There are varying opinions by today’s workers about the “open office” environment. Multiple recent surveys of people in open workspaces found noise, distractions, and lack of privacy and personal space consistently cited as the biggest complaints in this new norm.
As a result, those who work in open environments say they often feel less productive. A 2017 anonymous poll of 700 “high-performance” employees across a range of industries found that 54% of respondents felt their office environment was too distracting, and 58% said they needed more private spaces for “problem solving.”
Does this mean that open office environments just don’t work? Is this a passing trend, or can open offices be created in such a way that they improve efficiency and benefit the organization as whole? We did our own research of more than 260 current workers in Ohio and Pennsylvania in 2018, as we wanted to find out how important the physical environment really is to overall happiness – not to mention attraction and retention.
As it turns out, it’s extremely important! When asked how much the physical work environment affects peoples’ overall happiness, respondents ranked it an “8 out of 10” on average, with 10 being the most important value. What we found is nearly one-fourth of today’s workforce said the physical space within which they work affects their decision to stay with or leave an organization.
So, how is Continental Office able to help organizations overcome some of the difficulties or challenges they encounter with their open office environments? To find out more about this study and what we’re doing to help our clients make the most of their spaces (open office or otherwise), check out our latest issue of Great Spaces, the award-winning publication that takes a deep-dive into office environments and the future of working spaces.
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