42% of UAE employees describe their office as stressful

Dubai, 31st May 2015 – Organizations around the world are aware of the crucial importance of employee engagement to increase creativity, productivity and competitiveness, and many relentlessly seek every possible way to make internal involvement ever stronger. Steelcase Inc., the global leader in the office furniture industry, reveals in its latest research, “The Privacy Crisis”, the strong influence of workspace configuration in fostering employee engagement, and how a poorly considered space design can actually harm productivity and creativity. Conducted with more than 10,000 employees in 17 countries with IPSOS, the global market research firm, the research also focuses on regional aspects and gives insight into the characteristics of the UAE workspace as well as the upcoming trends for meeting employees’ evolving needs.  

A STRONG TASTE FOR PRIVACY 

As part of Steelcase’s research, 565 employees under the age of 45 years were interviewed in the UAE, highlighting three findings related to the UAE workplace:  

•    The culture of privacy

The UAE stands out with a very strong culture of privacy at work, as 52 percent of employees work inashared private office (compared to 37 percent,the global average). While the open plan has emerged as the trendiest configuration in Europe and North America, the UAE business community still attaches great importance in maintaining a high level of privacy, commonly with individual private offices for managers and shared private offices for executives.Access to collaborative workspaces, breakout areas, canteens and meeting rooms remainsvery limited – for instance, only 37 percent of employees have recreational areas to relax and informally interact with their colleagues (compared to the 45 percent global average).

•    Employees perceive a lack of wellbeing awareness from their employers

In the UAE, although employees are quite satisfied with their working conditions and have a positive attitude towards their workplace, only 47 percent of employees think that the company is taking an interest in their wellbeing, health and safety (compared to the 54 percent global average). 

•    Stressful environment 

In the UAE, disruption and stress seem to be the factors that have the highest negative impact on employees’ levels of satisfaction with their work environment and their engagement. While the majority (80 percent) endorse their company’s strategy and like their work, only 57 percent (compared to the global average of 64 percent) consider the company is an appropriate place for them to work and fits within their lifestyle. 

“Collaboration is essential to innovation and employees’ need to be with their colleagues is as compelling as their need for privacy”, explains Chris Congdon, director research communications at Steelcase. “The key is to achieve a balance and provide employees with the ability to collaborate and interact even more while respecting the culture of high privacy at work that prevails in the region.”

INSIDE THE UAEWORKPLACE – EMERGING TRENDS

Workplace standards are constantly moving in light of cultural shifts, new social codes and new ways of working and interacting. Beyond putting forward the key characteristics of the UAE workplace, Steelcase also reveals the emerging trends UAE-based companies will embrace to be ever more competitive and meet their employees’ needs and expectations, especially those of the technology-savvy millennials. 

•    Achieving the right balance between privacy and collaboration

Steelcase’s research reveals the clear correlation between employee engagement and privacy. The more satisfied an employee is, the more likely he or she is to be highly engaged, and privacy is a key component of workplace satisfaction.While the research shows that the lack of privacy affects employee motivation and engagement, it simultaneously reveals that a high level of privacy has a negative impact on information sharing, collaboration, creativity andproductivity. Dominated by a culture of high privacy, the upcoming challenge forUAE-based companies will be to open up new work space configurations that better support interaction and socializing, and to find the right balance between working in privacy and working together. Managers in the UAE are already aware of the importance of diversifying the traditional private workplace and offering collaborative and recreational workspaces to the teams.This awareness is important for theadoption of new and collaborative work spaces such as meeting rooms, brainstorming rooms, recreational areas, and coffeeand lunch areas in the UAE workplace, in the coming years. 

•    Making the work space resilient to change  

In a world economy that is moving ever faster, organizations must be able to adapt more quickly to new developments. How to quickly respond to the ever more frequent staff fluctuations? How to fit the millennials’ new vision of work, freedom and privacy? According to Steelcase,the solution lies in the brand-new concepts of “reconfigurability” and “resilient real estate”. Through both concepts, the objective is to design workplaces and office furniture that can easily be transformed and adjusted to respond to the arrival of additional staff as well asto specific employee needs, moods and preferences – quickly and without any additional cost. 

•    Focusing on employee welfare  

In the next few years, organizationswill be increasingly challenged on their ability to offer high standards of wellbeing to their employees. This will notably bea key criterion for attracting and retaining millennials. Regarding the workplace, employees’ wellness can be defined according to three criteria: physical wellness (quality of desks and chairs to guarantee the most suitable posture, air quality, noise level), emotional wellness (light quality, temperature, air quality) and cognitive wellness (music, design, art works). 

Sustainability is essential to support employee wellbeing. The use of eco-friendly office furniture, renewable sources of energy, advanced recycling and energy-saving systems have many long-term benefits on environment, working conditions and, ultimately, employee welfare. Despite the undoubted benefits of sustainable offices in enhancing the working experience, organizations are still reluctant to take the leap. The main reasons are the misconception that sustainable office solutions are more expensive than traditional ones, and the lack of mandatory interior design green certifications. As a result, the latest challenge for the A&D community is to promotethe benefits of sustainable interior designamong decision makers and to press for specific legislation for green interior certifications at the regional level. 

“The UAE workspace is going to change very quickly to meet the need for ever more collaboration, innovation and creativity, as well as supporting employees’ evolving expectations for more flexibility and wellbeing at work” comments Andy Morris, Head of Sales, Middle East, Steelcase. “For organizations, the key for success will lie in their ability to diversify their workspaces and offer sustainable solutions”.