The Covid pandemic has revealed one thing: The office and the role of office space are increasingly changing. Home office and hybrid work are becoming more and more popular. The fewer employees there are in the office, the fewer jobs are required. At the same time, companies are growing but do not want to increase the area. So how big does an office have to be? How can you optimize office space?
Key facts
- There is no general estimate of how much space a company needs in the office. It depends much more on the use and utilization of office space.
- Companies want to save operating and rental costs, as they represent the second-largest cost block in most companies.
- The increased use of home office by employees enables companies to quickly optimize their offices.
- Hybrid working helps to optimize space by giving employees more flexibility and freedom, but by saving costs in the long term.
How much space does an office need?
Well, there is no general answer to that. This is because there are many different factors involved in the use and space of offices. Because every company has different needs and different basic spatial requirements: Although the space requirement can be determined with numerous computers, the actual requirement depends on many different circumstances:
- Company location: Whether a company is based in a metropolitan area, in suburban areas or in the countryside has a significant influence on the size and costs of the office.
- Growth efforts: Every company wants to grow in a way. However, when the number of employees increases, the need for space can also increase.
- Space use concept: How is the office space being used? Is there a space use concept? Does the office consist of many small individual offices or an open-plan office.
- company policy: What is the company's attitude towards new trends such as hybrid work
- Employee behavior: How should and want to work in the company in the future. On site, working from home, or hybrid?
- sector: Can space requirements be changed at all? This can sometimes be difficult for manufacturing companies.
Why change surfaces?
Numerous studies confirm that office usage costs for companies often represent the second-largest cost block after personnel costs. Optimizing space therefore has numerous advantages: By adapting offices to actual use and occupancy, excess space can be redesigned or costs can be saved. Especially in times of energy crisis helps the company significantly.
But redesigning spaces can also lead to higher employee satisfaction and productivity. If employees feel comfortable, this is a reason to visit the office more regularly, to work strategically with others and to interact socially. Optimization is therefore not just about reducing costs, but about increasing efficiency in general.
What are the trends in the conversion of land?
In order to take advantage of this savings potential, various trends have emerged in recent months. This includes:
Flex Office/Co-Working Areas
So-called flex offices represent a first but very slow approach to space optimization. Many offices are empty or only partially used due to the increased use of home office or remote work. This is because companies expect this trend to continue and that less space will be required per employee in the future. The exact amount of space required is completely unclear.
In order to bridge the time between actual implementation and space optimization, companies in particular in metropolitan regions are increasingly renting into flex offices and letting old rental agreements expire. This allows companies to see how much space they need within a period of 12 to 24 months and then make decisions. For example, the share of subletting in Berlin rose from two to six percent from 2019 to 2020.
The disadvantage: The company's own office space is abandoned and not optimized. It is only about saving costs — and only in the short term. This is a very uncertain concept, particularly for employees. This is because office location and the associated journey are important criteria for employees, especially in large cities.
Hybrid offices
On the other hand, take a long-term approach hybrid offices. A global corporate policy with several attendance days a week and shared desks are two central factors in this model.
According to recent studies, around 85% of employees in offices could do their jobs from home. At the same time, employees are speaking loudly Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln This opportunity comes true almost twice a week. If the workplaces in the office are also shared, it is not necessary to assign each employee their own desk. The need for space is therefore falling.
And that offers enormous potential for savings. If employees take advantage of this flexibility, offices could be optimized quickly and easily — and ultimately reduce or redesign space. For example, space optimization in offices is directly linked to employee behavior. Although this process takes longer, it offers companies and employees benefits at the same time. Communication is the key to success here. If this is successful, hybrid work can promote space optimization and at the same time make companies more attractive as employers.
Fewer areas: Will there now be a “dispute over jobs?”
With that hybrid work and space optimization works equally well, a modern office and space use concept makes sense. Organization and communication within the company play a central role here.
A central tool can help to facilitate communication and at the same time guarantee employees a job on site. Employees can quickly and easily book a desk for a whole day or a few hours using workplace booking software. This helps with organization in the office and with colleagues. A positive side effect is the collection of long-term data and ultimately the saving of costs.
Introduce hybrid work with Seatti & save costs
With our Workstation booking software You can optimize space based on this same data, while at the same time giving your employees more flexibility.
Not only do you implement them particularly quickly in the Microsoft ecosystem, but make hybrid work intuitive and easy. Seatti not only makes it possible to book workstations, meeting rooms and parking spaces, but offers employees the opportunity to talk to each other via Site overview to date.
In addition, the integrated data analysis to track office utilization using anonymized booking data. Collect long-term data and then make data-driven decisions regarding your office investment. This allows you to see where you can make potential savings.
