Enhancing Staff Engagement Through Office Design

Based on the July 2024 Survey on Office Usage, CBRE analyzed how offices can help improve employee engagement.

Key findings include:
 
1. Improving employee engagement is the main objective of office redesigns and upgrades
 

The number one reason for implementing office changes is to improve employee engagement. Some 40% of companies indicated that they planned to increase investment in improving their office environments, well above the 5% that planned to reduce spending. Amid Japan’s tight labor market, more companies are making a financial commitment to improving their office environments to attract talent and enhance the engagement levels of existing staff.

2.Workplace embodying the company's vision, created through collaboration between management and employees, is crucial
 
The objectives provided by the “engaged employees” for coming to office match precisely with the major functions of the office prioritized by corporate management. Members of the engaged employees are also far more likely to prioritize the degree to which they understand and agree with the company's vision. As offices play a key role in disseminating the company’s vision to its employees, they must function as a concrete expression of that vision to improve employee engagement. The more that employees can determine their own working spaces and styles, the stronger their attachment to the company becomes, and the more strongly they desire to contribute to its success. Involving the staff in the office design process is therefore an essential means of improving levels of engagement.

3.Spaces which enhance mutual understanding between employees are most effective at raising engagement
 
Employees whose offices have undergone redesign and upgrading are more likely to report the effects of improved engagement. Specifically, the introduction of “client reception spaces and spaces available for collaboration with visitors” registered the highest engagement impact score (Scores expressed as an effect of improved engagement). Office design that enhances communication and deepens mutual understanding between the employers, employees, and their clients, has been shown to be most effective for improving engagement.

4.Non-office factors that can improve engagement: frameworks that supports workers’ personal growth
 
One of the key methods of improving employee engagement apart from changing office layout is for companies to incorporate frameworks that allow workers to truly experience and recognize their own growth or those which serve to support that process. Spaces for communication among workers and with clients, or those for collaboration such as cafes, may well allow employees to feel a sense of personal growth, depending on how they are used. Furthermore, the implementation of frameworks that support professional development can both improve engagement levels thereby strengthening the company’s human capital.