Creative Office Is the 'New Normal'

Mardex: “Many of the progressive concepts that were talked about for years are finally being embraced.”

NEW YORK CITY—Following the release of Ted Moudis Associates’   2016 Workplace Report , the firm’s Justin Mardex , senior associate of workplace strategy, sat down with GlobeSt.com to discuss the research in this EXCLUSIVE story. GlobeSt.com: What was the most striking revelation you found across workplaces? Justin Mardex: We analyzed over 2.5 million square feet of work space built over the past two years and the most striking thing we found was the amount of change realized in a very short period of time. Many of the progressive concepts that have been talked about in the office interiors business for years are finally being embraced and by companies that up until now hadn’t been ready. This includes activity-based work environments that are completely mobile, with unassigned seating and new categories of space that are adding diverse to the workplace. These formerly ‘fringe’ ideas are becoming the new normal. Also striking was that these trends are being applied across industries, from financial services, to digital media, consumer goods and professional services. GlobeSt.com: How is the proportion of individual versus shared space in the office changing and what new spaces are you seeing? Mardex : We saw an increase in the amount of shared space versus individual space but the definition of shared space is changing. We’ve looked at the diversity of alternative space in the office and developed three categories: collaboration spaces, including both open and enclosed meeting spaces; amenity spaces, including cafés, lounges, multipurpose areas, etc.; and focus spaces, including phone rooms, quiet rooms and libraries. In the report, nearly half—46%—of spaces in the workplace today fall into these alternative categories.  That means that on average, for every individual work space in an office there is another space shared by users. GlobeSt.com: What was a new trend that emerged nationwide over the past year and what’s next? Mardex: We looked at 17,000 work spaces across a number of different industries and found 67% of those work spaces were in a desking/benching configuration, as opposed to traditional cubicle environments. That said, there has been a renewed recognition of how important it is for people to be able to focus at work, and that not all work is well suited to an open environment. While the number of alternative spaces in the workplace is clearly on the rise, only 9% of those seats were dedicated to focus space. We are going to see this number rise as technology improves peoples’ mobility within the office and allows them to escape the hubbub in phone rooms, library space and furniture-based pods. Coming around the corner, we see an emphasis on shared focus space as a broader diversity of work types and styles becomes more accepted. GlobeSt.com: How can organizations maintain productivity while cutting back on usable square feet per individual? Mardex: Many companies are beginning to understand that it’s not just about packing people in because if you’re not careful, you can be efficient in terms of space use but at the cost of worker productivity and satisfaction. On average, companies across industries are now occupying space at about 142 usable square feet per seat. Getting below this number while providing an exceptional work environment can be done but it requires rethinking the relationship between the individual and the desk. It isn’t square footage per seat that matters but rather, it’s square footage per occupant.  Eighteen percent of the space we analyzed applied this philosophy and while on average, they have significantly more alternative work setting and amenities, they were also able to reduce the footprint per user by 20 usable square feet on average.  And to the point about productivity, our post occupancy data of one recent activity-based workplace indicated that 69% of staff believed they were more productive in that type of work arrangement and 92% said they wouldn’t want to go back to a traditional assigned seating model. This is the sweet spot—when you can create efficiency and simultaneously enhance the user experience, it’s a win-win.