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Companies with new offices focus heavily on employee comfort and enhancing communication within the company

CBRE, the world leader in the commercial real estate service sector, carried out a survey from the contestants of the CBRE Meeting Room of the Year competition on the level of satisfaction with their new offices. The survey showed that companies with new offices focus heavily on the comfort of their employees and enhancing communication within the company. This conclusion is underpinned by the fact that the quality of the work environment plays an important role in recruiting new employees, mostly during the search for new applicants and talent, who are currently in great demand on the labour market.

Katarina Wojtusiak, Head of Office Agency at CBRE, stated:
“44% of companies provide employees with full comfort regarding type of office chosen. This result confirms that the younger generation, who will comprise the bulk of the workforce in a few years, take adequate working facilities and a high degree of flexibility for granted.”

93% of companies that responded to the survey have undergone changes to their offices in the past four years. Companies must consider the future when implementing new office space, mainly in terms of the way their company will expand and evolve.

Alexandra Tomášková, Leasing Manager at Skanska Property Czech Republic, added:
"Skanska has sponsored the Office for Future Challenges category in the CBRE Meeting Room of the Year competition this year, representing our approach to creating office environments that are ready to withstand the future challenges that companies face. Etnetera, last year’s winner in this category, absolutely exceeded our expectations. This year, we hope to find yet another company that will amaze us with their office environment by being not only innovative, sustainable and flexible, but also being designed for people taking their health and wellbeing into account.”

Changes in the office environment would not have been possible without the technologies enabling work to be done virtually anywhere or anytime, through various forms of work arrangements or home office.

Lenka Čábelová, Communications Manager and CSR at Microsoft in the Czech Republic, said:
“Not surprisingly, according to survey results, 69% of companies offer their employees part-time work or a home office. More and more people regard flexibility at work as a given, both in terms of time and space. Companies that do not respond to this trend risk not being a preferred employer.”

One of the other important aspects that affect the quality of the working environment are the acoustic conditions.

As Josef Němec, owner of Němec – Luxusní Povrchy, explained:
“66% of the companies surveyed said that their offices have excellent acoustics. In terms of the impact, acoustics play on the employees themselves, this result is insufficient. Companies must realize that the most valuable asset in a company are their employees; nothing is more important. It does not matter what industry you work in. You can produce excellent machines, sell the best goods or offer the best service, but if a company does not have quality teams it may be very difficult to break through into a competitive market, and in my opinion, has no future.”

Office space also plays a representative role, which is equally important for internal and external communications.

Petra Lávičková, Head of Corporate Marketing & PR at CBRE, confirmed that:
"70% of companies use their internal space for events and a quarter of them for organising external seminars or conferences. Furthermore, almost a third of companies have an internal person specializing in the welfare of employees. "

The current office environment is undergoing a turbulent change, which has manifested itself mainly over the past five years. Modern concepts bring something new, it is a dictate of the modern generation, although a lot of older people work in these new concepts.

Filip Muška, Workplace Consultant at CBRE, commented on the future of office space:
“The survey shows that 13% of companies changing their office space even brought economic benefits. I would venture to say that changing the office concept will increase turnover or lower costs for companies a great deal in the future."

The results of the CBRE survey on new office space 
The survey was conducted by CBRE among the Meeting Room of the Year contest participants. 93% of companies that responded to the survey had undergone changes to their offices in the past four years.

The advantages of new offices

• 50% of companies stated that the change resulted in greater employee satisfaction, better internal communication, enhanced team spirit and loyalty to the company
• 50% of companies reported that higher communication skills and quick solutions to the problem had a huge impact on employee productivity
• 13% of companies even stated economic benefits (increasing turnover or reducing costs)
• Lower fluctuations, client interest and job seekers is another benefit cited

Disadvantages of new offices

• 6% of companies stated unused relaxation zones
• 19% noted the discomfort in some parts of the area

Office spaces (relaxation areas, meeting rooms, acoustics, technology)

• At least partial desk sharing is used by 40% of companies
• 44% of companies provide employees with full comfort in the choice of office type (closed offices, open office space, relaxation zones or collaborative zones)
• 60% of companies have an informal meeting room
• 31% have even a combination of both formal and informal meeting rooms
• Almost 70% of those questioned have a relaxation zone, of which 40% have both passive (reading, or individual listening to music, etc.) and active (table tennis, games, TV, etc.). types of relaxation zones
• 41% of companies have a library or reading room
• 20% said that they also have non-standard features in offices such as a fitness centre, terraces, massage corners, a game room, pool tables, table tennis and table football
• 66% of companies have excellent acoustics 
• Almost 60% of companies have video conferencing equipment

Corporate communications

• 70% of companies use their internal space for events, with a quarter of them also organizing external seminars or conferences
• Almost a third of companies have an internal person specializing in caring for the welfare of the employees
• A third of companies do their best to maximize internal communication - satisfaction questionnaires, teambuilding, internal informal meetings, an intranet or face to face management meetings 
• Only 15% of respondents said that employees did not communicate the office change

Workloads

• 69% of companies offer part-time positions or home office