2024 Roundup: what today’s workforce wants

The modern workplace is changing. When we attended the Workspace Show this year, we were struck by some insights by Phil Davitt of SVP Global Professional Services at Eptura. In the light of his speech, here’s how we think SMEs can benefit from current workplace trends and rise to future facilities management challenges to create a business that will attract the best employees.

Flexible working solutions

Following the pandemic, the way employees view the working week has changed. Phil said: “Workers want freedom to work hybrid but businesses understand the value of connecting people and working together. During covid, we went virtual and now there’s value in on meeting people face to face. Connecting in a physical space still has value but we have to balance that with workers who want flexibility.”

Phil continued: “People want to get back into office spaces”, citing the rise in the number of office users between 2022 and 2023. However, he added: “but WHEN they do has changed.” He explained how the nine to five has been replaced by the mid-week mountain: most people want to come into offices between Tuesday and Thursday, while working from home on Monday and Friday.

Businesses have responded to this by booking team meetings on the first and last workdays of the week or by introducing Free Friday breakfasts to entice people back –but these measures haven’t worked.

Meeting diverse workplace needs

Phil said businesses need to consider the different types of people in their organisation and how to cater to their needs when it comes to workplace design and facilities management. For example, 25% of office users are neurodivergent so the way they want to interact with their colleagues is different; you have extroverts and introverts – the latter may want quiet zones, the former may want pods enabling small groups to collaborate.

Phil said: “People are definitely returning to their workspace but different employees have different needs, whether it’s working different days, different spaces and different types of offices. If you’re trying to plan for five years, you need to ask your workers what they want.”

Facilities and asset management

While flexible workplace arrangements are popular amongst employees, they do pose a challenge to facilities management teams. Whilst we are seeing staff members booking regular meeting room slots, for an increasing number of meeting visitors, the staff themselves are not booking their own desks in advance, but rather they making the booking last minute. These patterns create significant complexity in the management of resources such as electricity, air conditioning and heating.

In addition, staff may book desks, but then cancel or forget their booking or change their plans and work from home.

Technology is available to manage the workspace, meeting room bookings and desk usage and companies are investing in this technology to keep abreast of the latest trends. This is more salient when you consider that 66% of workspace leaders believe they have either too little or too much workspace. Furthermore, 60% stated that they had too many single occupancy stations and needed more room to collaborate. As such, employers and facilities managers are being asked to consider factors pertaining to space utilisation, such as: average desk occupancy, peak occupancy times, and meeting room utilisation rates, with an aim to optimise these areas.

Sustainability goals

As organisations struggle to meet targets for carbon dioxide emissions, some companies are investing in facilities management tools to offset potential future fines imposed for not achieving sustainability goals. Phil cited one US company which invested in systems to turn the heating off in their buildings at 2pm as all staff leave the office at 3pm. This company had predicted that had it failed to take such measures, it would face a £1 million fine in 2029 for not achieving sustainability goals.

Phil said companies need to start talking about how their office buildings are being used and implement measures to maximise space. They also need to identify inefficient assets that are costly to maintain so they can replace them before they incur greater costs.

“The old ways of working are no longer working. Space is not being optimised – we have too many fragmented systems,” said Phil. “The future is building eco-systems. It’s in space management and visitor management tools, expiry of assets and desk usage. By using this data, you could change the number of floors available to workers or reduce the areas where the lighting and heating is on.”

Would a flexible, serviced workspace be a more sustainable option for your SME? Get in touch and see if we can help simplify your facilities management.