Work affects every aspect of life, from the economy to communities, family and health. The At Work 2023 workplace trends report featuring, Envoy’s proprietary platform data looked at more than 31 million workplace entries around the globe, adding to the conversation around workplace solutions that build better workplace experiences.
In the world of positive psychology, motivation helps us adapt, function productively and maintain well-being in the face of opportunities and threats. Whether it’s professional development, remote work or burnout, we are preparing to fail if we don’t know what motivates our employees and how to apply that motivation. According to Leesman, offices work well when they embrace informality, visibility and connection.
When evaluating your workplace’s effectiveness, be mindful of your employees’ unique needs and recent life roles, such as parenting or caregiving. There are also varying generational office expectations and usages. To provide the best tools, resources and spatial environment, you will also want to examine and deeply understand what your employees do in their roles and work activities and what’s in the pipeline.
When thinking about office usage, “purposeful presence” also comes into play. After working remotely during the pandemic, employees now take a much more logistical and multi-purpose approach to office usage. Fully remote companies are on the rise too. While aspects like flexible working or residing in a rural area or a more affordable city are some benefit boosters, remote working can drag on well-being with a high risk of burnout.
Here’s what Envoy found about the trends in office usage.
Cities
Cities experience the same seasonality pattern, with attendance dips around the summer and winter holidays. However, Dallas and Atlanta had slower growth rates in workplace traffic, and Washington, D.C., and New York City had growth rates far surpassing other U.S. metro areas.
Days in the office, scheduling and spaces
- 71% of employees preferred going into the office in the middle of the week. Traffic was highest on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and lowest on Fridays.
- When scheduling workplace days, 81% scheduled to work onsite on the day they were heading into the office, while 10% scheduled their day in the office over a month in advance.
- 64% of workplace leaders added more spaces and amenities to their workplaces in 2022.
Team using the most desks
Some job functions are better equipped to work remotely. Others are more dependent on onsite collaboration and tools or in industries like health care or manufacturing, where they depend on the workplace to do their jobs.
The most common teams to book desks onsite:
- Engineering made up a quarter of bookings (26%).
- HR and Operations teams booked the least amount of desks. These teams are better enabled to perform their job functions remotely.
- Finance (19%), IT (15%), Sales (14%), and Marketing (13%). These teams rely on collaboration and being in the office to work on their projects. They may also need special equipment that is available only in the office.
Going back to IT, the bootcamp market, which teaches people to code, is booming, with a market size of 418.08 million in 2022 with forecast growth of 12.27% CAGR from 2022 to 2030 – to more than $1 billion. And did you know, according to a study, 4% of non-tech workers have now learned to code?
These career opportunities will, in turn, affect what will and won’t work in the future of office usage and functionality. As we undergo rapid technological, skill-related and economic changes, organizations need leaders and managers to create great workplaces to help reduce stress and combat burnout through holistic strategies.
This article was written by Rachel Montañez from Forbes and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.
