Hello and welcome to a new interview from our series “The Workplace Scoop”.
Today’s guest: Peggie Rothe. As Leesman’s Chief Insights & Research Officer Peggie was involved in the latest research “The Value of Variety.” This research used data from over 400,000 employees across nearly 1,600 workplaces, and uncovered critical insights into the effectiveness of assigned versus unassigned seating strategies. And this is our topic for our interview.
Leesman is the world leader in measuring and analysing the experiences of employees in their places of work. Lessman research equips executives at all levels to make informed decisions that allow them to mitigate risk, plan for the future, and benefit from great employee workplace experience.
Leesman is the company that created the Leesman Index.
Just as countries are ranked by their quality of life, workplaces can now be assessed using the Leesman Index. This index measures employee satisfaction and how well their workplaces support the work that they do. By analyzing factors like workplace impact and work activity support, the Leesman Index provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of different work environments. The tool works like a benchmark known as an Lmi score, ranging from 0 to 100.
This being said, let’s dive into today’s topic, with Peggie Rothe!
The Power of Workplace Variety: Unlocking the Potential of Flexible Workspaces
- Alina from Tidaro: Peggie, one conclusion from the “Value of Variety” report is that unassigned workplaces with a good variety of work settings achieve the highest employee experience scores, outperforming both assigned workplaces and those with unassigned strategies with poor variety. Could you explain what’s behind the phrase “a good variety of work settings?”
Peggie Rothe: Essentially it’s all about having a workplace that supports the different types of activities that people do.
We need workspaces that can adapt to different tasks. Whether it’s a quiet space for focused work or a collaborative area for brainstorming, a diverse workspace is essential.
We can’t expect one type of workspace to fit all types of activities that employees do.
We defined a workplace with“a good variety of work settings” as one where at least half of the employees are satisfied with the variety. We found that workplaces offering a range of spaces, from quiet focus areas to collaborative zones and phone booths, are rated higher for employee satisfaction.
A workplace that only offers traditional desk setups and a few meeting rooms may not be sufficient, while a workplace with a diverse range of spaces, including quiet zones, collaborative areas, and social hubs, can better support employee productivity and well-being.
Now, I must emphasize one thing: the concept of “good variety” is highly subjective and varies depending on the specific needs of an organization and its employees. Different teams within an organization have diverse needs. What works for one team may not work for another. A variety of workspace options is essential to accommodate these differences
- Alina from Tidaro: The report showed that 58% of employees thrive in unassigned seating environments with a good variety of work settings, while 25% struggle and 17% are neutral. You also defined a specific name per each employee type: the Thrivers, the Accepters, and the Strugglers.
What makes Thrivers thrive?
Source: Leesman Report – The Value of Variety
Peggie Rothe: Thrivers thrive because everything works for them. In our survey we ask about 21 different activities (video conferences, reading, private conversations, etc); which activities are important and how well are those supported.
Source: Leesman Report: The Value of Variety
Now, in our survey we also ask questions about the different features of the environment, the infrastructure.
Overall, the Thrivers expressed satisfaction with the provided facilities, suggesting that the infrastructure aligns well with their needs and contributes to their overall job satisfaction.
- Alina from Tidaro: Got it. Moving on to the Strugglers. What makes them feel unsupported in their work?
Peggie Rothe: When we look at the activities that are not well supported, when it comes to strugglers, one activity stands out by having the lowest support score, and that is individual focused work that is desk based.
Less than half (47%) of those who find it important consider it supported in the workplace, compared to 95% across the Thrivers and 80% across the Accepters.
So, while individual, focused work is a fundamental aspect of knowledge work, for the Strugglers it is hard to find suitable environments to concentrate. Their major concern is: noise.
A significant portion of this group expresses dissatisfaction with the noise levels in their workspace and a lack of access to quiet rooms. This suggests that the inability to escape distractions and find peaceful working environments is a significant barrier to productivity and focus.
It’s important to note that while these findings are based on a large dataset of over 100,000 respondents, the specific challenges faced by individual organizations may vary. However, the underlying issue of providing adequate support for focused work and mitigating noise disturbances is a common challenge across many workplaces.
- Alina from Tidaro: And this leads us to the next question. You said quiet rooms could help. So what else could the company do in order to support the ones that struggle?
Peggie Rothe: I think employers need to understand what the employees need and ensure that they have the spaces available for them. But, then, in some cases it could be a behavioral thing.
Besides understanding needs, we need to also understand what spaces are used for what cause.
Let me give you a hypothetical example: you have people in the same open environment trying to focus while others see it as a buzzy zone where you can chat and you can speak on the phone. So, now you have a challenge that arises from having different expectations.
So, the question is: are we all on the same page of what these different spaces here are meant to be used for? And how do we use these spaces? And what’s their purpose?
Then, let’s say you have an environment that has a lot of variety, but then, some people might just come to the office and sit down at a desk all day, even if there would be a quiet zone somewhere else.
We are creatures of habit, so some people might just sit down and then they work from that place all day. And so the behavior might be the issue, because people are not actually using the environment in the best possible way.
- Alina from Tidaro: Exactly, you are so right. And we can go a bit even further on the behavior issue. I’m starting to wonder about attitudes, because some people have the attitude to make it work with whatever setting they have, right?
Peggie Rothe: Yeah. It could be a mix of things and I think we need to help employees make the workplace work for them. I think it starts from understanding what the problems are, what are the things that they’re not happy with and then dig deeper. OK, why is that? What can we do? Is it something in the space? Are they lacking something in the actual space or is it a behavioral thing? And then go from there.
- Alina from Tidaro: So now this takes us to the next question. So how can the company migrate towards an environment that provides a good variety of work settings?
Peggie Rothe: So I think it really starts with understanding which are the employees’ needs, what they do in their their roles and how much are they in the office and so forth. And then, taking it from there. Mind that you might not get it right the first time.
You know, even the best workplaces get iterated, developed and improved. You might try some environments and then you realize: OK, these spaces are really popular, but no one’s using those other settings. Why are they not being used?
For example, when you do a transformation from, let’s say, private offices to open offices, a common fear among employees is: where do I do my focused work? And so, they might need to have some quiet areas where the general rule is that you don’t speak, you don’t have your phone on. So it’s a focus area for everyone.
- Alina from Tidaro: You mentioned that we are creatures of habit and maybe this is a worry some employees might have: if they would have to adapt to a hot desking (unassigned seating) environment, this would come in conflict with their habits, right?
Peggie Rothe: Well, I’m just going to speculate a bit. When employees won’t have an assigned desk, they might probably still be feeding the habit, by sitting at a specific desk time and time again (if the organization has quite a lot of space).
You know, people might really start camping at desks that are meant to be unassigned.
Personally, I’m certainly a creature of habit. Just yesterday, I was talking with a friend about how we used to behave when we played European handball… When getting changed before our games, , we would go to the changing room and I’d always go to that corner and in that particular changing room. And everyone on the team would have their own places that they wouldn’t change. I guess that’s just how humans are.
The Challenges of Assigned Seating Work Environments
- Alina from Tidaro: Now that you’re mentioning it….I’m doing the same when I go to my pilates classes. I always change in the same place…
Now, moving forward: one conclusion from the Leesman report is that unassigned workplaces with a good variety of work settings achieve the highest employee experience scores.
Now, there’s also the option of assigned seatings with a good variety of work settings, right? But this comes with some costs tied to space usage. Could you dive a bit deeper?
Peggie Rothe: Well, we noticed that the average experience score in assigned with good variety settings is actually higher than in the unassigned with good variety ones. However, it’s a really small proportion of assigned workplaces that have good variety.
Because, if you do assigned seating (assigned desks) and variety, you have to have a lot of space and the utilization of that is going to be really low because people will not be using their own desk when they’re working elsewhere. If people are in the office, let’s say three days a week, you know the desks will stay empty 2 days a week. And then it’s also empty when they’re actually in the office but using all the other spaces in the office.
So, I don’t think it’s a feasible option for most organizations to spend that much on having assigned desks for everyone, and then also having a whole variety of different types of settings – even though it could theoretically lead to outstanding experience.
So this is an issue about money, and also sustainability.
It’s just not efficient to have an assigned work setting with good variety. And I think that’s probably why we don’t see many setups like this.
- Alina from Tidaro: Yeah, I think I remember seeing some data about underutilization. Despite widespread reductions in portfolio size and higher occupancy rates, 64% of global office space remains underutilized, as per CBRE reports.
Peggie Rothe: Yeah, exactly. This is an even bigger issue now with hybrid working when people are not in the office as much. I mean, even if everyone was in the office, it would lead to empty seats because people are using the meeting rooms, the phone booths and the collaboration areas, and so on and so forth. But in hybrid work environments, when everyone’s working elsewhere two or three days a week, it’s just not very efficient…
- Alina from Tidaro: Now, Peggie, which is the company that inspired you the most during research, when it comes to its unassigned seat setting?
Peggie Rothe: While our research analyzed data from a large number of organizations, in our report we included two specific case studies that highlight innovative approaches to workplace design.
One of them is about Tetra Pak who is rolling out a future of work experience program globally. The programme is based on four pillars: flexible working arrangements, purpose-based workplaces, digital tools, and health and wellbeing.
Additionally, Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has implemented successful workplace strategies that have resulted in improved employee satisfaction and productivity.
IAG’s diverse workspace offers a range of settings to support different work styles, from focused individual work to collaborative team activities. This flexible approach empowers employees to choose the best environment for their needs, leading to increased productivity and job satisfaction.
- Alina from Tidaro: And now, a personal question :). You’ve recently said “As a remote employee who works 100% from home, I can testify based on my own experience that creating connections through a screen just isn’t quite the same”. Looking on the bright side of things, which do you feel are your gains from working remotely?
Peggie Rothe: Remote work offers me the benefit of a distraction-free and acoustically private environment.
But, on the other hand, I would love to, you know, be interrupted by overhearing an interesting conversation that I could jump into and and contribute to every once in a while. You know I love when that happens and you realize we solved a problem that could have taken several emails to solve. I might have never heard that conversation and never found out that they were trying to figure out something and so forth…
And for me personally, I’m a solo mom of a 2 year old, so I wouldn’t like it if I had to commute to an office. I literally would not be able to do it.
Between dropping my daughter off to daycare in the morning, and picking her up again in the afternoon, I wouldn’t have enough time to do my work if I also had to spend time on a commute. In that case, be forced to resume some work in the evening as well to get everything done.
So being able to avoid a commute, it’s a very good thing for me considering my personal circumstances.
Alina from Tidaro. Yeah, I was looking at some data saying that remote work can be a blessing for moms.
This being said, I want to thank you, Peggie, for the lovely and interesting chat!
Conclusions
Workplace variety is crucial for employee satisfaction and productivity. By offering a variety of settings, organizations can cater to different work styles and preferences, leading to increased employee engagement and well-being.
Utilizing data-driven tools like the Leesman Index can provide valuable insights into employee experiences.
We mentioned the Thrivers in the interview. Out of the employees working in workplaces with unassigned seating and good variety, a promising 58% are thriving on this approach. The Thrivers include 20% of employees who have an excellent experience (Lmi between 70.0 – 79.9) and 38% who have an outstanding one (Lmi of 80.0 or above). These employees feel that the environment supports them in their work, which is reinforced by the fact that more than nine out of 10 (92%) of them think that the environment enables them to work productively.
This is how one could interpret the Lmi data.
Here’s another example, from the Tetra Pak case study mentioned in the report.
Leesman data has helped Tetra Pak understand the differing needs of its global workforce, and to review employee satisfaction post Future Work Experience refurbishment. There were 15 completed Future Work Experience offices included in the last Leesman survey and their average Lmi was 74.6.
In the Xi’an office, which has an Lmi of 91.9, support for ‘relaxing/taking a break’ was 100%, as was support for ‘learning from others’. In Panama, with an Lmi of 84.0, support for ‘video conferences’ was also at 100%. And in Istanbul (Lmi 80.8), 97% agreed that the workplace enables them to work productively, and 93% that it enables them to work productively.
By analyzing employee feedback and workplace data, organizations can identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions to optimize the workplace variety.
Want to read more inspiring stories on how to make remote and hybrid work, actually work? Check out the AirBnb remote work policy, and the Quora remote-first story.
Now, if you want to find out more about how to manage hybrid workplaces, we’ve created a very thorough guide for you. So, make sure to check Mastering Hybrid Work out!