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What part does place play in employee experience? 

The Hybrid Landscape

Though hybrid working is undoubtedly here to stay, there exists a wide spectrum of different types of hybrid working. Post-pandemic workplace surveys show a striking reality: only two out of five meet the criteria for outstanding workplaces, while the majority fall short of providing a truly great experience for their employees. We examined the outstanding workplaces that attained Leesman+ certification, scrutinising not only the value these workplaces offer to organisations in a hybrid working world but also the strategies they employed to achieve and maintain such excellence.

Why do you need an outstanding workplace in a hybrid working world?

Even in a hybrid working world, the office is a fundamental part of an employee’s work infrastructure, and it has a significant impact on their overall experience. But there are also other places of work. Like the home, which has shown it can support some parts of an employee’s work much better than the office does.

This emphasizes the glaring issues of offices, originally designed for the sole purpose of supporting work when homes designed for domestic living rank better in many aspects. We’ve now identified four key areas where workplaces can excel while bringing critical organisational benefits, compared to workplaces that are just average.




01
Pride and image

Hybrid working has the potential risk of diminishing the shared organisational identity.

Consequently, workplaces must work even harder now to create lasting impressions on their users, ensuring that even after the shortest of visits, employees will carry with them the effects of pride. Pride stands as the biggest advantage of an outstanding workplace experience, prompting the question: What factors contribute to employees’ sense of pride?




02
Privacy and concentration

Homes that brilliantly enable productive working have raised employees’ expectations of their offices.

While the average office is struggling to compete with the many things that the home has shown it can do better, our data shows that great workplaces support activities requiring concentration and privacy at a similar level as the home does. The need for focused work remains present in the office as most workdays require a mix of high focus and collaboration work.




03
Community and working together

Fostering an inclusive sense of community is vital for a cohesive and connected workforce.

When many employees work from different locations, work becomes largely asynchronous, making it crucial that the office supports working together in all its forms. In great workplaces, you don’t have to choose between supporting ‘me’ or ‘we’ activities when our data shows that it’s possible to successfully support both, with nearly nine out of 10 employees in Leesman+ workplaces saying they are supported across collaborative work.




04
Enjoyable place

Employees today have various options of where to work, so why go to a place that isn’t enjoyable?

In the hybrid age, the office competes to some extent against the most familiar and comfortable place there is – home. This competition emphasises the importance of workplaces being not only functional but also enjoyable environments. Only 61% of employees in good workplaces think their office is an enjoyable place to work in, while 82% enjoy using their office in Leesman+ workplaces.



How do you go from average to outstanding?

It begins with identifying the critical features to invest in. By examining the features where Leesman+ workplaces exhibit the most significant differences in satisfaction compared to Enabler workplaces, we can understand what it takes to elevate a workplace from good to great. We firmly believe that the focus should be on ensuring the best possible workplace experience for all individuals, regardless of how often they go there.

Attendance rate is no longer the primary metric of success, and as organisations navigate the uncertain terrain of a hybrid working world, redirecting the focus back to the employee experience is critical to business success. So, how can organisations ensure that, regardless of how often their offices are being used, they exceed employees’ expectations while helping to achieve business objectives?

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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.

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