October 2024
Leesman Research & Insights Team
If you are a corporate real estate decision-maker contemplating assigned versus unassigned strategies, you’re probably already grappling with a host of considerations.
What, for example, are the financial implications of maintaining under-utilised desks? And how will your decision impact employees and their own choices about coming into the office? Our latest research project, The Value of Variety, compares three different types of workplaces: assigned, unassigned with good variety of workspace, and unassigned with poor variety. While those with an assigned strategy had the highest scores across 17 lines of enquiry in our employee experience survey, unassigned with good variety outperformed the other two across 71 of the 88 lines of enquiry. Unassigned with poor variety consistently had the poorest performance overall.
So, will employees visit the office more frequently if they have a desk assigned to them? Our data shows slightly higher office attendance in assigned workplaces. For example, 15% of employees in assigned workplaces work full-time in the office, compared to only 5% in unassigned workplaces. On average then, unassigned workplaces with good variety provide a better experience for employees, while office attendance is higher in assigned workplaces. But what should you prioritise: increasing occupancy or maximising employee experience?
Why should you choose an assigned approach?
As Leesman has long argued, we shouldn’t be overly concerned about how to get employees to spend more time in the office. Instead, the focus should be on ensuring everyone has an outstanding experience when there, whether for five days a week or significantly less.
Based on our workplace experience data gathered from 411,275 employees, there are some aspects of workplace experience that assigned workplaces are better at supporting.
The biggest advantage is personalisation. On average 55% of employees are satisfied with ‘Ability to personalise my workstation’. That is 32 percentage points (pp) more than across unassigned workplaces with poor variety (23%), and 21pp higher than those with good variety (34%).
The second biggest advantage relates to storage. Even though personal storage can be successfully organised in unassigned settings, the data suggest personal storage is at its best when it is, well, personal. In assigned workplaces, on average 60% of employees are satisfied with ‘personal storage’, compared to 51% in unassigned workplaces with good variety.
Having a permanent desk can help maintain a sense of familiarity and stability; you know where to go when you arrive in the morning, and where to park your bag for the day.
Being able to store and display personal items like family photos or plants can provide emotional support during stressful days, and enhance a sense of ownership of the workspace. This becomes even more important in hybrid working, where employees work from a fully customisable home environment as well. Personalisation also offers ergonomic benefits, as users adjust work settings according to their exact needs and preferences.
However, in terms of whether assigned workplaces are generally better at supporting concentrated work, the jury is still out. The highest support score for ‘Individual focused work, desk-based’ is in workplaces with an assigned strategy – but only by a 3pp margin to unassigned workplaces with good variety. And, when we look at whether the workplace enables employees to work productively in a solo capacity, on average, assigned workplaces score at the same level as unassigned workplaces with good variety (72% Vs 73%).
Why should you choose an unassigned approach?
Not all unassigned workplaces are the same: unassigned strategies can deliver either the best or poorest experience. The main differentiator is whether the office provides workspaces that support different types of activities and personal preferences.
The gap between average Lmi scores for unassigned workplaces with good and poor variety is wide (72.8 and 63.1); 65% of workplaces with good variety score an Lmi ≥70.0, compared to just 17% across those with poor variety. A shocking 33% of workplaces with poor variety have an Lmi <60.0; only 4% of ones with good variety score this poorly.
On average, 72% of employees in unassigned workplaces with good variety are proud of their workplace; 77% find their workplace enjoyable to work in; and 72% think their workplace has a positive impact on their overall wellbeing.
In stark contrast, just 48% of employees in unassigned workplaces with poor variety are proud of their workplace; 58% find their workplace enjoyable to work in; and only 54% think their workplace has a positive impact on their overall wellbeing.
The evidence is clear: if you are choosing an unassigned approach, ignoring the need for a variety of workspaces is not an option.
When you get the variety right, unassigned workplaces also either outperform or are on par with average workplaces with assigned desks in many aspects.
For example, unassigned workplaces with good variety provide better support for activities related to the social aspects of work, such as ‘relaxing/taking a break’ (80% support on average in unassigned with good variety, compared to 66% in assigned); ‘informal social interaction’ (89% versus 80%); and ‘private conversations’ (70% versus 63%).
Employees are also more likely to be proud of their workplace (72% compared to 57%) and think it has a positive impact on both corporate image (78% compared to 63%) and workplace culture (75% compared to 65%).
What this means is that if you are considering transitioning from assigned to unassigned desks, perhaps because of space utilisation or cost reasons, you don’t need to compromise on employee experience – so long as you do it with variety in mind.
There is no blueprint for the right variety, of course. It will vary from organisation to organisation, function to function, and even from one employee to another. But, one thing is certain: to create the best possible workplace for your employees, a detailed understanding of their work profiles and needs is essential.
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