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Majority of UK Organisations to Increase Office Density and Decrease Office Space

Higher office densities and flexible working create new challenges for workplace managers

London – November 11th, 2010 – Today the British Institute of Facilities Management, the UK’s leading association for facilities management professionals, revealed that almost two thirds of organisations are actively trying to reduce the office space they occupy, by increasing the density of the occupiers it houses. The results come from the BIFM’s recent Post-recessional Workplaces Review, conducted by Leesman, a workplace effectiveness survey, data capture and audit service provider for the workplace design and management industry.

Just a few weeks after confirmation of further severe public sector spending cuts, the poll conducted amongst BIFM’s members and workplace industry insiders, indicated that 58% of respondent organisations are actively trying to condense the office space they use, by increasing office density. This suggests that businesses are following George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer’s lead in compressing more Treasury staff into his existing Whitehall office spaces.

This also echoes recent studies by leading corporate real estate specialists, pointing towards a substantial third-quarter drop in confidence amongst those looking for new office space (1). The volume of space “under offer” dropped back to levels of November 2009, after showing encouraging signs of growing confidence earlier in the year. The two studies point to occupiers preferring to stay put and explore more efficient ways of using the space they have, rather than venture into a market where rents remain strong, but economic stability remains uncertain.
Do higher office densities mean that offices are becoming more crowded or are we working differently and using space more effectively? It certainly seems the latter, according to further results from the BIFM study, which highlights that two-thirds of organisations (61%) are “actively encouraging” remote and flexible working for all staff.  This shows that increasing numbers of employers are looking to displace their teams away from expensive corporate environments, perhaps as a further way of releasing yet more space.

“We are clearly seeing a trend amongst those organisations responding to our survey. Each square metre of the workplace is having to work harder,” says Ian Fielder, BIFM Chief Executive. “It will have to both house increasing numbers of staff and act as the ‘mother ship’ to those nomadically displaced to home or elsewhere, when they do need to return for face-to-face activities or a simple corporate re-charge.”

“Businesses are quite obviously looking at ways to reduce expenditure on office space. But compressing occupant densities and or dispersing teams with remote or flexible working strategies bring with it new challenges in terms of infrastructure and workspace design” says Tim Oldman, Managing Director at Leesman “At Leesman, we have seen whilst most employees accept the trend for the loss of their solo office, or the increase in occupant densities, they expect a range of other spaces that they can seek out to support their varying work. Therefore it is patently no longer acceptable to throw in some unallocated desks to a plan and refer to them as the ‘hot’ or ‘hotelling’ desks and think your dispersed teams will be catered for.”

With 71% of respondents also reporting that their organisation saw their workplaces as “strategic assets in the development of their business”, organisations are clearly looking for more effectiveness from both their staff and their property.

The full results of the survey will be published in a report, which will be available in November.

(1) Source: CBRE (CB Richard Ellis), Central London Offices Monthly Overview, October 2010

Tags: BIFM, British Institute of Facilities Management, Leesman, Workplace Audit, Workplace Review, Workplace Satisfaction