Stuttgart, Germany, November 23, 2023. For a long time, the office was the center of knowledge working. Nowadays, remote working has become the norm for many employees. Workers value the flexibility and the improved work-life balance it offers. On the downside are vacant offices and unused workspaces and desks. In this year’s Drees & Sommer Workspace Benchmark Report, more than half of the respondents said their office occupancy is 50 percent or less, and 63 percent said they expect to reduce their space in the future. When consolidating their office area, the question on the minds of many company managers is: how can I create an office that works like a magnet for staff?
According to a survey carried out by the ifo Institute for Economic Research1, 25 percent of all employees in Germany worked at least partly from home in August 2023. And in some fields of the service sector the percentage of those who work remotely is as high as 70 percent2. 98 percent of the respondents of Drees & Sommer’s Workspace Benchmark Report 2023 think that remote working will become an integral part of the working world. As many as 63 percent of the survey participants expect a reduction in floor space per person. The majority of them anticipate a reduction in floor area between 21 and 30 percent. 82 percent of those surveyed already make use of a desk-sharing principle in their companies. This figure is 16 percent higher than a year ago and significantly above the percentage of 2021, when only 52 percent of the respondents were sharing their workstations.
Swapping Space for Quality
Unused office spaces are expensive, and many companies have already responded to this challenge. Sven Mylius, Associate Partner and expert for New Work design at Drees & Sommer SE explained: “A company might give up offices in, for instance, two or more grade B locations, and merge them at a smaller grade A location to create a more attractive space.” The results of this year’s survey reinforce the importance of the office as a modern working environment, designed to be not just functional but, above all, to promote social contact and collaborative working. The main reasons for going into the office are in-person communication with clients and colleagues, formal and informal meetings, and teamwork.
People Go into the Office to Meet People
As already found by the previous year’s survey, employees allowed to work remotely on two to three days are taking advantage of the opportunity to do so. Staff who have the opportunity to work remotely on four or five days per week generally only do so on three days per week – in other words, they are going into the office voluntarily. “A good balance between personal interaction in the office and the flexibility of remote working enables staff to divide their time themselves and to work where they are most productive. This requires office space that supports different activities and a management style based on openness, trust and communication,” said New Work expert Sven Mylius.
Health and Wellbeing are Getting More and More Important
Employees are looking for a working environment that supports their health and wellbeing, starting from the flexibility of work models, through design and layout of office space to management, communication and corporate culture. These issues are closely linked and form the basis for a sound and productive working environment. According to 82 percent of those surveyed, the topics of health and wellbeing are important and gaining in significance.
However, companies’ management and strategic policies are not dealing adequately with the issue of how to encourage staff back into the office. Concrete figures are needed to show senior managers that health and wellbeing are important. For instance, a scoring system can be used to measure soft factors such as health and wellbeing and to link measures to improve health and wellbeing with key financial figures, such as productivity, staff turnover and retention.
Young Generation Demands Flexibility, Equipment and Culture
Sven Mylius commented: “One of the most striking changes in the world of work is the integration of the next generation. Young people bring with them a unique perspective and a number of specific expectations of employers in terms of office design.” These include more flexibility, desk-sharing models and identification with the office, as well as a commitment to diversity and team building. Thirty-eight percent of all respondents are already changing their office designs with the needs of the new generation in mind, or they expect to do so in the future. “Companies that place emphasis on flexibility, interior design and culture are among the trailblazers, and they are making themselves highly attractive as employers among young employees and future staff members,“ continued the expert.
Awareness for New Work Is on the Rise
Overall, awareness of change in the world of work is growing. Ninety-one percent of the participants believe it is very important to have a strategy for dealing with new workspaces in the future. Of these, 45 percent have already developed a complete strategy as part of their corporate strategy. The New Work specialist summed up: “Even if other places complement the office as a place of work, it will continue to be equipped for the future. The important thing is not the size of the space, but its quality and location. The office of the future will be a magnet for employees; it will attract them because it is voluntary, it adds value and it increases intrinsic motivation. An attractive, technically optimized and healthy working environment tailored to the needs of employees will attract staff into the office and so improve staff retention.”
About the Workspace Benchmark Report 2023:
A total of 181 managers from different companies and around twenty different sectors participated in an anonymous survey in August and September 2023. 37 percent of those surveyed work in companies with more than 1,500 employees, 31 percent in mid-sized enterprises with a workforce of between 201 and 1,500 people. And 32 percent represent smaller firms with 50 to 200 staff members. Eighty percent of the respondents were from the automotive sector, information and communication technology (ICT) industry, public administration, property companies and other industrial fields. The Workspace Benchmark Report 2023 can be downloaded (in German) at: www.dreso.com/de/workspace-benchmark-report.
1https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/sd-2023-10-alipour-homeoffice.pdf
2https://www.ifo.de/fakten/2023-05-10/beschaeftigte-kehren-nur-zoegerlich-ins-buero-zurueck