Office experience plays a crucial role in employee engagement and productivity

Research reaffirms the great importance of working in the office and the major influence of the office experience on employee engagement and productivity. Recently, Steelcase conducted a global survey to investigate employee experiences, needs, and expectations. Especially with regard to working in the office versus working from home.

There are three key findings that emerge in the study.

1- The office plays a crucial role in how people relate to their organization

The office plays a crucial role in how people relate to their organization. When people like to work from their offices, they're more:

• Involved
• Productive
• Connected to the organization's culture
• More willing to stay longer working for the organization

The research analyzed a wide range of factors that influence engagement, productivity, corporate culture and retention. They looked at issues that many organizations are currently working on, such as income and offering hybrid work. Other factors were also considered, such as commuting, company employment and company size. The factor that most affected engagement, productivity, and the sense of belonging to the culture is when people enjoy working in the office. Employee retention is most affected by their employment with the organization — followed by whether they enjoy working in the office.

Nearly all employees (87%) will be working in the office for at least part of their week, so whether they like to be there or not has a significant impact. If you, as an organization, can improve the office experience, change the perception of people without preference, and convince a number of people who currently prefer home, this could offer a return on investment in terms of increased engagement, productivity, organizational connectedness, and employee retention. By changing the work environment and giving people more of what they need and expect, organizations can create a better work experience and improve these outcomes.

2 employees want to exchange working days from home for their own office workspace

People are willing to trade working from home for a private office workspace — while they want the autonomy and flexibility of hybrid work, employees are looking for choice and control and a sense of belonging.

Even before corona, there was already a lot of discussion about the open office. Employees who no longer had their own desks sometimes found it liberating to work from anywhere, but they also felt uneasy when they did not have a clear place in the office.

Organizations are responding to people's desire for flexibility and privacy by offering hybrid work options that can provide a level of autonomy that many people didn't experience before the pandemic. Around 42% never worked from home and 20% did so occasionally. But hybrid work options alone don't meet the overall needs of employees. In fact, people are willing to trade working from home for more privacy, comfort, and control in the office. More employees said they would rather have their own desk in the office than work from home for many days.

3- Employees want the office to help them collaborate and focus

Availability of concentration/private spaces in the office is more important than ever. People want their office to help them collaborate and focus. Without a doubt, using the workplace to build relationships is critical to creating a strong culture and helping people feel a sense of belonging. But the office has to do much more than that. People are spending more time than ever on video calls, which has revolutionized the way work takes place. Employees also need spaces designed to support this new way of working.

It makes sense that when people have to work with others, they choose to go to the office. That's why many experts say the office will be a destination for collaboration and bringing people together, assuming that people will do individually-focused work at home. The only problem is that it doesn't work that way. Working weeks are not neatly divided into collaborative days and focus days — people do both group and individual work all day long. Effective collaboration is a combination of working together and working individually. And for most people, commuting makes it impractical to switch back and forth between the office and home all day, which means people will struggle to be productive if the workplace has no facilities for privacy. Collaboration can draw employees to the office, but if employees can't do individually-focused work there, they'll have trouble feeling productive after they've made the commute.

Get to know Akoesta's effective approach
We are convinced that the work environment contributes significantly to the health, productivity and happiness of employees. Happy spaces make for happy faces. That's why we're happy to advise you how the right acoustic solution can transform your office into a place where employees, business contacts and, of course, you can stay acoustically comfortable.

Every situation and space is different and requires a specific approach. The effective Akoesta's approach covers all aspects of acoustics such as acoustic measurements, acoustic advice, 3D visualizations and editing. Akoesta creates customized acoustic solutions and has a wide range of acoustic products for work environments.

Want to know more?
Do you also want to create a comfortable work environment by improving acoustics? Let us know. Or check out all our acoustic solutions customized.

Source: Steel case

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