Lack of knowledge about workplace effectiveness

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Despite this overwhelming research linking office design with employee satisfaction and staff productivity, South African companies are generally not changing their workspaces in line with these findings. According to Peter Townshend, managing director of Know More, the research and consultancy arm of workplace specialists Giant Leap, the two main reasons are cost and ignorance.

"There is a tremendous lack of knowledge around workplace effectiveness and staff satisfaction," says Townshend. "The majority of companies simply do not know how their staff want to work and what spaces they need. Those that do know are scared to make changes to their office design and upgrade their workspaces due to the expense involved. The reality, however, is that if a new office is designed based on in-depth research and analysis, its cost will quickly be recouped with increased productivity, lower absenteeism and lower staff turn-over."

Benefits of change

This refusal to change is costing South African companies millions of rands, according to Townshend. "We not only need to design workspaces that enhance the production of those doing knowledge work, but we also need to create spaces that attract knowledge workers. These spaces need to support both focused work and collaboration," says Townshend. Know More was created to research workspace theory and to show companies in South Africa the benefits of changing the way they work and creating effective workspaces.

"Through our research, we have a solid idea of how offices are being created over the world. We're also starting to get a strong idea about the South African office space climate. We find out as much theory as we can and then combine this with information we gather from our clients. Based on this, we then recommend the best possible workplace design for that particular institution.

Online survey

"Know More uses a range of data-collection tools, including a workplace satisfaction survey, space optimisation analysis, workshops and interviews, and analysis tools to paint a comprehensive picture of a company's physical environment. Know More's workplace satisfaction analysis is an online survey that provides in-depth information on how satisfied staff is with, as well as how important they consider a range of workplace activities, features and facilities," Townshend says.

With this data, Know More can provide a thorough analysis and provide the organisation with firm recommendations on how to best design their offices to increase staff satisfaction. "The workplace satisfaction survey is a quick and easy tool to set up and run and yet it is tremendously powerful. It gives us a wealth of data that helps us get a very solid idea of not only how staff is interacting with their current space, but what space will best increase satisfaction and therefore staff productivity," he concludes.