Among the spaces used the most are meeting rooms for two or three people,which are 90 per cent full on average,the study showed. Overall,office utilisation is stuck at about half that of pre-pandemic levels.
The findings illustrate the challenges faced by organisations as they assess office-space needs. Workers and managers both say they should be on site at least one-third of the time,according to research fromBoston Consulting Group,but much of that in-person time is no longer spent tethered to a desk.
Spaces for small,private huddles,more open collaboration,and sound-proof enclosures for individual head-down work are all more relevant today compared with old-fashioned cubicles. Yet 80 per cent of total floor space is taken up by individual workstations,with just 20 per cent left for collaboration,XY Sense found.
“It’s time to rethink the humble desk,” said Alex Birch,co-founder and chief executive officer of XY Sense. “They dominate space in our offices,they’re expensive,and we’re just not using them the way we were pre-pandemic. Companies just need less of them now that people do the majority of their focus work at home. Companies should either re-deploy that desk space for better workplace experiences or pocket the savings,but they can’t ignore the waste that’s going on.”
‘It’s time to rethink the humble desk. They dominate space in our offices,they’re expensive,and we’re just not using them the way we were pre-pandemic.’
Alex Birch,chief executive officer of XY Sense
Other data support the shift away from desks. Research from office-furniture maker Haworth found that 85 per cent of employees had their own individual workstations before 2020,yet less than half do now. Following years where companies simply crammed as many employees as they could into static cubicle farms,or long rows of workstations,some see the changes wrought by remote work as long overdue.
“For far too long we designed offices as if we’re potted plants,” said Kay Sargent,director of the workplace practice at architecture and design firm HOK. “Are you really inviting people back to the office to have them sit at a desk all day? Or do you want to encourage them to connect,mentor and innovate?”