Impact of employee satisfaction with facilities on self-assessed productivity support

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the relationship between satisfaction with buildings, facilities and services and perceived productivity support and to test whether the findings from a similar study of Batenburg and Van der Voordt (2008) are confirmed in a repeat study after 10 years with more recent data. Design/methodology/approach:...

The impact of workplaces and self-management practices on the productivity of knowledge workers

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the impact of workplaces, which support concentration and communication, and self-management practices on individual and team productivity. The underlying hypothesis is that the impact of these variables on the two levels of productivity (individual and team) and the two dimensions of productivity (quantity...

Accommodating new ways of working: lessons from best practices and worst cases

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore which factors may explain the high or low percentages of satisfied employees in offices with shared activity-based workplaces. Design/methodology/approach – The paper compares data on employee satisfaction from two cases with remarkably high satisfaction scores and two cases with significantly...

Priorities in Accommodating office user preferences: Impact on office users decision to stay or go

Purpose When current accommodation is unsatisfactory, office organisations consider relocating to new accommodation that optimally facilitates their main processes and supports image and financial yield. However, due to high vacancy levels, public opinion and governmental awareness oppose new office construction. Reusing existing buildings could...

Adaptability: How to accommodate changing user preferences

Purpose: When current accommodation is unsatisfactorily, office organisations consider relocating to new accommodation that optimally facilitate their main processes, supporting image and financial yield. However, due to high vacancy levels, public opinion and governmental awareness oppose new office construction. Reusing existing buildings...

Redesign - upgrading the building stock to meet (new) user demands

Financial and real estate crises and “new ways of working” reduce the need for office space. As a consequence, office markets become replacement markets without a quantitative need for new office buildings: new buildings drive out bad buildings. In the Netherlands, currently 14% of the office space is vacant, of which 60% is redundant or...

Redesign: Upgrading the building stock to meet (new) user demands

Financial and real estate crises and “new ways of working” reduce the need for office space. As a consequence, office markets become replacement markets without a quantitative need for new office buildings: new buildings drive out bad buildings. In the Netherlands, currently 14% of the office space is vacant, of which 60% is redundant or...

Measuring employee satisfaction in new offices - the WODI toolkit

Purpose: This paper presents a toolkit to measure employee satisfaction and perceived labour productivity as affected by different workplace strategies. The toolkit is being illustrated by a case study of the Dutch Revenue Service.<br/>Methodology: The toolkit has been developed by a review of literature and tools for data-collection. The...

The New Transformation Meter: A new evaluation instrument for matching the market supply of vacant office buildings and the market demand for new homes

It is important to have an effective means of determining the transformation potential of office buildings that are unoccupied or are likely to become unoccupied in the near future. We need to be able to measure this transformation potential both at location and at building level, and it will be convenient to be able to carry out both a quick,...

Performance of office buildings from a user's perspective

In the field of environmental psychology a long tradition exists in Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) or building-in-use studies. Nowadays facility managers and real estate managers seem to show a growing interest in ex post evaluation of buildings, too, particularly in connection to ex ante assessments in the briefing and design phase. The aim of...

A new life: Transformation of vacant office buildings into housing

Office buildings are experiencing vacancy. This leads to financial problems for the owners and social problems for the community, e.g. vandalism and deterioration. A solution may be found in transformation of vacant buildings and changing the buildings’ program. In the Dutch situation, housing is a valid function, given the tight market. Housing...

An integral tool for the diagnostic evaluation of non-territorial offices

Many organizations now have innovative workplaces, with desk-sharing<br/>and desk-rotation. The main objectives are 1) to improve organizational<br/>performance by better communication, and 2) cost reduction by the more<br/>efficient use of accommodation and other facilities. Although some research has been done into the use and experience of...

Productivity and employee satisfaction in flexible workplaces

In the early 1990s, a few organisations in the Netherlands began to experiment with flexible workplaces. Traditional cellular offices and the open‐plan offices or team‐oriented bullpen spaces in which everyone had their own fixed workplace were no longer a matter of course. Making use of modern information and communication technology, the...

The vacancy risk meter: An instrument for defining the lower end of the office premises market

Corporate culture and design: Theoretical reflections on case-studies in the web design industry

In this paper we present a framework to study the relationship between culture and office design. Different levels of culture are discussed as well as various ways in which culture can be expressed in the physical work environment. The framework is applied to contemporary changes in organisational culture and office design. Offices of...

Good buildings drive out bad buildings

In the study 'Offices for Living in', published in CIB W104 Open Building Implementation, Mexico 2002, an instrument was developed for measuring the potential of transforming (soon-to-be) empty office premises into homes. As a follow-up, this survey 'Good Buildings Drive out Bad Buildings' looks explicitly at the lower end of the office premises...

Offices for living in: An instrument for measuring the potential for transforming offices into homes

A large number of office premises seem difficult to rent out because they no longer meet the demands of the market. A solution must be found for these premises and also for office buildings that have been empty for longer periods. Reallocation or transformation to other functions such as homes can be envisaged here. In addition, due to the lack...