Creating workspaces to fit a future-ready workforce

Dr Peggie Rothe, Chief Insights & Research Officer at Leesman

Ever since offices were forced to shut, their future has been under debate. With many employees having spent the last 18 months working from improvised home offices, we might think they would be desperate to return to the office. But this remote working experiment has also highlighted the ways in which office spaces are not set up to cater to employees’ needs.

Recent research from Leesman shows that the average space designed for living supports most employees better than the average space designed for working. 72% of employees have recognised that working from home enables them to maintain a healthy work-life balance, and many also believe that their home environment enables them to work productively, some even more so than the office. This has resulted in eighty-five per cent of employees wanting to work remotely two or more days a week, and some, given the choice, would never return to the office at all. The fact is that sub-standard offices are simply not cutting it anymore, and employees would rather stay home than return to an environment they don’t want to be in.

Businesses know how important the office is, and with restrictions lifting, many are enforcing a part-time – or, in some cases – full-time return. But, if companies are going to create an environment that employees are excited to return to, they need to pay attention to the experiences their employees want from the office.

The draw of the office

Although many employees have become comfortable in their make-shift home offices, companies can entice more employees into the office by carefully redesigning these spaces to be more functional and address the inadequacies of many home setups. Only 43% of workers have a dedicated home office space, but what they do have is the ability to tailor their environment to their requirements. Therefore, it is understandable that home workers are reluctant to leave the comfort of their homes and return to an office that allows little room for personalisation.

Organisations are tasked with creating a working environment that is customised to the needs of a varied workforce. Although this sounds complex, the Leesman Index reveals several key shortcomings of the office that most employees agree on. For instance, focused individual work – a highly important activity for the majority of workers – is supported by 90% of home set-ups, compared to only 78% of office spaces. Similarly, 90% of workers find it easy to have confidential business discussions when working remotely. These are fundamental requirements that any office setup should meet.

On the other hand, some facets of office life are hard to replicate at home. Tech set-ups and access to equipment tend to be better in the office, for example, and learning from colleagues is also better enabled in the office environment for 79% of employees, compared to 65% at home. But it is the company culture that’s hard to replicate without everyone being in the same place at the same time. The overarching benefit of offices is the social interaction they enable – in particular, the magic of impromptu conversations, which are particularly difficult to recreate in a remote-working environment. Over three- quarters of workers enjoy this benefit and feel that informal social interaction is supported while working in the office, compared to 53% that feel this is supported when working from home.

Levelling the playing field

So how can companies create office spaces where their employees want to work ?Companies ready for change should recognise where there’s room for improvement and be prepared to remodel their spaces to cater to new, fluid workstyles. However, business leaders need to be mindful that pressuring employees to return to the office could have detrimental long-term effects. The process needs to be done tactfully and with the knowledge that the future is already here, and work life is being revolutionised. Leaders also need to beware of the unconscious bias they may have towards those who choose to return to the office. Workers in the office should not in any way have greater benefit than those working from home.

Adapting to a hybrid working system, for instance, will promote a better employee experience based on critical understanding of employee wants and needs. Leadership teams should focus on working out a suitable system which will keep a healthy culture and working dynamic alive to provide equal benefit for all workers, regardless of where they work from. By creating a fair and enjoyable employee experience, leaders are likely to observe positive business results driven by positive employee attitudes.