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Too many British offices are dull and
uninspiring places to work, with layouts
that fail to encourage collaboration and
creativity, according to a survey of 2,000
office workers by Overbury.
More than a third (36%) of respondents said
their office was demotivating, with a quarter
(25%) describing it as “sedate and silent”.
Almost one in ten (8%) characterised their
workplace as a “creative and cultural desert”.
Interaction with employees is seen as
essential for innovation, with 61% saying their
best ideas arise from impromptu conversations
with colleagues and more than a quarter (27%)
stating that they are at their most creative when
talking informally to people around the office.
Yet 52% said that their workplace lacked
common or social areas where colleagues
could congregate. One third said they had no
opportunity to collaborate and 29% felt unable
to generate new ideas.
Six out of 10 (59%) employees said the
development of new ideas was vital to their
organisation; 50% agreed that their company
would be significantly more profitable if staff
were able to be more creative; and almost half
(48%) said sharing ideas would improve their
employer’s competitive position.
The five most popular ways employers can
boost creativity are to create more social space
(25%); improve heating/cooling (24%); provide
food and drinks (22%); install better quality
furnishings (21%); and offer nicer coffee (18%).
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Conservatism and a lack of
knowledge are preventing business
leaders from making the most of
social media to generate new ideas,
the Chartered Institute of Personnel
and Development (CIPD) warns.
A CIPD report by Silverman Research,
Social
media and employee voice: the current
landscape
, argues that social media enables
greater collaboration and knowledge
sharing between employees and provides an
open channel through which they can feed
views upwards.
Employers benefit from access to a blend of
qualitative and quantitative data that can drive
greater employee and customer insight.
However, the report points out that senior
leaders often lack understanding of how social
media works and give too much weight to the
potential pitfalls of a more open approach. This
prevents them from moving from a top-down
hierarchical culture to one of transparency,
collaboration and innovation.
The risk faced by such organisations is that
employees will take matters into their own hands
and form unofficial channels of communication
between colleagues and external audiences.
Jonny Gifford, research adviser at the CIPD,
said: “The risks associated with inaction are far
greater than those associated with embracing
social media as a channel for employee voice.We
need to remain alive to some of the potential
risks of social media – for example, will it make
organisations more susceptible to group think
and social herding, which aren’t always conducive
to organisational growth and success? But
employers should also be thinking hard about
the opportunity social media gives them to
simultaneously collect opinions and facilitate
discussion about genuine opinions and ideas and
to analyse the data in rich and meaningful ways.”
Regardless of the channels of communication
at play, the CIPD advises employers to create
the right conditions in their organisation
for employees’ voices to be heard so that
wrongdoing is stopped and good ideas and
innovation prosper. To do this they should:
n
Drive a culture of transparency and honesty, in
which employees trust the organisation enough
to express their views, whether they are invited
to offer them or do so of their own volition;
n
Always explain why certain suggestions cannot
be put into practice;
n
Give due recognition to employees who make
valuable suggestions for change and innovation;
and
n
Adopt social media to help develop these
conditions.
agenda
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magazine
05
Wires and cables blight small offices
The average small UK office contains more than 20 metres of cable per person, according to new
research by cable cover manufacturer D-Line. Its analysis of offices with 2-14 occupants highlights
the mess and safety risks posed by wiring and cables from computers, telephones, printers, servers,
fax machines, wireless routers etc. and the continued need for good cable management.
www.youtube.com/user/DLineCableCover
Boring office design dulls the senses
Breaking the mould: PENSON’s design for the L3 Google
Engineering HQ in Victoria, London features a variety of
shared space to encourage collaboration and innovative
thinking. These include Flight-Pods and The Cog, a quiet
space equipped with mobile phone jammers.