Preliminary results of the staff survey on office layout

Introduction:

The survey allows the Staff Union (and the Office) to get an idea of people’s experience in working indifferent types of office layout, mainly individual offices, shared offices or open-plan, both over theirentire working life and in their present jobs. After the section on general information, the survey isdivided into sections for those currently working in individual offices, those in shared offices andthose in open-plan. In order to be as objective as possible, the same set of questions is used forrespondents in all three sections. A final section to be answered by all concerns “looking to thefuture”, and hopes to ascertain people’s needs in relation to the type of work they do and theircomfort level with different scenarios.

The Staff Union Committee wishes to thank all those who took the time to participate in the survey.The information provided by the staff should provide important input to the decision-makingprocess in relation to our future office layout. We would also like to thank Hans Hofmeijer andGroupe H (the architects involved in the building renovation) for their input into the survey,particularly in helping to define the questions in order to get the best possible information.

General overview – who responded to the survey?

As of Friday 19th October 2012, 699 people had responded to the survey (Wednesday 24th October702). Considering that it was available only to HQ-based staff, this is a good proportion – over halfthe staff – on which to base a solid analysis. Overall:

64% of respondents are female, 36% male Concerning type of contract: 47.3% are WLT, 44.3% FT, 4.2% ST/SST, 0.6% ST 3.5, 2.2%

interns, and 1.5% excols. Agewise: 6.5% of respondents (45 respondents) are in the age bracket 20-29, 22.7% 30-39,

33.4% 40-49, 34.2% 50-59, and 3.2% are 60+. 52.7% are P staff, 40.2% GS/L, 4.5% D and above, and 2.6% “other”, mainly interns but a few

“excols/independent”.

Experience of different types of office layout:

One of the issues we have heard from proponents of open-plan offices in-house is that we do nothave enough experience of working in open-plan so the survey results are not valid. However, itappears that 37.1% of respondents (nearly 250 people) have had experience in working in open-planoffices, while 69.4% have experience of working in shared offices and 82.4% in individual offices overtheir working lifetime. And their conclusions?

An overwhelming 96% are very positive or somewhat positive about working in an individualoffice

Those working in shared offices have mixed feelings, but are still somewhat positive, withalmost 20% not saying one way or the other

Open-plan offices are more associated with negative feelings, with 34% being very negativeand 22% somewhat negative about them.

And if we control for the “not applicable” responses and take into account only those who haveexperience in the different types of offices the figures are even more telling.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

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90%

100%

Individual Shared Open Plan

Very Negative

Somewhat Neg

Neutral

Somewhat Positive

Very Positive

The present situation within the ILO concerning the different types of office is, of course, somewhatdifferent, with 70.5% now working in individual offices, 20.7% in shared offices, and 8.8% (57people) in open-plan. With only a “yes/no” option to the question of whether they like working intheir present office or not, the results reflect the above conclusions (not counting those sitting on afence):Do you enjoy working in your present office:

Open plan Shared IndividualYes 41.3% 58.2% 97.6%No 58.7% 41.8% 2.4%

The myth of the young open planner…

We’ve all heard the stereotype that “young people” are much more amenable to open plan.

After carefully analyzing the survey, we have come to the following clear, evidence-basedconclusion: They’re not.

The survey had 202 respondents between the ages of 20-39 – who can be expected to spend the next 22 to 42 yearsin the office. These respondents were 67% female and 33%male. Throughout their career, 138 of them had experiencein Individual Offices, 144 in Shared Offices, and 86 in OpenPlan Offices.

Of these young people who responded, there was a significant difference in experience withdifferent types of office layout. Young staff were more than twice as likely to report a positive workexperience in individual offices than in open plan offices (96% vs. 48%), and more than 10% morepositive about shared offices compared to open plan (59% vs. 48%). The figures are even morepronounced when you consider those reporting very positive experiences, with 78% very positivefor individual offices, compared with only 22% with open plan. The inverse is observed when lookingat negative (1.3% for individual offices vs. 57% for open plan), and very negative experiences (1.3%vs. 30%, respectively).

Collaboration and teamwork

Open-plan is often sold to us (apart from the perceived cost savings aspect) as a means to increasecollaboration and teamwork.

The present situation is that most people feel they work in a team – 32% always and 48.5%frequently.

On the other hand most people are either always at their desk (24.5%) or spend most of their timeat their desk (67%). While 7.7% spend equal amounts of time at their desk and away from it, veryfew (0.8%) spend most of their time away from their desk.

Young staff were more thantwice as likely to report a

positive work experience inindividual offices than in open

plan offices…

So what layout is conducive to collaboration? Those in open plan or shared offices were asked iftheir type of office leads to greater collaboration; those in individual offices if they felt working intheir type of office was a constraint to collaboration. Experience in open plan is divided, with also alarge proportion not pronouncing (or saying that it is not just the office layout which determines thelevel of collaboration?). But those in individual offices are sending a clear message that their set-upis no constraint to collaboration.

Open plan shared individualIncreases collaboration/is not a constraintagainst collaboration

42.6% 54% 82.7%

Does not increase collaboration/constraintagainst collaboration

31.9% 21.3% 10%

Neither agree nor disagree 25.5% 24.8% 7.2%

Communication (as opposed to collaboration): is it easier in an open plan or shared office or moredifficult in an individual office? A distinction should be made between collaboration (workingtogether on a joint endeavour) and communication (exchange of information). 51% of people in anopen plan office agree that communication is easier in their working environment, whereas 82.5% ofpeople in individual offices do not see communication as being difficult because they work inindividual offices.

Open plan shared individualAgree 51% 64.3% 11.2%disagree 38.3% 21.8% 82.5%Neither agree nor disagree 10.6% 13.9% 6.3%

The need to concentrate

Problems set in with open plan offices, and to a lesser extent in shared offices, when people need toconcentrate for their work. All three sets of people were asked if they found it difficult toconcentrate when working in their present environment:

Open plan shared individualYes, it is difficult to concentrate 74.4% 67% 2.8%No, it is not difficult to concentrate 21.3% 21.7% 93.4%Neither agree nor disagree 4.3% 11.3% 3.7%

Unwanted interruptions are one cause for concern when people need to concentrate on theirresearch and analysis, their accounting, translating and editing… Again, all three sets of people wereasked if they were more likely to be interrupted at any time in their type of office:

Open plan shared individualAgree – likely to be interrupted 83% 72.2% 11%Disagree – not likely to be interrupted 8.5% 11.3% 74.5%Neither agree nor disagree 8.5% 16.5% 14.5%

Again – what of young people, those who can work anytime, anywhere? 57% of our young workersare currently located in individual offices, 31% in shared offices, and 12% (22 people) in open-plan.While responses from this latter category are too few to draw broad conclusions, it can be said thatoverall, these young workers agree that they find concentration difficult in open plan (58%) andshared (73%) offices, but this is much less the case (96% disagree, 85% strongly) for those inindividual offices. This is, at least in part, due to the constant interruptions which are faced by staffin open plan and shared offices. Nearly 80% of respondents in open plan report that people aremore likely to interrupt them at any time, compared with just over 70% of those in shared offices,and only 10% in individual offices.

What bothers people most about working in their different environments?

Open plan: The most common problems are noise (cited by 72.3%) and the lack of privacy(72.3%), followed by interruptions (59.6%) and odours (40.4%). Only 17% of thisgroup are not bothered by anything about open plan offices.

Shared offices: The most common problems are the lack of privacy (cited by 56.8%), interruptions(54.1%) and noise (51.4%). 13.5% are not bothered by anything about sharing anoffice.

Individual: However, in individual offices, the opposite was evident with 94.6% being perfectlyhappy with their set-up, and very few (3.2%) being bothered by noise andinterruptions (2.7%).

People have resorted to all sorts of measures to get away from disturbances – the noise fromtelephones and noisy neighbours, and unwanted interruptions – in order to be able to focus on theirwork. There is a marked need to take measures in open plan (66% of respondents in this group) overshared offices (52.2%) and least in individual offices (28.3%).

The measures taken are usually finding another empty room to work in or going to the library, orusing earplugs or headphones with music for those in open plan offices. Similar measures are takenby those in shared offices, although these also resort to taking a break until the noisy telephone callstops or asking their colleagues to be quieter. Those in individual offices simply close their doors ifthe noise in the corridor gets too much.

In addition to these personal measures, which seem to be more about isolating oneself, there areinstances of people agreeing on ground rules to govern behaviour, simple “office etiquette”, mainly

I paid from my ownpocket for veryexpensive noise

cancelling headphonesto use while I work.

Aller travailler dans unesalle de réunion –

d’ailleurs c’est ce quinous a été conseillé !

about keeping voices down when talking or on the phone, not interrupting, or not bringing in smellyfood. The need for rules, mainly informal, seems to be more important for people in shared officesrather than in open plan, where the majority (61.7%) have no rules at all.

Stress

When analysing the relative stress of working in different offices, it appears that the most stressfulwork layout seems to be in an open plan setting. Even those presently working in open plan agreethat it would be less stressful in an individual office (70.2%) or in a shared office (55.3%). Most of therespondents had been in their open plan space for more than one year and had obviously not gotused to it.

The least stressful working environment was the individual office, with 85.9% of respondents in thisgroup believing it was less stressful than in open plan, and 87.1% believing it less stressful than in ashared office.

People are more ambivalent about working in a shared office – they obviously love their neighbouror want to get away! Many cited the fact that it was more difficult to “switch off” with only onecolleague in the room; you get drawn into their conversations…

The survey did not get into details about the working environment and potential stress factors

Conflict

People in individual offices are much more likely to report that their setup has less potential forconflict, with 48% saying that it reduces the possibility of conflict, vs. 64.5% of shared office and63% of open plan inhabitants reporting that their setup increases the possibility of conflict.

Open plan shared individualIncreases possibility of conflict 63% 64.5% 2.8%Reduces possibility of conflict 4.3% 4.5% 48.2%No impact on possibility of conflict 32.6% 30.9% 48.9%

Linked to this is staff morale. When asked if their work setting contributed to morale, there isdefinite agreement that individual offices contribute to staff morale, whereas more people in openplan feel their office space does not contribute to their morale. About the same proportion ofpeople in any office setting think their work layout doesn’t have any effect on morale.

Open plan shared individualAgree 28.2% 33.3% 68.8%disagree 43.4% 38.7% 7%Neither agree nor disagree 28.3% 27.9% 24.2%

HAPPY EMPLOYEES ARE PRODUCTIVE EMPLOYEES! Productivity is presumably an important factorfor the Office in determining future office layout. The survey showed unequivocally that people thinkthey are more productive in individual offices than in shared (79%) or in open plan offices (81.3%).

The survey did not go into details about the reasons for stress or even touch on possiblehealth effects. However, a SafeWork paper which analysed scientific articles about openplan offices concludes that open plan offices have led to higher stress and lowerproductivity. Most of the studies refer to adverse effects in staff performance and well-being, including lower job satisfaction and internal motivation. Office type has also beenfound to have an influence on health, with lowest health status found in medium-sized andsmall open plan offices, and best health status among employees in individual offices andflex offices. While the literature acknowledges that open plan design is suited to someoccupations – advertising, graphic design, journalism, marketing – it is not the case for workrequiring concentration or confidentiality. Nor does there seem to be any strong evidencefor improved communication.

The main purpose of an office environment is to supportemployees in performing their job – preferably to maximum

satisfaction and minimum cost.

Looking to the future

Looking to the future – perhaps the most important part of the survey. We have gatheredinformation on your experiences and views of different layouts in the previous section. This is wherewe can consider what the future office layout could be, based on both your experience and needs,the type of work you do and how you do it, as well as on trends in office building and demands formore teamwork and collaboration.

Office space should be a function of the work you do

An overwhelming conclusion from the survey is that work spaces should be specific to the type ofwork that individuals do, with 84.5% in agreement, and there is no distinction between allrespondents and younger ones in their answers.

The survey also tried to get an idea of what sort of office arrangements people would becomfortable with, whether they would be completely averse to a certain type of workingarrangement or open to any option, including the flex-office1 or the combi-office2. From the graphbelow, obviously people are most comfortable with work in individual offices, with very few notliking the idea at all. There seem to be mixed feelings about working in shared offices, but a markedaversion to working in open plan offices, to the same level as for the flex-office and even more thanfor the combi-office.

1 The "flex-office" is defined by employees not having any personal workstation. It is often an open plan layout, but notnecessarily. It is the most flexible office type; not only is the plan flexible, but also the employees. There is good access toback-up spaces for teamwork, concentrated work, meetings, etc. A good IT system is necessary since the choice ofworkstation is free and all work is dependent on access to the common computer system. Flex-offices are dimensioned for<70% of the workforce to be in office, because much work is carried out outside of the office or employees are absent dueto illness, leave, missions, teleworking, etc. The work is in its character highly independent."2 The “combi-office” is nowadays an office-type with no strict spatial definition. Instead it is the teamwork and the sharingof common facilities that defines it. There is good access to back-up spaces for teamwork, concentrated work, meetings,etc. Over 20% of the work of employees takes place within the office at places other than one’s own workstation, in theback-up spaces, on an ‘as-needed basis’. The work is characterized by both independent work and interactive teamwork.

The younger age group (20-39 year olds) is a little more open about working in open plan offices, butthe comfort level did not differ significantly from the average, with nearly 80% of respondents in thisage group agreeing with an individual office option, and still 61% would not like to work in an openplan office at all.

People are also clear about what sort of office layout best suits the type of work they do.Overwhelmingly, 75% of people feel they need to work in an individual office – because of the typeof work they do. When it comes to younger people, almost two-thirds (65%) felt that individualoffices best suited their own type of work.

Similar numbers also say that individualoffices best suit their working style (notdefined) – for staff as a whole and foryounger staff. In fact, very few of theyounger workers responding to the surveysee open plan as appropriate for their typeof work (11.6%) or their working style(12.3%).

What is important in the working space? By far the most important factor for staff is the ability toconcentrate, followed by privacy, the ability to interact with colleagues, comfort, security, and, lastlyaesthetics. This was the same whether for all staff or for younger staff.

But on the subject of aesthetics, the majority of respondents (82%) feel that their workingenvironment should be based on neutral colours rather than vibrant colours. But younger people aremore open to vibrant colours and fewer (73%) feel the need to be surrounded by neutral colours.

“Noisy people should be

confined!”(General Secretary of UNI, one of the organisations

visited by the Working Group on Office Layout)

Je pense qu'il serait judicieux de prendre en compte les besoins des personnes et la nature deleur travail afin de décider d'un commun accord du genre de bureau adéquat.

Dedicated collaboration areas

Looking towards the future office working style and the perceived need to promote more teamworkand general interaction, people were asked if the ILO needs more dedicated collaboration areas(meeting spaces, lounges, or coffee bars where staff can meet and exchange ideas in an informalenvironment). Most respondents (61.9%) were in favour of this, while a further 15.4% were notparticularly in favour. Younger people, the 20-39 year olds, responded in more or less the sameproportions.

What exactly would such dedicated collaboration areas improve? First and foremost,communication, cited by 78% of respondents – and it is likely that people would communicate ininformal meeting areas. Collaboration (teamwork) is the second reason, cited by 66.5% ofrespondents. Although not such a major factor, another advantage of more collaboration areas isthe potential improvement in staff morale. However, only 34.6% of people feel that productivity willbe improved as a result of using more informal meeting areas. Younger respondents were a littlemore enthusiastic, adding a couple of percentage points to improved teamwork, morale andproductivity, but not to improved communication.

Office space and use:

Another issue in recent office trends is that all staff, irrespective of category, have the same sizeoffice space. How would this be accepted in the ILO? Opinions are divided with equal numbers(around 40%) thinking everyone should be equal in relation to office space and those who thought itwould not be a good idea. However, it appears that younger people are more egalitarian with morein favour of everyone having the same size space, and only 30% believing in a hierarchy of space.

However, the vast majority (83.5%) are against a layout where GS and P staff are in open plan andDirectors in individual offices.

Managing change

And in case the analysis so far has led people to think the ILO staff are dinosaurs and not open tochange, the majority state that they are open to changes in their workspace or workingenvironment: