Although many companies have announced the return of employees to corporate office spaces and are striving to achieve full occupancy, findings from Colliers’ latest survey have shown the ideal occupancy for working environments.
Data shows that in most companies today, offices are less than half occupied more than 80% of the time. They are located in quiet zones that discourage employees from visiting the office. "The result is then a vicious circle: under-occupied offices do not entice employees to return, and this further reduces their attractiveness. The spaces remain even emptier, thus slowly losing their basic purpose – to be a place that promotes collaboration and corporate culture," comments Jana Vlková, Director of Workplace Advisory and Office Agency at Colliers.
"In a group of four workstations, occupancy of two to three of them provides ample opportunity for social interaction as well as space for focused work," according to Colliers research. This state of affairs not only allows employees to collaborate better, but also to choose the appropriate work environment.
According to the survey, offices with less than 50 per cent occupancy appear dead and silent, lacking energy and impetus for social interaction and collaboration. And offices with occupancy rates above 85% are too busy and lose the flexibility that is crucial for hybrid working. Hence, the ideal occupancy ranges between 50% and 80%. It enables the office to become a vibrant workspace, offering ideal conditions for spontaneous collaboration.
A model example shows that if a company guaranteed a workstation for only 700 out of 1,000 employees, the proportion of quiet days would fall from 83% to 38%, while the number of lively days would rise from 16% to 56%. The result would therefore be 2.5 times more vitality. "This example shows that if companies focus on how people communicate and collaborate instead of trying to make the most of every inch of space, they will achieve significantly better results," adds Jana Vlková, noting that practice shows that the ideal solution is to reduce the number of workstations by a third.
Companies that want to succeed should not seek to return to the workplace model of 2019. Instead, they should embrace the vibrant office concept – working in a space designed for optimal interpersonal interaction and where the use of space is backed by data on what truly motivates employee attendance and engagement.
