June 2024
The Research
& Insights Team
Employees no longer go to the office by default: only a small proportion of those we have surveyed go in five days a week. So why should your organisation invest in its workplaces and make them great?
For many employees, the office was the only place of work pre-pandemic. Most didn’t question their daily commute and expected little else from the office apart from a place to work.
Post-pandemic the office remains part of an employee’s workplace infrastructure, but in the hybrid world, there are other places of work as well. Such as the home, which has shown it can support parts of work much better than the office.
The stark but unavoidable truth is that the average home supports the average knowledge worker better than the average office.
In other words, despite being designed solely to support work, offices are unable to compete with homes designed for domestic living. It also means expectations of what an office should deliver are now higher than ever before. Workplaces that are not fit for basic purposes of work lead to poor employee experience and affect both performance and engagement.
EDGE Technology Group, Amsterdam
This is particularly true for employees with high-complexity roles, whose work includes a wide range of activities. Our data has shown average workplaces are particularly bad at supporting these types of roles, with the workplace experience decreasing as complexity increases. In Leesman+ workplaces, in contrast, the experience is more consistent, and employees with the highest complexity have the highest Lmi.
Workplaces therefore need to provide a seamless hybrid working experience for all users, contributing to organisational success.
Based on our data, we’ve identified four key areas where great workplaces bring critical organisational benefits. They are:
The key question then is, does an outstanding workplace help bring people back to the office? Well, it may, or may not. We have found many factors beyond workplace experience influence how often people use the office, including ease of commute and how well their home and other places support what they do.
So, an outstanding workplace doesn’t necessarily mean your employees will be there more often. But it does mean they will have a better experience when they are. What’s more, pride is a lasting sentiment – meaning employees can be proud of the workplace even when working from home.
Read Power of Place
Our latest research uncovers the key features where outstanding workplaces bring critical business benefits in an aim to show how workplaces can go from average to outstanding.
