The People Bulletin

Shortly after George Osborne was reported as having led the way in cutting overheads by shoehorning Treasury staff into smaller desks,[1]the RICS reported a drop in office property demand in its third Commercial Market Survey or 2010[2]. However, does the sardine approach to office occupancy make for greater efficiency and productivity?

An increasing number of European employees do not consider that they even need to be in an office setting to be productive. British Institute of Facilities Management’s timely survey on ‘The role of workplace environments in a post-recessional British Economy’ confirms this, and provides some clues about the longer-term trends in office occupancy.

The research was conducted using an eight-question e-survey with responses from BIFM’s membership and those involved in the design or management of workplace environments in early October 2010 and is based on 262 responses.  The key findings were:

• 71% positively supported the notion of the corporate workplace as ‘a strategic asset in the development of the organisation.’
• An increasingly ageing working population is going to apply new pressures and bring new challenges for those responsible for designing and managing workplaces.
• Young leaders and middle-managers find themselves surrendering more than any other group when implementing the ‘new ways of working’ projects that bring about change.
• With many individual studies reporting peak utilisation of workplaces of around 65%, more organisations will focus on how to see more of their real estate utitlised for more of the working week.
• The key driver in strategies exploring new ways of working is allowing workers much more freedom in choosing the location best suited to the task they are undertaking.
• Managers will have to shift from traditional ‘supervision’ relationships to those founded in ‘trust’.

Ian Fielder, chief executive of BIFM, told The People Bulletin "workplace utilisation is a fundamental opportunity for facilities managers to add value to business, making the asset sweat must not be confused with unsatisfactory occupancy levels that impact efficiency."

The survey can be viewed by downloading the PDF on this page of BIFM’s website

See also Laurence Dunn’s article ‘Flexible friends’ in The People Bulletin, 27 August 2009

[1]  www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7922782/Treasury-civil-servants-to-work-at-smaller-desks-in-latest-austerity-drive.html

[2]  www.rics.org/site/scripts/downloads.aspx?categoryID=705