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Work has moved to sweeten the agency community by offering higher cash incentives for recommending clients to its co-working space.
Previously agents could submit a lease proposal online and then eventually got paid based on whether the lease was signed or not.
Under the new programme agents get paid 10% of the membership fee for the first 12 months upfront, followed by 2% of the membership fee for up to 36 months. Agents also get a commission fee when a client expands.
WeWork has also hired new relationship management teams in London and New York dedicated to building relationships with agents. Former JLL senior associate Julia Davis was poached by WeWork to manage the partnership programme and an account management team has been installed to ensure agents get credited for referrals and paid on time.
Francis Lobo, chief revenue officer at WeWork, said: “We decided we needed to rework the broker programme because we realised how important a channel brokers are.
“Our primary goal and objective is in building our community and we realised from the number of members who joined our community that they all had brokers.
“And brokers represent them, brokers have had long relationships with them, they know what they want, they help them get the space, the ambience, the culture, everything that they need.”
Lobo said he still expected one-man start-ups to approach WeWork direct without an agent. But he said WeWork recognised the importance of brokers in helping larger companies needing 10 desks or more to advise on leasing agreements, which typically represent the second largest cost for businesses after people.
WeWork currently operates 11 co-working spaces in London and was valued at $16bn (£12.2m) at a round of funding earlier this year.
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