Survey: Investments in your own office space and flex work significantly increase revenues

Companies that provide their employees with high-quality workplaces are reported to outperform workers in poorly equipped offices in terms of both customer satisfaction (35 percent more agreement) and employee retention (26 percent more agreement). Around two-thirds of respondents can now envision a permanent home office arrangement. But the much-prophesied "death of the office" still fails to materialize; the office remains important. The most frequently cited reasons for office use are a sense of belonging with colleagues, better separation between work and private life, and fear of social isolation.

Investments in contemporary offices have a positive impact on company sales, recruiting and productivity, according to the experience of the companies surveyed. For example, revenue increased by 23.5 percent for companies that invested in their space and implemented flex work. In addition, 69 percent of companies with investments in the office and hybrid working noted that productivity gains had begun.

These are the key findings of ISG's latest reasearch and insight report 'The power of place: thr consequences of inaction' of around 1,000 employees and 250 employers nationwide conducted by UK-based polling firm Sapio together with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr). The survey is a continuation of ISG's research 'The power of place: the impact of human behaviour' among German employees, which was conducted for the first time in 2020, and expands on it for the first time to include an employer perspective.

Martyn Peters, Managing Director CEE at ISG, comments, "Our survey shows that the office continues to occupy an important function for many employees. The social component in particular plays a crucial role: employees seek contact with each other, but a sense of belonging to the employer is also strengthened by high-quality offices. Flexibility in the organization of the working day is becoming increasingly important. This is where we have to start: In the future, we will need ultra-modern offices that take into account the change in usage behavior. Agile companies that want to remain successful in the future must not only invest in their office space, but also establish a corporate culture in which flexible working is not just a buzzword, but is actually practiced." 

On the employer side, consequences have already been drawn from developments during the pandemic: just under a third of those surveyed have partly assigned new uses to office space, and just under a quarter have made parts of the space available for new services or shared it with other companies. Just under a third each of the companies surveyed have also improved their IT infrastructure, introduced higher hygiene standards and are placing greater focus on fresh air supply.

Note: A total of two surveys were conducted on behalf of ISG in March 2022 among 3,008 office users in the UK, Spain and Germany, and among 503 companies from the UK and Germany. In Germany, 1,000 employees and 251 employers were surveyed.