Another bad day at the office? It may be down to poor design

With a huge amount of office space under construction in Ireland, a report finding that 11 per cent of employees are highly dissatisfied with their offices, and highly disengaged from their jobs as a result, makes interesting reading.

The Steelcase Global Report: Engagement and the Global Workplace finds that high workplace satisfaction positively correlates with high employee engagement. According to office solutions provider Steelcase, "the data show that workers who are highly satisfied with various aspects of their workplace also demonstrate higher levels of engagement. Yet, only 13 per cent of global workers are highly engaged and highly satisfied with their workplace."

Employees who have greater control over their work environment, including access to private spaces, are some of the most highly engaged, the survey found. A distinguishing characteristic of engaged employees is that they are empowered, both by organisational decisions and by the spaces available to them in their workplace, to make choices about where and how they work.

Steelcase, with research firm Ipsos, analysed data from 12,480 workers in 17 countries. According to the study, one-third of workers in 17 of the world's most important economies are disengaged.

"As we analysed this data, it was interesting to us how consistently the most engaged workers were those who had more control over their work experience, including the ability to concentrate easily and work in teams without being interrupted," says Christine Congdon, director of research communications at Steelcase.

“Workers who have the ability to choose where they wish to work in the office, based on the task they have to do, are much more engaged in the work they do.”

The survey found that European workers are among the least engaged globally. French workers, for example, were the least engaged of those surveyed, with only 5 per cent being “highly engaged”, while the Germans and Poles were the most engaged in Europe, with 12 and 13 per cent respectively.

“But this is still only equal with the global average,” according to Steelcase.

European countries tend to prefer open-plan working, the survey found, and this is most likely to be due to space constraints.

“The UK has the highest number of open-plan workers – 49 per cent say their office is open-plan,” says Steelcase, compared with “the global average” of 23 per cent. “Europeans also tend to have higher than average levels of nomadic working or hotdesking, again possibly due to constraints on space.”

“Well-designed workplaces can communicate a company’s strategy, brand and culture, and encourage the employee behaviours leaders want in their organisation,” Congdon says.