June 8, 2005—A survey released by The HON Company, an industry leader in workplace furniture, reveals employees across the country are finding themselves with less personal working space. To compensate, employers are seeking to enhance the work environment with style, design and functionality.
Nearly one-third of the 2,347 office workers surveyed in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Atlanta report an increase in hiring. At the same time, 83 percent of the employers experiencing increases in hiring indicate their organizations are fitting new hires into existing space rather than moving to larger office environments.
Synovate conducted the survey in the spring of 2005. Approximately 585 were surveyed in each of the four cities. The margin of error for single-city responses is +/- 4.1 percent.
In the four cities surveyed, fewer employees have their own private office space. Fifty-six percent work in panel-system environments, 36 percent work in private offices and eight percent work in open-office environments with no walls or dividers between work areas.
Ten percent of those surveyed share their workstations or offices with co-workers, but given a choice, eight out of 10 of all respondents would prefer to have their own private panel-system versus sharing a private office with a co-worker. The top three reasons workers prefer a private panel-system are privacy but still feeling part of a group (59 percent); not having to share a space with anyone else (57 percent); and having a place to call my own (47 percent).
The HON Company is a leader in the design and manufacturing of workplace furniture including chairs, storage, panel systems, tables and desks. For more information, visit the company Web site.
