Give workers more office space for better performance, new guidance says

Companies should offer employees more elbow room if they want them to return to the office, guidelines say

Average desk space has reduced since 2001 (Getty)

Office workers should be given more space to improve “comfort, wellbeing and performance”, a new report has said.

The British Council for Offices (BCO) has updated its guidance on office density and recommends that employees be given up to 12 square metres of space, up from the previous recommendation of 10 square metres per person.

Companies that want to encourage workers to return to the office in larger volumes following the coronavirus pandemic could benefit from giving employees more elbow room.

The BCO report, seen by The Times, noted that the pandemic has resulted in “health concerns”, which affect how close colleagues want to sit next to each other.

Crowded offices that only give workers less than eight square metres per person are “more likely to cause issues and affect occupant comfort, wellbeing and performance”, the authors wrote.

Desk spaces have become smaller in order to pack more people in over the last two decades.

In 2001, the average office density was nearly 15 square metres per desk, but this had shrunk to an average of around 9.6 square metres per person by 2018.

According to the UK’s Health and Safety Executive, office workers should have a minimum of 11 square metres per person. Offices should have enough free space to allow people to get to and from their desks with ease.

BCO’s research shows that an office that offers 12 square metres or more per employee is more likely to see “most workspace issues and concerns… alleviated”.

The aftermath of lockdown saw a number of companies foregoing larger office spaces for smaller quarters as the number of people wanting to work from home rose and fewer people went to the office.

But BCO’s chief executive Richard Kauntze said that although a smaller number of people now go to the office, those who do will want more space to work.

He told The Times: “The pandemic has prompted many organisations to adopt a greater amount of agile and hybrid working.

“The BCO’s latest research shows that this is partially offset by adoption of a more generous ratio of space per person, as employers seek to attract their staff to the office.”