Choice for workers
Survey says employees want choices on where to focus and collaborate
A survey says design innovation in offices is a key for millennial employees.
Whether it be open and collaborative environments or a more traditional individual office model, providing choice for employees will be key to the success of the space, the Gensler U.S. Workplace Survey 2016 says.
“Howdoyoumeasure innovation top line and bottom line? You have to have the environment that supports it,” said Drew Jones of Open WorkAgency, who moderated a Gensler panel about the future workplace.
“Starbucks is the largest workplace in the world,” he added. “People pay for membership one latte at a time. Whyare those elements not in our office? The social churn and the atmosphere that can make us quite productive. The starting point is to embrace design thinking with innovation. Without this, all the rest is extremely challenging.”
Co-working spaces emerged as the millennial workforce began to dominate office culture. The new report found, however, that the key is choice for a worker. There is an equal need for places to focus and isolate and for places to collaborate with peers.
The Gensler report surveyed 4,000 professionals to take a pulse of the workplace from 11 industries and across different levels at U.S. companies. The report found employees in workplaces that prioritize both individual and group work are five times more likely to rank their companies as innovative, yet just 38 percent of companies do so.
Officespaces that ranked well on the innovative ranking use sitting and standing desks, report choice in when/ where to work, have coffee on-site, use conference rooms to socialize, have cafes on-site and use outdoor spaces.
“Aterrific workplace aligns with the companies that are the most innovative,” said Gensler’s Dean Strombom, whoreleased the results of the report Wednesday.
“Great workplace design does drive creativity and innovation.”