Workplace

2024 has seen employees spending more time in the office, which has naturally led to an increase in office space utilisation. This term refers to the percentage of office space occupied during a typical work week. More than half of the organisations surveyed reported average weekly office utilisation rates of at least 60%, with a notable 18% of respondents in the high 80% to 100% utilisation range.

The overall average utilisation has seen a rise from 59% in last year’s survey to 62% this year.

There is also greater emphasis from businesses on tracking utilisation, likely in response to understanding the productivity impact of hybrid working. However, the benefits of tracking utilisation extend beyond this, offering insights into how employees are using a space and where efficiencies can be found. This can lead to optimising the use of space. Furthermore, utilisation tracking tools can serve as a useful method for monitoring compliance with hybrid working policies.

However, according to CBRE’s Global Survey data, the latter use is not widely adopted. While 60% of organisations track attendance and space utilisation, only 8% use this data to enforce a hybrid working policy on office attendance. Organisations are opting for softer approaches to maintain employee empowerment, trust in leadership, overall company culture, and public brand identity.

Workplace design has seen significant changes due to evolving work methods, with 58% of occupiers having modified their workspaces, a rise from last year’s 52%. These alterations aim to accommodate diverse workstyles by offering a variety of effective spaces for a wide range of activities now conducted in offices.

This trend is evident in the increased variety of workspace options being included in new fitouts, ranging from collaborative and communal/social spaces to quiet areas and focus rooms for one or two people. At the same time, some organisations are expanding their provision of desks and offices, despite a general decline in office use. We believe that in most cases, this growth in traditional workspaces is linked to an expansion in office footprint and occupied space, rather than a shift in work mode.

Please note that the percentage scale in the chart indicates that some organisations are planning to further implement these practices, even if they have already done so.

While organisations are responding to changing work styles with workspace design changes that offer greater flexibility and a better workplace experience, our 2024 survey did not show material progress with regards to desk sharing compared to last year. In 45% of organisations, all desks/workstations remain assigned to specific employees and only 22% of organisations operate with all desks being unassigned.

There are however significant differences across industries. In the accounting sector, 20% of survey participants assign desks to individuals, with the balance being an even mix between companies where no one has an assigned desk to companies who mix assigned and unassigned based on and employees role. At the other end of the scale, in the legal sector 88% of respondents operate with all employees having a desk assigned.

It seems that even as work practices and workplaces evolve, deeply ingrained cultural impulses, not just at the individual company level but industry based, remain difficult to break. In combination with the drive towards greater employee presence in the office, this implies that the full extent of space usage efficiencies facilitated by the combination of widespread hybrid work and adaptive workplaces are unlikely to be realised.