A Peek Into Employees’ Workplace Preferences

A recent workplace design survey commissioned by Capital One sought insight from 2,500 professionals across five U.S. metro areas.

In recent years, workplace design and environment have become a significant part of company culture — and a tool to help drive productive, innovative, and collaborative work. Earlier in 2017, Capital One oversaw a Work Environment Survey of office professionals across five major markets (New York City, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, and Washington, DC), that revealed the influence that design has on employees in the workplace. The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research.

workplace design
The Capital One office in San Francisco, CA features examples of innovation in workplace design.

Aggregated results from workers across the country included the following findings:

Design Drives Innovation: 82% of office professionals believe companies can’t encourage innovation unless their workplace environment is innovative, and 63% feel innovation isn’t reflected at all in their current workplace’s design.

Local Culture is Missing: 69% believe local culture isn’t currently reflected in their company’s workplace design.

Flexibility is a Must: 85% of office professionals surveyed believe flexible workplace design is important and 82% of office professionals have their best ideas when they’re working in flexible space options.

Wanted — Attractive Design Elements: The most desired design elements include: natural light (62%); artwork and creative imagery (44%); and easily reconfigurable furniture and spaces (43%).

workplace design
In Chicago, this Capital One office area provides flexibility and space for collaboration.

A Gap in Health & Wellness: Most office professionals said their company doesn’t currently offer mother’s nursing room (76%), and environmentally friendly programs (70%). When asked to prioritize on-site benefits, the top three responses were healthy food and beverage options (41%), relaxation/social areas (36%), and health/wellness centers and programming (35%).

Location, location, location?: When considering a new job, nearly 2 in 3 (64%) office professionals believe that workplace design and environment is equally important or more important than office location.

How Do Millennials’ Preferences Differ?

In addition to aggregated results, the Work Environment Survey looked at the above six factors with the focus on responses from millennials:

Design Drives Innovation: 86% of office professionals believe companies can’t encourage innovation unless their workplace environment is innovative, and 57% feel innovation isn’t reflected at all in their current workplace’s design.

Local Culture is Missing: 63% believe local culture isn’t currently reflected in their company’s workplace design.

workplace design
In Washington, DC, this Capital One workspace features common spaces, as well as areas for privacy and solo tasks.

Flexibility is a Must: 88% of office professionals have their best ideas when they’re working in flexible space options.

Wanted — Attractive Design Elements: The most desired design elements include: natural light (66%), artwork and creative imagery (51%) and easily reconfigurable furniture and spaces (48%).

A Gap in Health & Wellness: Most office professionals said their company doesn’t currently offer mother’s nursing room (75%), and environmentally friendly programs (65%). When asked to prioritize on-site benefits, the top three responses were healthy food and beverage options (39%), relaxation/social areas (36%), and health/wellness centers and programming (33%).

Location, location, location?: When considering a new job, more than 2 in 3 (71%) office professionals believe that workplace design and environment is equally important or more important than office location.

Survey Methodology

The Capital One Work Environment Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 500 office professionals employed full-time in each of the following DMAs: Chicago, Dallas, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. between May 24 and June 7, 2017, using an e-mail invitation and an online survey. Quotas have been set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the employed population in each DMA.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. For the interviews conducted in this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 2.0 percentage points overall, and 4.4 percentage points in each DMA from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the samples.