A shared physical workspace is seen as a vital part of the employee experience
Despite the popularity of remote and home working, Cezanne HR’s survey - carried out in February 2022 - revealed 63% of employees believed the traditional physical workspace was an important part of a positive company culture. In fact, this feeling was even more evident with employees aged 54 or over, with a massive 85% of them saying that a physical place of work was vital.
The report also found that:
- 75% of people research a company’s culture when looking for a new job role
- 54% of employees would leave or have left a company because of a poor culture
- 27% of employees put improved rewards and recognition as their top priority for improving company culture
- 21% of employees cited improved mental health and wellbeing initiatives as an area for improvement
- 34% of employees said a higher salary was most important to them when looking for a new role. Flexible working was cited by 14%.
Paul Bauer, Cezanne HR’s Head of Content commented that: “Home and remote working is something many employees are enjoying the benefits of – especially when it comes to a healthy work-life balance.”
“However, the role of the physical workspace shouldn’t be underestimated. Not necessarily for working or completing day-to-day duties, though. Rather, acting as a hub for employees to meet, exchange ideas, socialise or simply enjoy those traditional ‘water cooler’ moments.
Sharon Quinn, Head of HR for European technology firm ByrneLooby agreed with this assessment, saying “In an office, you can maybe go for a coffee break and chat with other people, which can spark creativity or ideas. These ad-hoc meetings and coffee breaks don't work as well remotely as they can feel strange or ineffective for people.”
“Different people will have different circumstances. If they're living alone or feeling isolated, going into an office or shared place of work and seeing other people could be something they enjoy or need on a day-to-day basis.”
Many employees feel remote working can damage meaningful workplace relationships
Cezanne HR’s survey also revealed that 50% of employees felt hybrid or remote working were not beneficial to supporting great workplace relationships. Rather worryingly, nearly 31% of them believed that hybrid or remote working were outright harming them.
Speaking about the results, Paul went onto say that “Employees may not always want to work in an office, but that doesn’t mean they want to necessarily be apart from their colleagues.”
“Social interactions play a huge part in maintaining a healthy culture. Organisations need to make 2022 the year they engage with their people and find out how they can help their remote or flexible workers really feel part of a business, and not isolated or cast out on the peripheries.”
You can download the full report and actionable insights by following this link.
About Cezanne HR
Cezanne HR is a UK HR Software leader for mid-sized and growing UK and international organisations. They provide a modern, secure Cloud HR system that lets companies quickly and effectively digitise, streamline and improve human resources management.
Covering the full employee lifecycle, Cezanne HR’s online software includes integrated modules for core HR, recruitment, onboarding, absence and performance management, time management, career, succession planning and workforce analytics – together with an open API and integrations with leading third-party solutions.
With customers covering virtually every business sector, from financial services and legal firms to logistics and software developers, and experience reflecting decades of working with HR professionals worldwide, Cezanne HR is purposely designed to be exceptionally quick to deploy and easy to manage. The software takes out cost and complexity without sacrificing the flexibility or depth of features required to support complex and changing HR needs.
