At Leesman, we canvass the views of employees in order to arm businesses and organisations with the insights they need to provide both an effective working environment and an outstanding workplace experience.

We would argue that the two are inextricably linked. A truly effective work environment, one that enables people to work productively on both individual and collaborative activities, is one that also offers a great day at work.

That said, our research has also identified a group of organisations that demonstrate a strong understanding of this innate connection. This collective is driving change through new methods and an innovative use of data to create workplaces that act as an example for the rest of the world to follow.

Ever-changing employee experience

Lessman’s vanguard report examines the business to consumer societal shift that has reset employees’ expectations of the Employer to Employee relationship and how employee expectancies of workplace infrastructure and services are being impacted.

Does the workplace have a positive impact on corporate image and sustainability, for example? Corporate image is one of an organisation’s most important assets.

What people think of and how they see the organisation not only impacts its attractiveness towards potential customers, clients and collaboration partners, but is also crucial in attracting and retaining the best talent.

Our research reaffirms that the best workplaces in the world consistently offer a specific type of workplace experience—a participatory space where infrastructures are crafted, immersive and user-centric.

And in a time when employers are being bombarded with the latest must-have workplace strategies, this research isolates the employee signal from industry noise to reveal a non-negotiable list of employee experience components which leadership teams should ignore at their peril.

How to win the talent war

The businesses winning the talent war are those continually investing in – and listening to – their primary asset: their staff

It’s important to give the UK workforce a platform where they can have a say on the direction of an organisation because this breeds creativity and gives employees the freedom to serve you, the business leader, better.

So, what is holding them back? The onus is on you to find out. Ask them how they think the business can grow. It’s all about the employee experience. Imagine managing a workforce where all employees are engaged in taking an organisation forward.

Our data shows an elite band of organisations have asked, listened and taken measures to improve their employee experience. Since 2012, Leesman has awarded the highest performing workplaces on its Index – ones that comply with strict qualification criteria – Leesman+ certification.

While 2018 saw just 28 of the 560 workplaces measured earn this increasingly coveted status, identifying what separates them from the rest of the pack has helped to unveil the cornerstones of great employee experience.

Crunching the 2018 survey data from these 28 buildings, together with information on key variables external of the research including occupancy density, desk-sharing ratios, and environmental certification, has identified the key differentiators between these two groups. And the findings expose some blunt discrepancies.

When it comes to personal productivity, for example, 77% of respondents in the Leesman+ buildings answer affirmatively – a whole 15 percentage points higher than the global index average. On the topic of pride, meanwhile, scores soar by 29 percentage points, from 51% to 80%.

Delving into the factors that determine these scores reveals a great deal about how organisations can achieve exceptional employee experience. It is easy to make the argument, for example, that Leesman+ organisations have a much better sense of their employees’ increasingly mobile and flexible needs.

A substantial majority of the high-performing workplaces offer either a fully flexible arrangement or a mix of flexible and designated workstations – and their occupiers are happy: a massive 86.5% of respondents from the Leesman+ buildings report satisfaction with the variety of workspaces on offer.

The open plan myth

Wider variety may also help to explain why the 2018 Leesman+ workplaces are predominantly open concepts. A perfect example of this conundrum can be found in the ongoing war on open plan offices in the national and business press.

The most common charges, now pumped out with unnerving regularity by glossy magazines and top tier business titles, are that open designs distract, diminish privacy and create toxic levels of stress at work.

Yet, these latest findings show that organisations which get open plan designs right do not sacrifice visual or acoustic privacy. In fact, the number of respondents who were satisfied with the quiet rooms provided by Leesman+ spaces last year climbed to 61%, which represents an increase of 20 percentage points since 2015.

Deferring to conventional wisdom is riddled with danger. The common perception may be that remote working affords people the freedom to be both effective and creative away from the chaos of open plan offices, but this simply isn’t backed by the data.

Leesman+ spaces contain fewer remote workers than the global average, while remote workers across Leesman’s wider database report lower levels of personal productivity than their office-based colleagues.

Moreover, digital tools and better high-speed internet are still no match for face-to-face interaction in the workplace when it comes to something as critical as knowledge transfer. Office workers report 6% higher satisfaction with their ability to share ideas with colleagues than remote workers.

That employees are choosing to work remotely or from home, with increasing regularity, speaks volumes about the standard of today’s workplaces.

Organisations have a duty to reappraise their employees’ needs and ensure that they are providing the infrastructures, services and experiences to match. However, to do this organisations must capture the right data.

For instance, you could seek your employee’s input on how to tailor the layout and configuration of their own desks based on personal preference. These little touches can go a long way.

Whilst not every company can offer choice to employees on the same scale, all should carefully consider what they can do to give employees the spaces and tools that enhance and support their workday tasks.

The organisations responsible for these spaces are now challenging the often-recycled idea that ‘work is a thing you do not a place you go to’ by creating a series of work destinations that support employees’ evolving expectations with unparalleled accuracy.