The "Your Office" Research 2021

Thoughts and possible

conclusions based on the survey’s findings.

2021

The “Your Office”

Research

The “Your Office” Research

Introduction The pandemic has turned the tables, both literally and figuratively. Each day we think about this, we keep looking for answers and contemplating the future, which mostly means looking at the possible methods of preparing for the general uncertainty.

As a result, saying things like the virus has triggered global effects, accelerated digitalization, had a lasting impact on our personal priorities and has shaken our view on the world a little seems something of a commonplace now. But what this means in detail, in our everyday lives, we cannot yet grasp.

Now, however, we felt that the best we could do was to stop for a while and sit down to talk to you. Furniture, layouts and spaces give shape to ideas: but first we need to think. We invited all participants to do just that, and, with the help of Office@Home, we took a comprehensive look at the near future of our workspaces.

This document does not summarize the conclusion of this reflection, quite on the contrary: now we can only gauge the starting point as this great collective contemplation about the right ways of working is just about to start.

We’re just beginning to assess exactly what has happened and is happening to us, to our companies. This study was, in effect, also about collecting information and good practices.

And it may will never end. We thank all participants for their contribution, and we wish you all an enlightening read!

Now that the dust is slowly starting to settle and, thanks to the vaccines, there seems to be a realistic scenario of how our shared future might look, we wanted to explore what's on the minds of business decisionmakers when it comes to work and workspace.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the most indepth domestic research in Hungary, involving the largest sample to date, addressing both the phenomena and challenges associated with the changes of the home office and office spaces.

It’s important to keep in mind that even though questionnaires are exact, scientifically accepted means of research, the lines below do not reflect “reality”, rather the experiences and ideas of the leaders of 237 Hungarian companies in a situation that’s new to all of us. Kinnarps' mission has always been to provide optimal conditions for intellectual work.

The “Your Office” Research

Gábor

Paukovics International Workplace

Strategist, Kinnarps AB

Vera

Kápolnás Founder, Trainer, Office@Home

Prepared by: Research material: Gábor Paukovics - Kinnarps Hungary Kft. and Vera Kápolnás - Office@Home,

Professional ambassadors: Mária Balogh-Mázi, CEO of Dreamjobs, Szilvia Bogdán, HR Director of

Nexon, Katalin Márton HR & CSR Director of Praktiker

Copy: Gergő Benedek

Design: Gazduig Creative Agency

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01

About the Survey We asked workers of a total of 237 companies,

and approximately half of the respondents work

at large corporations employing at least 200 people.

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The “Your Office” Research

Company size 35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0% <10

employees

11-100

employees

101-200

employees

201-500

employees

>500

employees

Almost half of the respondents are classic office workers engaged in the technological, financial, commercial and HR sectors (approx. 45%).

20%

15%

10%

5%

Education

Agricultural industry

Non profit sector

Telecommunication

Public service

Logistics

Pharmaceutical

Energy

Automotive industry

Service sector

Marketing, media

Design and build

SSC/GBS

Manufacturer

HR

Finance, law

Retail and wholesale

Technology

0%

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The “Your Office” Research

Whom did we ask exactly?

After lengthy analysis, we finally targeted HR managers and company management while preparing our survey because we considered them the most competent in the issue.

We feel that it is very typical of this entire phenomenon that it wasn’t entirely obvious who were in charge of this matter at companies before either. Simply there is no established and accepted practice – that is why it "lands" in the hands of HR and it is left to the company management to decide what the content of the home office policy should be, for example, or how to keep the equipment and infrastructure of an office up to date.

Kinnarps has been helping companies create optimal working conditions based on scientific grounds for years, so the fact that there are no established channels to communicate with has been a daily problem of ours for long. Typically we have to formulate our message tailored to the different factors and aspects of 4-5 departments – including the CEO, the highest management function in the company, but usually this is the channel with the least capacity in terms of time.

This was one of the reasons why we specifically asked about HR involvement in the survey, both in terms of the pre- and post-Covid period.

Every second respondent has already involved HR in “decisions related to the office”, and the majority (73.8%) would consider it appropriate if this became the accepted practice in the future.

Were HR involved in office-related decisions or changes in the period before 2020?

47

Yes, but only

occasionally

42

I have no

information

114 34

Yes,

regularly

They were

not involved

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The “Your Office” Research

Collective reflection on work is becoming more and more important, extensive and comprehensive. According to Vera Kápolnás, expert of Office@Home, there’s an international trend of large companies establishing project teams reporting directly to top management, made up of workers from various departments, where colleagues spend part of their time collecting problems, ideas and requests concerning the workspace to be used by this project team for formulating specific strategic proposals, which they then turn into decisions with top management.

Companies like GitHub, Facebook, Google and Twitter are now preparing for creating positions with the single task of managing remote work.

This trend already shows in our survey, even though only faintly, by the involvement of HR slowly becoming a general practice at companies at least.

Ultimately in our survey we asked what we think workers in charge should consider when laying down the new rules of work at every company, regardless of what happens to this particular area of responsibility in the near future.

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02

Pandemic: Context

or catalyst?

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What will be less in the office?

The sector seems to think that the entire Covid situation gave an opportunity to face issues that arose years ago but we rather swept them under the carpet because they seemed too far-reaching and complex. Because when does a working community have time and capacity for the work related to the organization of work itself?

There could be a stark difference in terms of competitiveness between those who seize this opportunity and those who don’t.

Focus room, phonebooth

Breakout space

Other: gym

Dedicated table

There won't be any reduction/ no data

Meeting room

Cellular offices

00

50

100

150

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The “Your Office” Research

A few

lessons: 01

Digital tools allow for well-organized

remote work.

02

Project management software can replace the majority of e-mails, while e-mails can replace most meetings. Respecting each other’s time is becoming more and more wide-spread, as opposed to the “pyramid-like” practice where managers could freely drag employees to meetings or ad hoc tasks. In agile working originating from the IT field there seems to be less and less space for this if an organization wishes to stay competitive.

03

One of the main lessons of teleworking is that trust is fruitful and the majority of people perform better when not under continuous supervision and if they have more freedom in organizing their own work. In how many companies do all members of the collective get involved in the processes of planning and organizing their own working conditions?

04

Flexible working offers great opportunities, but we need to learn how to get the best out of them: we need to build the IT infrastructure, we need to dedicate efforts to train the proper use of project management software and to establish the new communication framework of working. Teleworking can be efficient to those with a suitable living situation and suitable skills, but the corporation needs to communicate its expectations transparently so that this can be a change that boosts efficiency instead of one resulting in fallback.

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03

And what

about offices?

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How did employees

evaluate the office

in the pre-2020

period?

1% 6% 20%

No one was

satisfied Employees were mostly not

satisfied with the office It is hard to tell, the overall

satisfaction rate was quite mixed

73%

Employees were mostly

satisfied with the office

The biggest lesson regarding the question above is the fact that 20% of respondents claim it is “hard to say” what colleagues think of the office and a further 7% claims that the working space is perceived negatively. (Of course, even the wording of the most positive answer doesn’t imply fully convincing satisfaction.)

All in all, the respondents’ answers suggest that the satisfaction of nearly one third of Hungarian office workers is at least dubious. We cannot exactly know why respondents feel that way. This is quite a sobering figure in 2021 – one would think that the dynamic office constructions of the past 5-10 years led to a slightly higher level of satisfaction. The question is how true this hypothesis actually is.

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Before the pandemic, only one third of the companies participating in the survey involved the collective in shaping working conditions via questionnaires or other methods.

We asked the respondents in an open-ended question what they considered the most common challenges in office work today.

The answers centered around a few main motifs, and in the followings we’ll present these along with a few expressive direct quotes.

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04

Fears related

to hybrid work

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What’ll happen with office work is a question for many:

“Many people shy away from office presence

because remote working works well.”

“Luring back” will impose a challenge.

The practice of communication is far from being considered resolved in the new situation. Certain respondents say they “have to communicate more with colleagues about daily tasks.” It is an important aspect that, in remote operation, “the integration of new entrants without a community” has become more difficult.

Even though on the whole, some respondents confirm the overall sectoral experience according to which working from home (under appropriate circumstances!) can indeed boost efficiency, there are some who miss the possibility of spontaneous communication:

“Ad hoc consultation is slower and more difficult because the team

isn’t at the same place”

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This is a tiny sign of the difference between the already mentioned working culture managing the working hours of others more freely and the block working method allowing for “deep” work. If we are lucky, this is an opportunity for development that could be brought from the teleworking setup to the world of office work: colleagues will miss the possibility of concentrated work done in the serenity of their homes if the frameworks of such work aren’t established at the workplace.

The answers reveal a general anxiety about the near future: life could start again slowly, but we are just about to enter the summer holiday season. It would be great to dedicate this temporary period to conscious planning and preparation, but the workforce isn’t too confident and there are no clear directions:

Some perceive “reintegrating colleagues into office work after home office” as a challenge, while others believe that it is “convincing managers that the home office setup is viable too” that will prove to be challenging.

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Organizational-level challenges

brought into the spotlight by

the changes triggered

by COVID-19 2%

0%

4%

6%

10% 8%

14% 12%

16%

There is non Company culture, lack of cooperation

internal conflicts Inadequate leadership skills, empowerment, feedback, control,

decision making, performance measurement, lack

of flexibility, lack of managerial trust Virtual communication problems,

information sharing- and internal communication gaps Access of digitization, IT equipment

required for flexible employment Work organization issues, process development,

real value creation of jobs, quick decisions, lack of agility Inefficient office use, lack

of safe working environment Motivational problems Individual time management, independence

problems, management of individual life

situations, mental hygiene problems

Onboarding, recruitment efficiency

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The “Your Office” Research

It seems edifying that respondents consider the weight of problems resulting from the pressure on the company management significantly more relevant than the individual problems of employees (problems with time management, lack of motivation).

Deficiencies in companies’ internal communication culture are at the top of the list of problems that the epidemic only further exacerbated.

This is closely followed by managers’ rigidity, the underdevelopment of measuring performance, deficiencies in incorporating feedback and deficiencies in general management skills.

“Alienation, separation, people are

isolating from one another.”

There are still quite a lot of question marks around the correct ways of building and operating the team and integrating new employees. Firms are looking for solutions, but “we don’t want to make it forced”. It’s sobering to read the observation that “the lack of nonverbal communication has a negative impact on the company’s operation from a year on”.

Some worry about the others specifically: “many are not able to realize that working from home has a negative effect on them and they isolate from others and lose communication platforms even more.”

The question is: what is there to do if someone notices this from the outside? How can we help each other? Does the company have to provide professional help in this?

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Excessive

noise

A unique phenomenon is that the collective returning to the office already sees being deprived of the advantages accompanying remote working as problematic, because “we have gotten used to less buzz”.

It is quite edifying to read contradicting opinions next to each other like “working from the office is only possible in justified cases, but it’s getting harder to keep people at home” and “it is challenging to make office work seem attractive to workers again (several employees have indicated that they would prefer working from home on a permanent basis).”

When returning from teleworking, suddenly it hits people that “going to work requires quite a lot of time and energy. Almost imperceptibly everyone worked more from home, no one checked the time, they didn’t have to plan time for traveling or run to catch a bus.”

Another interesting observation is how some already register a decrease in efficiency, which is, hopefully, only temporary: “colleagues are happy to finally meet in person and are living their social life too intensively which reduces their efficiency.”

Fears related to safety were quite frequently listed among challenges. Many consider safety, preventing the spread of the virus, hygiene, cleaning and “wearing masks all day” a massive challenge.

Along with keeping the required distance, opening up spaces and making sure there aren’t too many people in a room. One of the most common (and valid!) concerns regarding hybrid working was formulated by the respondent who said that it will be a problem to avoid “getting caught while taking a nap” when returning to the office.

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05

Organisation

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The more than 200 respondents identified the general problems and challenges quite well. Developing the ways of resolving the challenges constitutes a completely different issue. How will all these developments and changes be reflected in regulations?

For many, “whether colleagues will communicate their requests for remote work to their employer and if yes, for whom and under what conditions will it be permitted” is an important question.

How will the technical conditions adapt to the new needs?

According to one of the respondents, “workers don’t want shared desks, but if they only work from the office 3 days a week, it isn’t costeffective for the company.”

Others say “crosschecking the compulsory days to be spent in the office with the team members and management” will be a problem.

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We see that not everyone is thinking about “luring back”, many are actually planning with more direct methods.

The opinion that “the digitization

of rocesses is still low” seems like

a recurring one.

The responses make us wonder how

prepared companies are in general for

what awaits them in the second half of

2021 in terms of the methods of working?

Many people are looking for the regulated ways of ”managing general tensions”.

The “not necessarily work-related burnout”

caused by the past period is a problem identified, but there are no answers for it yet

Respondents know that “rethinking the office” is still a task to tackle, the same

as “the development of their equipment.”

Regarding the transformation of offices, more than half of the respondents didn’t specify a single office space the size of which is expected to decrease in the future.

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The “Your Office” Research

Rate of

hot desking

workstations

54%

at present Non

46%

Offices with hot desking possibility

Rate of

dedicated

workstations

91%

before Covid-19 Non dedicated

workstations

9%

Dedicated

workstations

74%

Rate of

hot desikng

workstations in the future

26%

Non

Offices with hot desking option

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The “Your Office” Research

Spaces there will definitely

be more of in the office There is non Size of workstations

increase/hot desking Teracce / gym / studio

Phonebooth / focus room /

relax room Collaboration areas /

breakout zones Meeting space /

meetingrooms 00

20

40

60

80

100

120

Since the spring of 2020, no change has taken place yet in terms of the office’s layout at more than half of the respondents, while in 35 cases, this change meant giving back spaces, that is, the reduction of the size of premises leased.

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06

What will happen

to teleworking?

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A lot of companies wish to restore their operation to the old pattern and strive to return to the pre-Covid ways as soon as possible. But, seeing the market trends, the majority of companies wish to open up to flexibility in the long run. It’s important to see, however, that building on the experiences of the past one and a half years would be impossible.

Before Covid

We cannot analyse, make decisions and “check off” the task – we need to set up a continuous operation. Seeking simple solutions for complex problems would be unrealistic.

Home office

- rates and

regulation

28%

36%

36%

Some figures from pre-Covid times:

at

However, according to our expert, Vera Kápolnás, this probably included situations when someone was permitted to go home to wait for the plumber: it is not a well-developed and regularly operated form of work that one should think of in the case of all 72% of the companies.

Of course, all this changed radically in the spring of 2020.

Around that time, 52 companies closed their doors completely, in 120 cases 30% of colleagues worked from the office at most, and only 34 companies (14%) had more than half of their workers working from the office.

51% 36% 13%

No home office Home office

option without

any regulation Home office

with regulation

In the future

The home office setup existed 171 respondents in one way or another.

Since Covid

Out of the 237 companies, 206 subsidized

commuting expenses.

4%

87%

9%

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The “Your Office” Research

Only 8 companies do not have any kind of home

office setup whatsoever.

But how did companies help their employees in this rapid transformation?

97 companies allowed their workers to take their equipment home in addition to the corporate notebook or to claim some sort of financial support to create proper conditions for working from home. This amounts to less than half of the respondents.

There are, of course, other factors to consider beyond finances. We didn’t just come up with teleworking, the related know-how and experience is already available on the market. Companies started to train their managers on “the challenges of working from home” in 18 cases, and in 89 cases this included all workers, which means the ratio

is well below 50%.

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07

What does home

office mean

exactly?

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The market is currently interested in the HO-office ratio, so we also included it in our survey:

Number of home office days 55%

Ad hoch style, fewer than once in a week/ depends on the employee

21% 29% 27% 2%

Future

1 day/week

6%

2 days/week

At present

12% 7% 29%

3 days/week

Before Covid

4% 8% 25% 1% 4 days/week

8% 4% 1%

5 days/week

54% 7%

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We also asked about the regulations

concerning the exact place of work.

48% 14% 37%

can only

work from home. of respondents defined where employees are not allowed to work

(e.g. in cafés and means of public transportation).

can work

anywhere.

And what do companies plan for the future?

Where you

can work on

a home

office day?

23% 41%

Only from home.

Places will be defined where it will

not be possible work from (exl.

cafe, public transport etc.)

35%

We will be able to work from anywhere.

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We already know the place, but what

about working hours ?

In the case of exactly half of the respondents, the working hours are

perfectly aligned with the timeframe required at the office.

Only 12.5% can freely dispose

of their time.

For 37.5% availability is required in the regular hours, but the time of working

is not fixed.

What are companies’ plans for the future

in terms of working hours/availability?

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Corporate working

time regulation for

home office in

the future

49% 37%

14%

Office hours will have to be maintained at home too.

Should be avaliable during business hours

but employees can work anytime.

Colleagues work whenever they want.

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08

Mental factors

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One of the greatest threats expressed by HR managers is the mental factor: mental hygienic problems, increasing dissatisfaction and the loosening of work ethic.

A significant number of companies (approx. one quarter of total respondents) say that employees do more overtime in general than before the pandemic, both from home and from the office.

One eighth of the respondents specifically experience working overtime from home office. The others don’t feel a significant difference.

Has it been typical since the

spring of 2020 to work more?

40%

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0% Varies by departments

Typical but only

in the home office

Typical but

only in the office

Typical of both so in the

office as in the home office

Occurs more often than before

but is not typical

Same amount as before

Not typical

No information

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Since the spring of 2020, meetings take even more time at half of the respondents, which does raise some questions regarding the efficiency of teleworking, even though it might add further nuances to the situation that each and every work phase performed together might qualify as a “meeting” online, even collaborative work processes entailing direct communication that would not be considered a meeting in person.

The time spent on personal meetings increased in the case of 28 respondents – apparently, the changing situation requires more frequent consultations. At half of the respondents, the company did not and does not plan to avail of the services of a coach or consultant in managing the pandemic situation specifically.

After all, the cup is half full, but we received quite diverse responses – many respondents probably include the provision of online materials and workshops and non-customized help in this category, too.

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09

Closing words

and conclusions

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We’d like to summarize the main impressions in a few thoughts, by also comparing them with our sectoral experiences.

A universal “wish to get away with it” can be felt across the entire business sector. We want to act as if nothing happened.

Feedback from the market suggests that companies are open to hearing advice only they expect specifics and rules of thumb. How many days should be spent in home office? When are workers coming back and how many of them will actually come back?

What should we do to make them return? Or is it better if they don’t return at all? There are no universal answers since every company is different.

There are similarities, of course, but sectoral megatrends are yet to come. But there is no time.

The responses suggest that only a few companies have allocated funds to start massive strategic planning that will allow them to develop their own answers to

problems that are, after all, their own.

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The way we see it, the responses

reveal the following five main lessons:

01

Companies are unanimously convinced that teleworking will remain part of our everyday life in the future as well, yet there are no clear concepts as to ratios and methods.

02

Doing an internal research is not a universal practice regarding the layout and design

of office spaces – this phase will be impossible to avoid later.

03

All of us learned a lot about working in the forced quarantine situation we called home office. No matter how big role teleworking will play in companies’ lives from here on, these lessons should nonetheless be summarized and deducted, and they should also be used as a reference point for organizing office work because all this can give a huge boost to work optimization.

04

Now, in the uncertain period of returning to the office, it is ever easier to cause mental traumatization and tension that could otherwise be avoided. It is worth preparing for this in advance.

05

Those who feel that they didn’t keep up in terms of digitization know what their homework is. Being up-to-date and following innovations quickly will be of key importance.

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The goal of this research is to offer inspiration and to plant seeds in your minds to expedite the start of the above processes.

The same as at the end of all processes, seeing the result, there are many things we ourselves would do differently: we would also ask other things and there are some questions we’d leave out completely.

This is only natural, as if we do something, we always strive for the best performance and surely we are not alone in this.

Rethinking the places of work is already complex as a research task, let alone when an organization actually starts to do it!

Getting a perfect result on the first try, even if possible, may not be worth it. We can learn much more from a retrospective angle and from the faults and imperfections recognized this way than the overhypothesized assumptions and their distortions shown to ourselves later.

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One of the main lessons for us is that the processes of internal self-inspections must be deepened and chiselled at companies, as this is what the market and global circumstances seem to dictate. The quality of the workforce is a key competitiveness indicator, and it continues to become more and more valued.

The “place for work” will soon disappear from the concept of the “workplace” forever, while the method of work, the composition of the community and the creation of working conditions, perhaps interpreted more holistically than it is today, will gain more importance and value. Top performance still remains to be the overall goal, but in terms of means, unleashing human potential will become more emphatic.

And what “your office” is like will play a key role in this: whether it is in a building, in various places, in the homes of workers, in the virtual space or in all of these together, at the same time.

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