Smart Office Buildings: what features do people really want?

Thanks to advances in technology, the smart office building is an idea whose time has come. It brings with it a host of tangible benefits for employers and employees alike, as described in a report from British Land in partnership with WORKTECH Academy.

But what do people actually know about smart offices, what features would they like to see, and when do they expect to be working in one?

To find out, British Land ran a survey of 1,063 office workers in London (of whom 291 are fully involved in making decisions about the location of their organization) to explore the appetite for – and perceptions of – smart offices.

Re-thinking office space is certainly being discussed at the top level of organizations: 96 percent of decision-makers have heard of smart offices, and only 23 percent say they’re ‘aware but not knowledgeable’. It’s a different story for less senior workers: only 11 percent are ‘knowledgeable’, although a further 47 percent have heard of smart offices, even if they don’t know much about them.

What’s more, businesses largely appear to be convinced that a smart office is something they should be planning for: 90 percent of decision-makers see a business reason for working in one and 87 percent say they’ll require smart technology in their office the next time they move.

Favored features

This high level of confidence in smart offices seems to be based on a perception that they will trigger benefits for an organization. Decision-makers think the chief benefits of smart offices will be in raising productivity and wellbeing, bringing an expected 51 percent increase in each, on average. Appeals to new talent and employee loyalty aren’t far behind, with average perceived increases of 48 percent and 45 percent respectively.

Respondents were also given a list of possible smart office features and asked which of those they don’t already have would appeal to them. The most popular were:

• Self-adjusting lighting and window shades (53 percent don’t have this but think it would be helpful)
• The ability to personalize heat and light settings for one’s immediate space, and have those settings follow you around the building (53 percent)
• Circadian lighting systems that mimic natural daylight (51 percent)
• Heat and lighting systems that adjust automatically according to weather and occupancy (50 percent)

This suggests that the bulk of employees are most interested in features that make their workspace more comfortable. Decision-makers also find these appealing, alongside smart features that might increase efficiency. The most appealing features to them were:

• An app for booking desks and meeting rooms (35 percent)
• Meeting rooms where the screens work seamlessly with your device (34 percent)
• Desk or room sensors that track usage to monitor efficiency (34 percent)
• The ability to personalize heat and light settings (34 percent)
• Heat and lighting that adjusts according to weather and occupancy (34 percent)

Time to move?

So when are businesses likely to move into (or retrofit) a smart office? Asked when they would like to work in a smart office, workers said, on average, ‘within two years – but think it won’t actually happen for another four. Only 35 percent of employees think their employer is prioritizing smart office technology.

One factor that might be holding them back is cost: 58 percent of decision-makers say this is an obstacle to implementing smart elements in an office. Beyond that, generational differences may drive the decision-making process. Older decision-makers feel that the building (45 percent) and culture of the business (36 percent) might not be ready, while among their younger counterparts, 36 percent cite a lack of support for the concept from management.

Other obstacles highlighted were around privacy and security challenges, but here again, there are significant differences between the decision-making generations. Among those aged 50 or over, only 25 percent were concerned about privacy and vulnerability to hacking, compared to figures of 38 percent overall for privacy and 34 percent for hacking.

As often happens with new technology, the survey results suggest that the main impetus for smart offices may well come from a younger generation that is more accustomed to – and indeed expects – the changes to working practices that smart technology can bring.

Featured Image credit: geralt / Pixabay
In Post Image credit: geralt / Pixabay