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 (available in German), 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?
98 percent of the respondents 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.
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. Topics such as health and wellbeing are becoming more important, while the young generation of employees has a number of other expectations of employers and office concepts.
You can read more about the results of this year's Workspace Benchmark Report in our press release.
The Workspace Benchmark Report 2023 can be downloaded (in German) at: www.dreso.com/de/workspace-benchmark-report.