Sustainable office helps attract top staff: Union Investment

The socio-cultural qualities of office buildings are set to play a growing role in the coming years as companies compete to attract the best staff, according to a new report published by Union Investment.

A clear trend is emerging, with office workers placing technical facilities and office size behind other criteria when it comes to their ideal working environment. The satisfaction and thus performance of such employees is increasingly dependent on factors that influence the individual's sense of well-being in the workplace.

That is the key finding of Union Investment's recent study of office users, for which market research institute Ipsos interviewed 3,145 employees from the German private sector in February.

When asked what constitutes the perfect office environment, more than 50% immediately cited well-being and comfort aspects such as 'a pleasant indoor environment', 'bright rooms with natural light', 'windows that open' and 'offices with good sound insulation'.

Accordingly, 80% of those surveyed considered the 'overall sense of well-being in an office' to be important or very important for an office environment, followed by 78% for "brightness and natural daylight'.

In contrast, criteria such as 'technical facilities in the workplace' (65%), 'accessibility by public transport' (50%), 'safe environment' (44%), 'office size' (41%), 'central location' (21%) and 'local leisure facilities' (9%) were less important across all ten sectors polled.

'Demand for buildings that generate a strong sense of well-being is set to receive an additional boost as the job market recovers and competition for highly-qualified staff intensifies,' said Reinhard Kutscher, chairman of the management board of Union Investment. 'User expectations are rising, particularly with regard to the quality of the immediate working environment.'