Gensler's 2013 U.S. Workplace Survey represents responses from 2,035 randomly sampled knowledge-workers nationwide. The study examines the design factors that createan effective workplace, including how design can better support knowledge-worker engagement, satisfaction and performance, and the influence ofthe workplace on organizational culture. Currently, only one in four U.S. workers are in optimal workplace environments. The rest are struggling to work effectively, resulting in lost productivity, innovation and worker engagement. Employees see a clear link between the physical work environment and personal productivity.

The Four Work Modes - Focus, Collaborate, Learn And Socialize

Employees at top-performing companies value work modes more highly and have spaces that more effectively support them. Focus, balance and choice in the workplace emerge as the key drivers of satisfaction, performance and innovation.

The proliferation of newsocial and mobile technologies has revolutionized how we create, share and communicate. Today's world is connected like never before, but new connections mean new distractions and, for many, a compromised ability to focus. Many oftoday's workers also continue to struggle financially and are working longer hours or multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Workplace In The Context Of The City

Globalization and urbanization continue to shift the business landscape. Currently, four-fifths of Americans - and over 50 per cent of the world’s population - live in cities, and that number is projected to grow significantly.

Increasingly, the workplace is not the sole location for work, but is a vital connection among a myriad of locations in which work happens. Today's knowledge-work occurs, not just at the scale of people and offices, but at the scale of buildings, cities and ultimately the entire globe.

Extended workdays, new distractions and downward pressure on real estate costs are compromising the effectiveness of the U.S. workplace. Strategies to improve collaboration have proven ineffective when the ability to focus was not also considered. When focus is compromised in the pursuit of collaboration, neither works well.

Effective Workplaces Balance, Focus And Collaboration

Workplaces designed to enable collaboration - without sacrificing employees' ability to focus - are more successful. The ability to focus is a primary driver of effectiveness, but in today's competitive workplace and economy that’s just not enough. Collaboration remains key to the spread and development of ideas in the pursuit of innovation.

Choice Drives Performance And Innovation

Enabling choice with the right alignment of tools, policies and spaces is an opportunity for companies to create a climate in which autonomous, engaged employees can make meaningful decisions to maximize their individual job performance. Employers who provide a spectrum of choices for when and where to work are seen as more innovative and have higher-performing employees.

Mobile technologycontinues to make "anywhere" working a possibility for many, and a necessity for some. A new generation of workers who grew up with social and mobile technologies are bringing a new set of expectations around flexibility and access as they continue to enter the workforce. To succeed, employers must follow suit by providing workplaces that support individual choice of when, where and how to work. Employers who offer choice in when and where to work have employees who are 12 per cent more satisfied.

Employees without choice report organizational policy as the primary limit to their workplace autonomy and are also less likely to have tools that support mobility and "anywhere working." Employees with choice are more likely to make decisions based on a need to connect to people and resources. Increasing choice, however, doesn't mean everyone is working from home.

Step 1: Provide Effective Focus Space

Drivers Of Focus = Functionality + Quality of Primary Space
Achieved by satisfactory noise level, functionality, design, look and feel.

Step 2: Collaborate Without Sacrificing Focus

Drivers Of Balance = Proximity + Availability of Alternative Spaces
Achieved by meeting space, circulation and support space and in-office amenities.

Step 3: Drive Innovation Through Choice

Drivers Of Choice =Enablers Of "Anywhere Working"
Achieved by a variety of spaces, tools and policy.

Enabling employees to perform their jobs effectively should start by providing the individual with an environment thatis supportive and focused upon the work they do.

For this reason, many businesses would benefit from the services and support of a business centre like Telsec Business Centres, Toronto's oldest Business Centre. A business centre provides office support staff and the ability to provide a number of different office space solutions, designed specifically to promote collaboration and team/social interaction with the bonus benefit of budget efficiency.

Adding alternative spaces and opportunities that support all work modes - from collaboration to learning and socializing - enables the connections that drive success in today's knowledge economy. Across industries, we found that balanced workplaces - those prioritizing both focus and collaboration - score higher on measures of satisfaction, innovation, effectiveness and performance.

Choice and autonomy also proved important to today's worker. Employees with choice in when and where they work are higher performing, more satisfied and see their companies as more innovative. Companies must then pair the right tools and spaces with organizational policies that empower workers to best match space, tools and tasks to achieve optimal productivity.

In today's world, gathering and leveraging diagnostic and contextual data on what drives performance at the employee and organizational level is no longer a luxury. Identifying and proactively supporting the balance and choice that drives success is an opportunity to gain a crucial competitive advantage