What Gensler’s Mexico Workplace Survey Reveals About Why Employees Are Returning to the Office
March 22, 2023 | By Francesca Poma-Murialdo, Daniel Alvarado
Editor’s Note: This blog is part of our blog series exploring insights from Gensler’s 2022 Workplace Survey findings.
The Mexican business culture is well-known for placing a high value on interpersonal relationships, loyalty, and presence. So, it’s no surprise that Gensler’s recent Mexico Workplace Survey reveals that employees rate their professional development and scheduled, in-person meetings with their team and clients as the most important reasons to come into the office. This indicates that the office is a place where purposeful and meaningful interaction happens.
Gensler’s inaugural workplace survey of over 2,000 Mexico-based office workers uncovers some interesting surprises. We know that Mexico-based workers spend a third of their time working with others in-person and that this is an important factor in coming into the office, but the survey delves deeper to uncover which spaces and experiences are most effective in supporting employees. We also discovered that office workers report that they need to be in the office more than they currently are to maximize their productivity. If this is the case, what’s holding them back from coming into the office?
Return to office: If not when, then why?
Return to office efforts have been turbulent since the disruption of the pandemic. Industry reports have been speculating on when employees will return to the office, but few are asking why? Why, when employees have more choice and flexibility than ever, would they choose to come into the office over other places, such as their home or third spaces?
Mexico-based office workers have acclimated to hybrid working. On average, they spend almost one-quarter of their time in a typical working week in other locations, including alternative office locations, travel, coworking spaces, parks, libraries, and coffee shops. This increases to one-third of the time for more senior leadership. Despite this, workers across Mexico spend more time in their primary office (57%) than other countries such as the U.S. (51%) and Canada (53%), while the time spent at home is consistent with the average of 19%. This indicates that knowledge workers now require a more fluid structure in where they work in a typical work week, but this doesn’t mean it’s the end game for the office.
In fact, the office still holds an important role as the place where employees perceive they need to be to maximize their productivity. Workers in the most innovative companies report that they are spending 15% less time in the office than they were five years ago when compared to Mexico City–based workers in our LATAM Workplace Survey in 2017. Now, our data indicates that they report that they need to be in the office more regularly — closer to pre-pandemic levels — to maximize their productivity. But this begs the question, if employees say they need to be in the office more regularly to maximize their productivity, why don’t they?
What’s currently working in the office?
While the office is clearly an important facilitator and enabler of in-person meetings for Mexico-based office workers, we found that workers are spending more time working alone than they are working with others in-person in a typical work week. Workers also report that working alone is the most critical activity for their job performance. On average, workers spend 73% of their time at a desk — although this time decreases with seniority.
Our research reveals that today’s workplace effectively supports working together in-person, learning, and socializing, but it is less effective in supporting individual work and working together virtually. This insight exposes an opportunity to offer multi-functional workspaces that support working alone while maintaining the strength of collaboration and social spaces.
Wake up and smell the coffee
Experience is a critical ingredient in the success of return to office strategies. A great experience can be a powerful tool to increase the amount of time employees are willing to return to the office. But what types of experience count most? Mexico-based office workers show a clear preference for their office space to emulate a coffee shop experience. Respondents were asked to select their ideal blend of environments for their company’s office from eight possible options: clubhouse, boutique hotel, coffee shop, residential, library, conference center, creative lab, and corporate. Across all industries and age groups, the coffee shop experience came out on top. Other informal meeting experiences, such as that of a clubhouse, also ranked highly, highlighting workers’ desire for more interpersonal experiences.
More significantly, if organizations offered an employee’s ideal mix of experiences, 84% of employees who are not currently working from the office full-time would be more willing to come in. Almost three-quarters of workers report that they would be willing to return one more day per week, with 38% of those who are currently in the office less than full-time indicating that they would be willing to come back five days per week. While there is no single ‘ideal’ mix of experiences, this data indicates that a blend of new experiences could influence more employees to return to the office.
What spaces make the biggest impact?
While in-person team meetings and professional development were the primary reasons to come into the office, almost half of Mexico-based workers said that having access to specific spaces, materials, and resources was also important. Some of these spaces drive greater impact for space effectiveness and experience than others. Based on Gensler’s Workplace Performance Index (WPIx) and Experience Score, we identified that food amenities, spaces for creative group work, and spaces for quiet individual work have the greatest impact of space effectiveness and experience.
While work cafes are the biggest driver of space effectiveness, innovation hubs, maker spaces, and focus rooms offer the greatest experience — despite less than 45% of companies providing these spaces. These spaces respond to the type of work that Mexico-based workers are engaging in during a typical work week. Work cafes and cafeteria spaces offer spaces for workers to informally meet in person, while maker spaces and innovation hubs provide access to specific resources and tools. Unsurprisingly, focus rooms rank highly for both space effectiveness and experience due to the amount of time employees spend working alone. These spaces should no longer be part of the ‘amenity’ package organizations are offering employees. Instead, they should be staple spaces that are readily accessible for all employees when they come into the office.
As hybrid working becomes a more permanent fixture in the work landscape, workers across Mexico will have more choice in where they work. To remain an attractive place where people choose to work, the office should respond to employees’ specific needs and expectations.
As workers in Mexico seek more meaningful and purposeful interactions when they come into the office, design should be more intentional than ever. Just as our body language serves as a powerful non-verbal tool for communication and representation, the office acts as the first impression for an organization. Purposeful and attractive workplace design that offers a blend of different experiences not only has the potential to attract employees back, but it also has positive implications for business success.
Download the full Mexico Workplace Survey 2022 briefing to explore more insights. Stay tuned for additional blogs in this series.
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