“Breakout areas have become an increasingly popular component of modern workplace design. A well designed and well equipped breakout zone can be utilised in a number of ways often acting as the hub of the office, encouraging staff interaction, increasing morale, stimulating internal communication and offering a space for both psychological and physical restoration.

But whilst the potential of this space can be vast, lack of consideration for certain design aspects such as location, noise, furniture, function and the integration of the space with company culture, can all affect the success of the zone.”

CLICK HERE to read the online article on the FMX website

But one of the most overlooked ways to reduce expenditure has to be wasted space. It seems now that we are finally coming to terms with the fact that most of our offices are only ever half full, but this remains a huge, yet obvious cost to be addressed.

Empty desks = Expenditure

Yesterday, in a report from The Independent, research from the property company, DeVono stated that £42 million pound a year is wasted on the office space we don’t use. However, it is highly likely that real total is a great deal higher.

In the report, Adam Landau, director of DeVono Property stated: “The industry accepted standard of 100 sq ft per person when measuring office space is an over calculation by between 10 and 15 per cent.

“For far too long, it has become widely practised and accepted that office space measurements should be based on this. But having consulted with architects, building designers and our experience from acting for office occupiers, office space should be calculated at no more than between 85 and 90 square feet per person.”

Whilst square footage is one indicator of wasted space, the cost of British wastage is likely to be far higher than this, as there are many other areas to consider. These can only truly be revealed after a thorough occupancy audit.

An occupancy audit will analyse the day-to-day usage of your workspace offering an insight into who uses what, when and how. The results of which will illustrate exactly how the space you have can be condensed to suit the needs of your employees.

To give an example, consider four members of staff in one office, each of which have their own desk. When you take into consideration that one is part time, two work from home (twice a week), one travels overseas frequently, and all are repeatedly in meetings – it is probably a rare sight to see more than one in the office at any given time. When you consider this on grand scale, it becomes clear why most offices rarely utilise more than 50% of the space they occupy, as two or even one desk can easily accommodate the needs of such workers.

Let Us Audit YOUR Office- For FREE

The office is no longer an environment where all employees continuously occupy a workstation. As technology advances, so do the trends in how and where we work. From mobile technology to cloud computing, the boundaries of what we define as a ‘workspace’ are ever changing. However, whilst we aware of such changes, many organisations misjudge the big picture when it comes to occupancy levels, and have not adapted the office to move with these changes.

At PiMS Workspace, we are offering businesses the opportunity to see clearly how their offices are being utilised with a free Office Occupancy Audit Service. This allows organisations to understand exactly how their office is occupied through the regular monitoring of each workstation and office facility, offering an insight into the frequency of its use.

PiMS Workspace’s audits are based around an in-depth analysis of every area of the building with a regular assessment of the building’s overall occupancy. The audit investigates the working behaviour of each member of staff taking into consideration their organisational department, the nature of their work and the regularity of their tasks as well as the working culture specific to that particular organisation.

With an office workstation in the UK costing between £5,000 and £20,000 per year, the benefits of consolidating space to fit requirement are clear.  By measuring and managing occupancy the average employer can save at least £2,000 per employee per year.

The results of an occupation audit present a wealth of information, offering businesses the insight to understand and harness the true potential of their working environment.

This is a great opportunity to understand how changes can be made to streamline space, drive down costs and improve carbon footprint whilst providing a working environment that focuses on the worker’s needs.

CLICK HERE to contact us to find out more about occupancy in your office and how we can help.

It’s a proven fact that now, offices are only ever 45%-50% occupied. But still, many organisations are slow to adapt their working environments to change with this. When you consider that adapting your office to cater for a more flexible workforce will streamline space, drive down costs, reduce energy expenses and improve carbon footprint, it’s a wonder that more organisations aren’t making the change.

Well, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal this week, they are. Big businesses in the US are swiftly addressing this and consolidating space to cater for the flexible, mobile approach to working. The article ‘Warming up to the Officeless Office’ stated that giants American Express, GlaxoSmithKline and PricewaterhouseCoopers are shifting large groups of workers into shared spaces and furthermore, these giants have deployed the same working methods to their UK portfolio as their US.

Instead of having designated workstations, the staff now use lockers to store their files and belongings and desks are all reserved in advance- a practice called ‘hoteling’ – so workstations are occupied on a first come first served basis.

The report claims that, at American Express 20% of the 5,000 employees in the New York office use ‘unassigned desks’ to ‘to spur creativity and save money by doing away with traditional office space. The company is reconfiguring floors of its 51-story building, at a rate of three to four floors a year, to shift more workers to unassigned workspace, and has begun a similar transition at its London and Singapore offices.’

A survey from US Facility Management Association also found the USA was advancing fast in addressing occupancy levels, with 60% of the 950 companies surveyed explaining that they had some unassigned workspaces in their offices. Half of them said the number of employees using the unassigned space had increased in the past two years.

The article continued to reveal that GlaxoSmithKline says it has saved nearly $10 million annually in real-estate costs by gradually shifting 1,200 employees at its Research Triangle Park, N.C. office to ‘unassigned seating’. Similar moves outside the U.S. have saved the U.K.-based company some £25 million ($40 million) annually, says Christian Bigsby, Glaxo’s senior vice president of world-wide real estate and facilities.’

In surveys of employees who switched from assigned cubicles and offices, Glaxo found that their internal email dropped by more than 50%, and also that decision making accelerated by some 25% because workers were able to informally meet to discuss issues rather than slowly exchange emails.

The report states: ‘Glaxo has shifted employees in 20 offices globally to unassigned seating; the company says it plans to do so wherever it redesigns office space. In Philadelphia, for example, Glaxo’s 1,300 Center City employees will move to an entirely unassigned office by next spring.’ (to read the full article in the Wall Street Journal Click HERE)

It is of course, only a matter of time until this activity based working method is considered the norm.

At PiMS Workspace, we are offering businesses the opportunity to see clearly how their offices are being utilised with a free Office Occupancy Audit Service. This allows organisations to understand exactly how their office is occupied through the regular monitoring of each workstation and office facility, offering an insight into the frequency of its use.

Contact us to find out more about occupancy in your office and how we can help

Then it’s highly likely your colleagues have already judged you…

According to new research from the US, 57% of co-workers judge each other on the way in which their desk is maintained and how tidy their space is kept.

In a survey of over by 1000 respondents (by US staffing organisation, Adecco), half of them said that they would have negative views of a colleague if their workspace was unorganised or untidy.

A third said they would see an untidy workstation as a sign of ‘laziness’ and 42% said that they would interpret an untidy desk as a sign that that particular colleague was ‘too busy’.

Jennie Dede, the Vice President of Recruitment for Adecco explains, “With so many open office plans today, more people can see into your workspace, and they do judge. It’s often personal. They think that you must be a slob in your real life.”

“Your performance coincides with your workspace,” says Dede. “When it’s organized and precise you have the mindset and motivation to work.”

Whilst the most common complaint for untidiness is being ‘too busy’, an overloaded desk often increases stress levels and will eventually cause a worker to lose documents or spend great lengths of time trying to find them. Being too busy to tidy a desk is not really an excuse for an unorganised workstation, but more likely an indication that a better system of organisation is in order.

In a way, this survey may reveal what we are already aware of- that a clear and organised space provides the right environment for efficient working. Yet like many aspects of workplace design, the benefits are often overlooked.

For more insightful ways that well-designed workspaces can increase positivity in the office, read our article on The Positive Impact of Office Design

Ping-pong tables, beanbag sofas, pool tables, arcade games with bucket seats, football tables, plasma TVs, … This may sound like the shopping list of a sixteen year-old lottery winner, but it’s not. Certain businesses are choosing to furnish their offices with items like these, following the lead of global giants such as Google. And many believe this trend is growing.

In the recently published Guardian article ‘Workplace Design- How office space is becoming fun again’, reporter Tim Smedley visited the IT organisation Melbourne, for his research on offices in the UK that are providing an entertaining and fun working environment. Here he describes the sight after entering the Melbourne office:

“Oversized flowers, like props from the Wizard of Oz, look out. Two staff are animatedly playing on an arcade machine. Passing through another door, I am in an indoor garden, a small path winding through grass upon which more “workers” are sat cross-legged, playing on an old Nintendo.

I stagger on past a living room with an open fireplace, leather chairs and chandelier; a Mad Men-style meeting room replete with early 1960s furniture. A frame of pool is in full swing. A cupboard door opens into a Narnian winter. And amid all this, people are sat at desks … doing work.”

Whilst the idea of the ‘fun’ office may appeal to many, for others it may sound like working whilst trapped inside Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland. It’s also clear that certain sectors would consider such a workplace design as inappropriate, as a more conventional office is more suitable to the subject of their business.

However, this style of office does still offer many benefits. When interviewing the owner of the business Daniel Keighron-Fosterhe, he explains:

“The idea is to make it impossible for someone to want to leave. If you look at the costs of bringing on a new person, recruitment, months before they’re fully productive … I would say the additional cost of the office is easily outweighed.”

But should the office be an impossible place to leave? And more importantly, do we actually want the office to entertain and distract us from where we are with entertainment and playground style designs?

The Guardian stated that recent research on the ‘fun office’ by property company Goodman revealed that only 3% thought that slides between floors were the future. 12% preferred sleep pods, but most interestingly 38% were most interested in simply having a better coffee machine.

Similarly, when Rackspace designed its UK office – its four floors and central atrium were just crying out for a slide – but when asked, employees said they didn’t want one.

There are clearly two sides to this debate and we’d like to know where you stand. Use the comment box below to let us know if you would choose a fun environment over a conventional office.

However, if you are planning on applying a fun design to your office workplace, here are a few basic tips to consider:

• Try to design the area -regardless of how adventurous it may be- so it will serve more than a ‘fun’ or novelty purpose. For example bean bag sofas may be considered as an amusing and comfortable form of seating- but they can also serve the purpose of an informal meeting zone or collaborative brainstorming area etc. Something madcap like rocking horse seats may look good but will have a short-lived fun factor and will provide little else in terms of function.
• Make sure you design the area with the workers requirements in mind. If the space is intended primarily for meetings, console or arcade games may be a distraction, so limitations on their use may be required, (especially if the area will be used for more than one purpose).
• If you are thinking of designing your office to focus on ‘fun’ throughout the whole workspace, it would be advisable to provide an environment that would offer a break from the theme in areas such as booths, or in quiet zones.
• If you add a specific area for fun or entertainment, place it in a location where the workers will not distract those remaining at their desks. You could use soft furnishings such as padded sofas, seating and cushioning to absorb sound. Hard surfaces such as wood can cause the noise level to increase dramatically.
• Consult workers on what they want. If you are designing an area that is intended for de-stressing or entertaining – don’t take a guess at what they would like. Make sure ‘ping pong’ or table football is a popular choice before any purchases are made.

“Designing a sustainable office will help companies lower their impact on the environment, save money, increase productivity and boost the image of the organisation.” Martin Atkinson explains how to give your office a green makeover in an article with Greenbuild Magazine…

CLICK HERE to read the online version of the article.

Samantha joins PiMS Workspace with a wealth of experience in the facilities management and workplace sector and will be responsible for managing our new and existing client relationships.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with PiMS Workspace in this exciting time of growth and expansion. ” Says Samantha, “I am very much looking forward to channelling the experience I have into contributing to the success of the company. I hope to provide the organisation with opportunities to grow and diversify within various sectors, whilst strengthening existing client relationships.”

Flexible working is now being encouraged to reduce travel at peak times across Whitehall, with the Olympic Games acting as a catalyst for a “more corporate” Civil Service. The changes were devised by Francis Maude, a cabinet minister, and Sir Bob Kerslake, who became the new head of the Civil Service earlier in January.

Mr Maude recently told the London Evening Standard, “The vision is to get a more collaborative way of working, a more corporate way of working in the Civil Service.

A single security pass and joined-up technology will mean that members of staff will be able to work from hot desks in almost any government building, freeing up expensive office space in London. In addition, video conferencing is also to be introduced to lessen the need to travel into work for face-to-face meetings.

Making History

As well as Civil Servants making the leap, O2 also made history last week piloting the country’s largest ever flexible working initiative. One third of the Slough HQ’s 12,000-strong workforce were involved in a flexible working pilot, with staff operating remotely for one day as the doors were shut and lights turned off at the business’ 200,000 sq ft office.

The pilot aims to take flexible working to a new level and, in advance of the Olympic games,  will help the organisation develop contingency plans to manage travel disruption and delays this summer.

O2 will share the results of this pilot with other organisations to support them with their flexibility policies and their plans for managing the impact of the disruption caused by Olympic events.

Whist working with flexibility offers many benefits, to both employer and employee, it is important to remember that workspaces will ultimately need to be adapted to cater for flexible workers. Click HERE and take a look at our article on strategies and solutions for flexible working -on the PiMS website.

Would it be the furniture that predates the wheel? The meeting room that doubles up as a stationary cupboard? Perhaps it would be the unpredictable temperature that is either stifling or fifty below? Or maybe it would be the undrinkable coffee, that even a shipwrecked Bear Grylls would refuse?

Whatever your gripe may be, here is your chance to vent your spleen. The new PiMS survey is looking at satisfaction in the workplace and the effect certain problems have on our working day.

CLICK HERE to take part in the two-minute survey and you’ll be entered into a draw to win a case of wine …

Canadian designer and manufacturer of office systems, Teknion Corporation has recently highlighted this by looking closely into the concerns and challenges associated with these changes, and how US organisations are currently adapting their workspaces to adjust to technology’s leaps.

Space utilisation

Interestingly, Teknion’s findings indicated that by 2015, workplace utilisation is expected to increase from levels between 35% and 50% (today’s office utilisation) to 85%, as the desk-to-employee ratio is addressed and space is reapportioned.

Whilst this shows various strategies of space utilisation are clearly on the increase, 2015 is arguably an unrealistic date for (UK) organisations to have 85% workplace utilisation (2020 would be a more accurate prediction for this kind of adjustment). However, Teknion found that the strategies which companies are employing to accomplish increased space utilisation include:

• 77% – Open, collaborative workspaces with fewer offices
• 62% – Densification of workspaces
• 54% – Reduce square footage footprint through disposition
• 46% – More employees working remotely, from home, satellite or client sites
• 31% – Mobile working programs including desk-sharing, hoteling or co-working spaces

BYO technology – On the increase

Perhaps one of the most interesting findings of the survey was that 41% of respondents said the number one attraction, in terms of drawing in ‘a new generation of knowledge workers’, is access to flexible workplace options. Another 39% indicated that having the most leading-edge technology was the key.

This shift from technology as the main consideration,  is a result of today’s worker being less dependent on the technology supplied by their offices as they often have better devices than those of their employer.

Whilst consumer technology is advancing more quickly than that of business, it’s no wonder today’s society is swiftly embracing a ‘bring your own technology’ culture, and companies are working to support the devices their employees are selecting.

According to recent research by IT analysts, Quocirca more than 70 per cent of Australian, European and US small businesses allow at least ‘some staff’ to use their own devices to access certain applications and data.

When asked why, many explained that they didn’t have a choice: ‘senior staff insist on using their iPhone or iPad at work, while junior workers find workarounds to bypass the IT department’s controls.’

Of course there are many challenges and issues related to BYOT (the first being security) but the positives also exist. Using your own technology may promote productive use, save the IT department money, a worker may be more creative or innovative or work more efficiently using their own tools- and offering BYOT as a staff policy may even help with recruitment and staff retention.

In essence, technology will always be a driving force in how we work and will therefore continue to pave the way for the workplace of the future. Rather than cast off technological advances, we should harness them- as understanding both the true potential and challenges is essential.