Office design to cut productivity losses

Office design news from Morgan Lovell

Published on 12-07-2006

Poor productivity costs UK firms 70 billion a year, a new report has found.

Although British companies improved productivity ahead of France and Germany in 2005, the Proudfoot Productivity Report highlights the fact that for the last three years unproductive labour time in the UK was greater than any country outside Asia.

The effects of operating inefficiencies were calculated to be the same as 36 days of work per worker lost every year.

Simon Glynn, chief operating officer of Proudfoot Consulting said: "It would be easy to view the global productivity increase as cause for celebration in company boardrooms around the world.

"But our report shows there is clear and considerable scope for further productivity improvement. It also shows that executives tend to overestimate efficiency improvement in their companies."

The study highlighted two key areas for improvements: poor internal communication and poor supervision and planning.

Office space planning and office refurbishment can help to bring down losses through inefficiencies in these areas by creating workplaces where communication among staff and management is made easier.