by Brianna Crandall — March 2, 2012—New data from CoreNet Global, the worldwide association for corporate real estate (CRE) and workplace professionals, shows for the first time that for many companies, the average allocation of office space per person in North America will fall to 100 square feet or below within the next five years.
By 2017, at least 40% of the companies responding indicated they will reach this all-time low benchmark of individual space utilization, which has been the case in Europe for the past several years but is now heading for the Americas. The average per worker in 2017 will be 151 square feet per worker, compared to 176 square feet today, and 225 square feet in 2010.
This quickly changing workplace scenario obviously affects not only the office employees whose space is changing, but the owners/executives and facilities managers who are trying to cut costs and provide productive, sustainable and comfortable workplace environments; the architects, designers and construction professionals who design and build the buildings; and the CRE professionals who sell and sometimes manage the properties—indeed, all facilities-related professionals.
“The main reason for the declines,” said Richard Kadzis, CoreNet Global’s Vice President of Strategic Communications, “is the huge increase in collaborative and team-oriented space inside a growing number of companies that are stressing ‘smaller but smarter’ workplaces against the backdrop of continuing economic uncertainty and cost containment.”
Today, just 24% of the respondents reported that the average space per office worker is 100 square feet or less; however, 40% reported that within five years, the average space per office worker would be 100 square feet or less.
It is clear that the amount of space dedicated solely to specific employees is steadily shrinking, says CoreNet Global. A majority of the respondents, 55%, reported that square feet per worker has already decreased between 5 and 25% over the last five years. CoreNet Global itself reduced its total office space and space per person by nearly 20% last year in a transformation of its downtown Atlanta headquarters.
“There are number of additional factors contributing to the decline in the amount of space per worker,” said Kadzis. “More companies are adopting open floor plans in which employees do not have any permanently designated space at all; rather they use unassigned space when they are in the office, settings that often change daily. This trend is enabled by technology and by cost measures, as they require smaller foot prints.”
CoreNet Global plans to continue to track this downward pressure on designated office space per worker over time. More than 465 global managers of corporate real estate responded to the CoreNet Global benchmark survey, which was conducted in February 2012.
CoreNet Global is the “world’s leading” association for corporate real estate (CRE) and workplace professionals, service providers, and economic developers, with more than 7,000 members, who are said to include 70% of the top 100 U.S. companies and nearly half of the Global 2000.