuring all offices are outfitted with the right workspaces that support how teammates work best, while making the most efficient use of its donor funds.

“Our open-concept floor plan had worked well in the past, but that can change as your team grows,” said Jose Vega, WWP’s Director of Operations. “We had some standards in place, but had never undergone a deep dive to make sure we had the right mix of spaces that allowed our teammates to do their jobs effectively.”

Sound and noise mitigation and privacy were top concerns for the organization, particularly for teammates who interact directly with warriors.

“When a warrior calls or visits the office, they need to feel comfortable opening up,” Vega explained. “They need to feel like they have a private, safe space to talk about the issues affecting them. We approached this project with JLL with that goal top of mind: to have the space and environment necessary to take care of our veterans in need, whatever those needs may be.”

The JLL Workplace Strategy team developed a two-phased approach to tackle WWP’s challenges; the first phase consisted of a comprehensive analysis of the organization’s real estate portfolio, which comprised 15 locations with leases set to expire at different times. JLL’s team, led by Senior Workplace Strategist Summer Whitney, took a holistic look at the portfolio to evaluate the evolving needs of teammates.

JLL’s evaluation encompassed a number of tactics. First, the team conducted office tours with key WWP stakeholders, followed by a visioning session and interviews with WWP senior leadership. But JLL knew that senior leaders’ voices were not the only ones that needed to be heard; they conducted surveys of teammates as well as leadership to gather insights and data from across the organization.

“We had a few ideas in mind already, and had conducted a few smaller focus groups,” said Vega. “But none at the same scale as these surveys. The results provided us with the data we needed to determine the changes and adjustments that would best meet our teammates’ needs.”

Melanie Fox, Facilities Manager for WWP, agreed that the data-driven approach was critical.

“We needed the data to get buy-in from our leadership team on the importance of our workplace strategy, and to get their backing to implement it going forward,” said Fox. “There was really no question once we had the data in front of us. When we presented the strategy to leadership, everyone was on board, because they could tell how much work and research had gone into it.”

The results of the survey, taken by more than 700 respondents, provided actionable feedback that guided the project forward.

• Over 50% of teammates report being in the office 3-4 days per week

• 62% of teammates would prefer to have an assigned seat

• The top reason teammates cited as their primary reason for coming into the office was to collaborate and innovate with other teammates

“Our evaluation helped them see how they can retool their space to better support the ways that teammates want and need to work,” said Whitney. “At the end of the day, that enhances the teammate experience, which in turn better equips teammates to support the mission.”

Through this detailed evaluation, the JLL team identified three key opportunities for improvement in WWP’s workplace:

• Modernization of the digital work environment to create an equitable experience for virtual warriors and teammates

• Variety of work settings within the workplace to make each WWP office a desirable work destination

• Optimize portfolio utilization to reduce unused workspace and support projected headcount with fewer disruptions

Phase 2 of JLL’s approach focused in on these areas of opportunity to create a set of guiding principles. Called a Workplace Strategy Charter, this guidebook served to provide a standardized, easy-to-follow approach to workplace strategy and design for consistency and alignment across all WWP locations, both existing and new.

The charter included analysis of the data gleaned during Phase 1 and recommendations for workplace programming, space usage and design. It even included a breakdown of teammate personas to ensure that employees with different workstyle requirements were equally valued and accommodated. Different types of workspaces were recommended so that teammates could execute different types of tasks, from quiet focus work to socialization and more. WWP’s diverse workforce includes warriors with PTSD and physical injuries that require accessible spaces and functionality, so the JLL team paid close attention to ADA requirements to accommodate differing needs.

Because WWP is funded by donor dollars, it was critical that any workplace strategy plan be flexible and price-sensitive. The JLL team took care to refine the scope of their work to fit within WWP's budget, and in the future, JLL’s charter will allow WWP to roll out any changes at a pace that works for them, maximizing cost-efficiency.

While WWP had worked with other commercial real estate firms in the past, they had an existing relationship with a team of JLL brokers, who in turn put the organization in touch with the firm’s Workplace Strategy team. The partnership yielded lasting results.

“The ratios that JLL provided for us to determine the amount and type of space we need based on our office headcount have been invaluable to us in our planning process,” said Fox. “We use them almost every day. We now have this guide going forward that we can reference to determine how much space is needed to support our teammates in the best possible way—so that they, in turn, can support their warriors and complete our mission.”

Going forward, the WWP team intends to carefully analyze the cost impact of implementing the changes outlined in the charter guidebook throughout their office locations. As they work to determine what type of changes are realistic in the short term and the longer term, they remain close to the JLL Workplace Strategy team.

“We’re very deliberate in everything we do here at Wounded Warrior Project,” said Vega. “The people who work with us need to have a lot of patience—and the JLL team definitely had that. They were a great team to work with, and our warriors and teammates are grateful for their support.”