Private Office or Hot Desk – Your Employees Have a Lot to Say about It
Anna A. Tavis, PhD
Department Chair, @ NYU, SPS | Clinical Professor, Human Capital Management
What sets this pandemic apart from the earlier crises is the abundance of data being collected on employees, their attitudes, reactions and intentions.??Those companies that had invested in building out their?People Analytics?functions before the pandemic reaped the benefits of getting the right data at the right time and adjusting their decisions accordingly.??External surveys served as important benchmarks as well. Listening to employees cannot not slow down post pandemic. Data has to inform organization decisions from the return to the office to the right kinds of desk arrangements that make the return to the office safe and more palatable.??
The high tide of surveys focusing on the return to the office decisions is ebbing. Most employers have made up their minds about the immediate?back to the office?work policies. Today, a longer term set of issues surfaces and needs to get HR attention:??addressing??employees’ preferences for the work space is one of them followed by the state of office maintenance and hygiene.?
Morning Consult ?recently??published the results of their?back to the office?employee survey.??Employee responses regarding the types of work spaces they prefer warrants attention.?
Here are the highlights:?
·??????Having?privacy?is at a premium. The top choice of the employees is to have a private office, preferably with a door. (81%)
·???????The least popular option is the idea of the?hot desk?where multiple employees take turns on different days taking any desk that happens to be available.?44%?of employees are saying absolutely no with?43%?being somewhat comfortable.?
·??????Assigned desks?are preferred by?68%?of employees with only 17% wanting to be office “nomads.” Stability and continuity seem to appeal a lot more.??
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·??????Open plan office?set up got mixed reviews with total of 52% saying they would be comfortable with this set up while only 23% agreed that they would be “very comfortable.”?
·??????Co-working places?have lost their appeal, at least for now tracking at 51% of satisfaction.?
As employers need to consider the redesign of the office footprint, employees’ reactions and preferences should be taken into account?
If office redesign is not in the budget in the near future, an easy fix for companies is to increase the levels of cleanliness and number of people in the office.??The overwhelming majority of employees (70%)??would expect increase attention to maintenance,??limiting group size ( 61%), maintaining social distance in communal places ( 59%), required vaccinations (55%) and phased employee return (55%).[1]
Transforming lives through learning.
3 年Interesting and insightful article, Anna. Thank you for sharing. As someone who personally uses a hot desk as a remote employee, I would LOVE an office. But we'll see if the majority of employees get their wish. Your findings also shed light, I believe, on where we are in our Return to Work journey. Operational considerations are clearly top of mind right now. I'm curious when all is said and done where that will leave leaders and managers in our 'new reality'. Do you believe that addressing the interpersonal implications regarding shifting work patterns and employee demands will come next? Or will it be something else? I ask in light of the insights HBR recently shared on what's challenging middle managers right now: https://hbr-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/hbr.org/amp/2021/05/its-time-to-free-the-middle-manager. Eager to hear your take!
Founder/Director at BALLROOM BASIX
3 年Congratulations on an insightful article, Anna! ??
Global Brand and PR C-Suite and Social Impact Leader, Consultant, Speaker,Professor, Arts and Culture Enthusiast, Creator 90-Second You?& Global Brand Convergence?
3 年Interesting! I recall years ago when benchmarking a huge company in nyc no one had an office there. People used a locker to put their stuff and shared desks with others when they came in which was irregular. You had a phone and a laptop. This was in the very early days of remote working. Long story short for a multitude of issues this failed. And they went back to each person having their own real estate.whether it was a desk or yes even an office. And also requiring coming in with regularity to the office. Studs Terkel wrote about this. That people would miss all the “ schmoozing” the chit chat around the water cooler. The chance meeting and salutation in the hallway. All those spontaneous and little interactions that make the environment of work. What will happen to that?
Author The Office is Dead, Now What? | Executive Coach | Talent Strategist | Optimizing business performance at the intersection of strategy and talent.
3 年Another insightful article Anna highlighting just how complex our organizations are becoming. Now is a great time to expand our #hrleadership to collaborate with #cfos and #corporaterealestate on innovative solutions that are both physically and psychologically safe.
Mountain West Specification Manager - Cooper Lighting Solutions
3 年@ @Lm