According to Savills latest What Workers Want report, office workers in Cambridge are most concerned with the day to day running of their office space, with comfort, lighting and noise level topping the list of the most important factors.
The report, which surveyed office workers across the UK revealed Cambridge’s key priorities and frustrations. The results showed that comfort of the work place ranked the highest with up to 94% of respondents marking it as ‘important’, whilst lighting and noise level followed with 88% and 86% respectively.
Despite comfort coming top of the list, only 53% of people are currently satisfied with their office space. The biggest gripe for workers, however, is temperature, with a satisfaction gap of as much as 45%, this refers to the difference between how important it is and how satisfied people actually are This complaint is not unique to Cambridge with 50% of office workers across the UK continuing to battle over the thermostat.
Given the layout of the region, unsurprisingly Savills found that car parking in Cambridge continues to remain important, however this failed to make the top 20 overall for the UK highlighting changing commuter habits.
William Clarke, director in the business space agency team at Savills Cambridge, comments: “What’s important for Cambridge’s office workers very much concerns the day to day environment within the physical space, with actual design featuring fairly low on their list of priorities. At present there remains a fairly significant satisfaction gap, with many workers feeling that their office buildings aren’t delivering on some of these key factors. This is an opportunity, therefore, for landlords and developers to create a space that ultimately make workers feel comfortable and consequently enhances their overall productivity.”
Steve Lang, research director at Savills and author of the report, adds: “Many of the region’s occupiers see the facilities management of their office building as the most important aspect of their workspace, this is broadly in line with the sentiment across the UK, with comfort of work area, cleanliness, lighting and temperature all amongst the most important factors for the wider population. While we have seen a rise in different ways of working such as hot desking and co-working, the results show it’s still important for landlords to get the basics right.”
