ITOKI CORPORATION (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President: Koji Minato) has released "Workstyle and Office 2024," a report summarizing the awareness of workstyle and office environment and factors for improving satisfaction among approximately 5,000 full-time employees and managers nationwide.
As the spread of work remotely and other technologies increases momentum for further work style reform and office environment construction, the value of offices is changing significantly. The results of this survey, analyzed by ITOKI Central Research Laboratory, which conducts research on work styles and workplaces from a medium- to long-term perspective, provide insight into the challenges and hints for creating an environment that introduces new work styles and improves employee engagement.

・ work remotely has decreased, with more than 80% of employees coming into the office every day
・People who are satisfied with their office are more than twice as likely to be positive about coming to work (=high engagement)
The most important spaces to improve satisfaction were "space for concentrating alone," "space for individuals to refresh themselves," and "soundproof booth space," with individual-centered spaces coming out on top.
・There is a generational gap in satisfaction with the office environment, and eliminating this is important
・<Summary> Focus on the gap and create an office with a high level of environmental satisfaction

* Click here to download the detailed survey results

The percentage of people working work remotely for at least one day after COVID-19 Class 5 (May 2023) was 26.7% overall, and in 2024 it was 19.9%, a decrease of 6.8%. On the other hand, the percentage of people who go to the office every day has returned to pre-COVID levels (83.2%) at 80.1%, making the trend back to the office clear.
Before COVID-19, the main reason for coming to the office was to carry out work, but with the COVID-19 pandemic restricting attendance and the spread of work remotely, office workers are now free to choose where they work. Recently, there have been more cases where the purpose of coming to the office is to communicate and collaborate in a face-to-face setting, and the "meaning of coming to the office" has changed before and after COVID-19.

The overall percentage of people who always come to work with a positive attitude was 21%, but when narrowed down to those who answered "satisfied" to the question "Are you satisfied with the office environment," the percentage was more than double that to 55.3%, and among those who answered "somewhat satisfied," it was 31.1%, or about 1.5 times that number. This shows that having an improved office environment leads to a desire to come to work, and also contributes to improved engagement (employee satisfaction).

When asked about the space people want in the office, the top choice was a space where they could concentrate and refresh themselves. Previously, communication spaces had ranked highly. There are likely a variety of factors behind this, but it is thought that changes in work styles are also influencing the functions people want in an office.

37.9% of respondents answered positively (satisfied/somewhat satisfied) about office satisfaction. Looking at the results by generation, the results were high for those in their 20s, and it can also be seen that the higher the age, the lower the satisfaction. It is thought that different generations place importance on different aspects of the office environment. It is important to understand what the differences are and come up with measures to reflect them.

This survey quantitatively clarified that high satisfaction with the office environment leads to a desire to come to work, and furthermore, to higher employee engagement. However, no specific perspectives had been organized until now on what kind of office would increase satisfaction. Naturally, it will differ from company to company, but this time we focused on the generational gap, thinking that there might be some trends. Because it is an office where many generations work, even if the organizational goals are the same, there might be differences in what they want from the office as a place to achieve them, and when we proceeded with the analysis, several gaps came to light. We can infer that various risks are inherent there. For example, people in their 20s have a high demand for communication space, but this is not so high for people in their 40s and above. Here we can see the wall between young people who want to talk in the office and the middle-aged people who do not place importance on it. If the issue is improving the retention rate of young people, this may be a clue to solving the problem. In this way, the complete version of this survey report summarizes the analysis and considerations from various perspectives. We hope that this survey will be of help to you in creating your office.

Executive Officer and Senior Researcher at the Central Research Institute ITOKI CORPORATION
Hiroaki Ninoyu