Employees care less about their environment as a workplace, and more about it as an experience, and specifically an emotional connection to organisational values, purpose and culture. Such is the assertion of CBRE in their workplace review (find it here) of North American workplaces. This survey looked at what is important to employees in order to enhance their workplace experience.
The top five factors as reported in the survey are:
- Trust in management and senior leadership
- Personal and organisational values aligning
- Professional development opportunities
- Support from leaders
- Safe to share ideas at work
CBRE share some very interesting insights as to how this impacts on workplace design, three of which are:
- Employees want emotional connection to their organisation and workplace environments play a key role in that.
- Its not the “add on” amenities that employees’ value, but rather the physical elements that support them as employees.
- It is important to engage with employees to work out what is best for them.
The whole report is well presented and easy to read, and has some very far reaching implications on office design.
Dr Warrick Long, Senior Lecturer and
Postgraduate Leadership Studies Coordinator