Real estate consultants JLL India released the report, 'Workplace Powered by Human Experience - an India perspective' in association with the Confederation Indian Industries (CII) at the Facilities Management Conclave 2017. More than 7,000 respondents across 12 countries participated in the worldwide survey.
A place of work is no longer just a property or a physical asset but it is also the place that enables the organisation and its people to achieve its objectives. As the world moves from a service economy to an experience economy, workspaces have to deliver personalised and authentic experiences to its employees, said Susan Sutherland, APAC Corporate Research for JLL. The workspace should be able to provide engaging experiences to its employees, give them a sense of control over the work and mobility and a sense of comfort and fulfilment.
The workspace can be leveraged to drive a certain culture, improve agility and interaction among employees and should take care of their overall health and well-being.
The report found that globally, offices in India are the second densest after Japan on the basis of people sharing their open-plan work areas. Against the global average of 45 persons sharing the office space, Japan leads with an average of 68 people followed by India, where 52 people share the same open-plan work areas.
In spite of the crowded office space, Indian professionals are the most mobile, engaged and effective within their offices in comparison to their counterparts in Asia region. Around 69% of Indian respondents are very engaged and 74% say they can work effectively.
Indians are also a highly mobile workforce spending on average only 57% of their time on their desk, when in countries like Japan employees spend 77% of their time at their workstations.
This is also seen in the kind of offices people prefer across geographies. Indians prefer to have a lot more collaborative and open spaces such as meeting rooms, discussion corners, fitness studios in their offices whereas globally the highest priority for employees is to have spaces where they can focus.
What is another differentiator is 67% of Indian employees said they are open to moving to hot desking or other formats of seating layouts which shows they are open to change. In contrast, Japanese and Australians showed strong resistance where only 25% Japanese said they are fine moving to hot desks.
Indian employees name creativity, happiness, and personal learning and development as the top three contributors to unique workplace experiences.
The report recommends that human experience is an impression organisation leaves on its people beyond the physical environment which results in greater engagement, empowerment and sense of fulfilment.