Key Stats and Insights from Our Annual Workplace Report 2019/20

In our Annual Workplace Report, we surveyed over 2,000 British employees to better understand the current concerns and expectations surrounding workplace design. The results have provided us with valuable insight into the demands of different working styles and industries, the role of office design in attracting and retaining talent, the impact office design has on employee wellbeing and the future of workplace design.

Open plan vs. private workspaces

The debate between open plan offices and private workspaces continues. So, we posed the question to our audience and unsurprisingly, the result was split. The majority of British employees demonstrated a strong preference towards an allocated work station in an open plan office or an entirely private work station. To be precise, 43% of employees preferred an allocated work station in an open plan office and 34% preferred a completely private workspace. While this is far from an overwhelming majority, open plan workspaces came out on top.

In stark contrast, only 8% of people would prefer a non-allocated work station. Perhaps the question then, is not whether employees would prefer an open plan office or a private workspace, but instead whether they would prefer an allocated or non-allocated desk.

Shift towards collaborative ways of working

Surprisingly, a significant number of respondents in the legal and retail sectors demonstrated a preference towards collaborative workspaces. 37% of employees in the legal sector and 44% of employees in the real estate sector stated their preferred workspace is as an allocated workstation in an open plan workspace.

In the words of our Creative Director, Nic Pryke, “We are inherently social beings. When we come together, a type of creative energy is formed.  These interactions combine to form a mutually supportive environment that generates energy and sparks creativity, collaboration and innovation.”

Collaboration is fundamental to human nature and a key contributor to business success. An office designed to promote connectivity between employees helps facilitate collaboration and the sharing of ideas.  While the legal sector has been slow to adopt collaborative working processes, the competitive edge it provides is hard to ignore. Clearly, collaborative working is spreading to sectors we would have never previously expected if from and we’re excited to see how this continues to evolve.

79% of respondents across the entire survey stated a well-designed workplace would impact their opinion when looking for a job. Designing an office that focusses on aesthetics, as well as ergonomics, is key for companies looking to attract and retain top talent.

What’s more, first impressions don’t only impact the opinion of potential employees. 85% of respondents agreed that visitors and clients make a judgement of a business based on its workplace. Evidently, from these results, we can confidently agree that office design is a valuable and persuasive business asset. So, be sure to invest in it wisely.

Our survey shows that uncomfortable temperature, lack of natural light, noise levels, bad internal light and poor tech/equipment are the top workplace wellbeing concerns amongst British employees.

Investing in an office design that works to combat these issues will benefit your people and, in-turn, your company. A company that invests in wellbeing will reduce employee absenteeism, increase productivity, enhance company culture and support employee retention.

The popularity of coworking spaces continues to rise

Its no secret that coworking spaces have become increasingly popular. Once just for start-ups, coworking spaces are now frequented by freelancers, small businesses and large corporations. It is widely predicted that the coworking trend will continue to grow. Our Creative Director, Nic Pryke, suspects the future of coworking design will “spring out of words like immersive, interactive and digital,“ but exactly how this will manifest is still to be seen.

Sleep pods are the latest workplace design trend

In the business world, sleep-deprivation has been a long-standing trend. Now, the narrative is starting to change.

From nap-pillows to sleeping pods, calming sprays to sleep coaches – there has been an obvious rise in products attempting to beat exhaustion.

Google has installed sleep pods in its offices, Nike’s headquarters now features sleep and meditation rooms and we recently installed sleeping pods in Gymshark’s new headquarters in Solihull.

In our annual workplace report, 29% of employees said they would use a sleep pod if it were available in their workplace. We predict this number will continue to rise as the presence of sleep pods in the workplace is normalised, especially in industries where employees are on-call around the clock. Believe us, sleep pods are here to stay.

Interested in how our findings can benefit your workplace? Get in touch to speak with one of our office design experts to find out more.