London’s office workers changing the face of the Capital’s workplaces

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• published: 20 Jul 2016
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London’s office workers changing the face of the Capital’s workplaces and surrounding areas - study shows Watch our video for a look at the changing face of London offices and what the future of the capital’s work places looks like London’s regeneration in the last 10 years is having a huge impact on what top talent want as standard when it comes to where they work, not just inside the offices themselves but also outside and the areas where they are based. In the wake of the changing face of London’s inner-city, the report shows there is now a growing desire from workers to be based in hot spots which provide them with the best in food, drink and leisure options – even if just on their lunch breaks. Strutt & Parker conducted the survey of 1,000 Greater London office workers to delve into what they are looking for in a workplace and how businesses can respond to this and it shows that younger workers ranked proximity to food and drink options (65% ranked it as important when determining an ideal work location) almost as highly as commuting time (which 72% identified as being important). The availability of services such as gyms and dry cleaners were also an important factor as were leisure options. And while it seems to be more about location, location, location when it comes to attracting top talent, the research also looked at what workers want on the inside. The research found that communal working areas is a big factor for younger workers, who when asked which office features were most important to them ranked staff breakout and coffee areas, informal spaces and formal meetings rooms as being more important to them than older workers did. Collaborative/informal meeting areas were only seen as important by 32% of all employees; whilst 42% of ‘future leaders’ saw them as important. ‘Future leaders’ appear to also be leading a trend away from personal workspace, with only 57% of them ranking it as a priority compared to 70% of all respondents. London office workers also reported a wide range of preferences in terms of their ideal work environment, with open-plan working ranking behind home working and private/cellular offices in terms of popularity. Strutt & Parker suggests that the dominance of open-plan as a work environment may not match well with what employees actually want. Younger workers also ranked mobile work tools as the key devices for doing their job. 67% and 61% said that mobile phones and laptops respectively were important to them, whilst desktop computers and landlines were only thought of as important by 48% and 25% respectively. Experts from Strutt & Parker say this preference for mobile working should be met by businesses with increased investment into mobile working tools. With Millennials used to the best technology, they want their employers to be innovative, and it’s expected this will begin to be reflected in office fit-outs as businesses aim not only to attract and retain the best talent but also enable them to operate at maximum efficiency. Advances in technology, which in the long term could extend to the use of robots and automated phone and PC processes, could relieve office workers of more mundane tasks, potentially increasing the need for collaborative space that stimulates creativity. For a glimpse of the new urban office life take a look at our video featuring some of the property industries leading experts as they discuss everything we want and need from our office spaces.