Fellowes Brands has announced the results of its survey of over 6,000 employees across Europe, 1,000 of which are from the UK, revealing 9 in 10 (91%) of all European employees and 89 per cent of UK employees say satisfaction is important to them in their workspace, regardless of whether the working location is at the corporate office or the home office. Moreover, 88 per cent of UK employees say satisfaction improves their productivity by more than 25 per cent.
By helping to uncover attitudes of European and British employees towards workspace satisfaction and productivity, the survey findings help inform employers how best to navigate the new 'hybrid' model of working, where a portion of time is spent working within the corporate office, and a portion working from a home office.
The survey results highlight the importance of workspace satisfaction and are supported by additional social media sentiment analysis conducted by Fellowes Brands, which found that there were 1.9 million mentions of workspace satisfaction in the past 12-months, up from 1.5 million mentions in the previous 12-month period.
Following a period where many Britons spent a year working almost exclusively from home, Fellowes Brands' survey reveals that 36 per cent of UK employees who work from home say they feel more productive in the office, and 29 per cent say they feel more productive when working in the new 'hybrid' working environment.
In addition to uncovering British attitudes about the modern workspace, the survey also revealed interesting commonalities between employees across Europe - in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain, as well as the UK. In comparing results from all the European countries, the data painted a picture of four 'core elements' that make up workspace satisfaction.
As identified by the Fellowes Brands survey results, the Four Core Elements of Workspace Satisfaction are:
A theme running throughout the four core elements also points to the need for employers to ensure the correct equipment in the hybrid workspace:
Jeremy Cooper, Fellowes Brands UK Marketing Manager said, "the modern workspace is rapidly evolving, and with that comes a change in the tools that employees need to be successful and productive in their work. As employers begin to design new hybrid ways of working, ensuring that employers outfit their employees for both corporate and home office working will be key.
"Employers must ensure that their employees' workstations are optimised for each of the Four Core Elements of Workspace Satisfaction. Doing so will keep employees safe, satisfied, and productive. At Fellowes Brands, we understand that hybrid working is the future and have built our hybrid workspace tools to meet the demands of this future, ensuring productivity for the long-term."
The full survey results and their analysis can be found in Fellowes Brands' new whitepaper, entitled 'The Importance of Workspace Satisfaction', authored by productivity expert, Martin Geiger, which can be downloaded at fellowes.com/fellowes-satisfaction.