Peaks and troughs; managing workplace demand across the week | How It Was...
Over the next two articles in our News and Insights series we look at how workplace demand
Although we have all experienced first-hand from a qualitative perspective ‘how it was’; in order to better understand ‘how it could be’, quantitative data is key.? This can help us to understand the change in workplace demand and how this could shape our future workplaces.
Pre-Covid, 60% of employees spent more than 4 hours a day in the office for 5 days of the week.? This data is supported by Squaredot research, collated over a number of years from ?more than 36 studies and then taking into account the responses of 32,500 employees.? To broaden this picture, 81% of employees had an assigned desk and desk occupancy averaged at 50%, peaking at 72% on busier days.
In March 2020 everything changed when 49.2% of employed adults were required to work from home.? At first, for many but by no means all, the novelty produced ‘good results’, with 76% identifying that their work-life balance
However, out of this, we have all been exposed more broadly to various ways of working and a variety of locations and settings for undertaking specific tasks, depending on need and demand.? Equally we have likely individually assessed the pros and cons of our own situation and selections with many ‘work from home’ settings comparable or better than workplace provision in terms of privacy, acoustic control and technology integration
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This brings us to the model of ‘Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays’, coined early on as people started to return to the physical workplace, however the theme seems to have stuck in some form.? Not to say this is the hard and fast rule for every business, far from it, however it is certainly detectable when visiting workplaces throughout a working week, trying to connect with colleagues or even within city CBD’s.? Mondays and Fridays, visibly quieter and Thursday evening ‘the new Friday / the last days of Rome’
The data backs up real-life experience within the built environment whereby there are very much ‘peaks and troughs’ throughout the week.? Can these peaks in demand be flattened; do they need to be?? In our next article, we will look to the future, how things are currently and how they could be.
Business Development Manager @ McCarthys | New Business Development
5 个月Great report guys! ??
Workplace consultant with 25+ years of experience in using technology to turn offices into dynamic, efficient, and happy workplaces
5 个月Really interesting. 5 days a week pre Covid is a myth IMHO and much of the data and demand in the last 18 months that we have collected strongly points to a practical workplace… great report though