What Toyota's campus amenities say about the competitive world of employee perks in D-FW

It's been about a year since Toyota moved into its brand new North American headquarters in Plano, and the Japanese auto giant's 4,100 employees working there have made good use of the campus' many amenities.

But experts have said that in an airtight corporate labor market, office perks have become a kind of race to the top.

Toyota's first year by the numbers

When Toyota hosted a grand opening event at the new campus on July 6, 2017, company officials showed off fancy features like a two-story rock climbing wall in the gym and on-site pharmacy. So how much do they actually get used? According to Toyota, a lot. Here are some fun numbers about the campus's first year.

Fighting for talent with perks

Toyota has the scale and the space to take some of its amenities over the top, but experts say workers have come to expect workspaces designed to make them feel their best and be their most productive. And more and more, companies are finding it's essential, according to surveys by the commercial real estate firm CBRE.

92%

of building owners believe that offering enhanced amenities will speed up leasing.

21%

of millennials surveyed said they'd accept a longer commute for a better office environment.

23%

of millennials said they would move to a smaller or less well-known company for a better office environment.

81%

of building occupiers listed amenities as the top three most important factors to their workforce.

"We made the initial announcement in April of 2014, and here we are a little over four years later and we've moved around 3,000 people, designed and built a new campus, hired about 1,200, all without missing a beat in our business."

Multi-tenant offices try to keep up

CBRE director of research and analysis Robert Kramp said that building owners across Dallas-Fort Worth have been updating their spaces in an effort to keep up with some of the region's massive company campuses like Toyota. He said that since 2015, millions of square feet of space have been renovated to include lots of amenities.

45

Total buildings renovated

10.6 million

Total square footage renovated

"If you don't have a quality, signature workplace, with less than 4 percent unemployment, how are you going to find talent? This stacking of amenity on amenity is a race to the top."

Most popular amenities

Sure, some of the wilder office amenities may get a lot of attention (we're looking at you, three-story spiral slide at Capitol One's Plano campus), but some of the most popular new amenities are a bit less sexy. (Think Wi-Fi-enabled common areas and on-site health clinics.) Here are two of the most common amenities.

"From gourmet, subsidized cafeterias to bike trails and outdoor lounge space, amenities have become a fascinating indicator of how far companies are willing to go to attract talent."

SOURCES: Toyota Motor North America; CBRE