Why Workplace Environments Are Impacting on Staff Retention

Poor Workplace Environments Are Driving Employees To Quit Their Jobs, as Wundamail research reveals almost a quarter have either left their role or are intending on doing so, due to their working environment.

Why Workplace Environments Are Impacting on Staff Retention

Wundamail have discovered that, in a study of 266 worldwide workers, 23% of employees have or are considering leaving their job due to the workplace. In their State of Workplace Report 2019, Wundamail found that poor working environments have a negative effect on employee’s mental health, and their productivity, whilst flexibility and easy access to team members are a mark of an ideal place to work.

Even though almost a quarter of participants have previously left a post, or considering quitting on account of a poor working environment, a further 4.5% remain uncertain about their stance. This is a significant figure in terms of maintaining a healthy workforce, particularly with regard to retention. The cost of hiring and training each new member of staff can prove monumental, whereas simply altering working conditions and environments could lessen the financial and logistical burden. The key reasons for leaving roles included ‘micromanagment’, ‘toxic cliques’, and ‘poor office design’, thus stressing the importance of good light, low noise and general functionality.

In addition to this, 16.6% of respondents reported that their workplace environment had an entirely negative or mostly negative effect on their mental wellbeing. This is deeply worrying for businesses, and illustrates the power of a healthy working environment, with respondents highlighting poor light, temperature levels, cramped desks and poor office culture as the most negative aspects of their workplace environment. For example, less than a quarter of participants favoured the open plan office design, something that is commonly thought to be the pinnacle of workplace design and productivity, however has been reported to spread poor office culture and cause higher disruptions.

The traditional closed office design still remains a firm favourite, with over a third preferring it to alternatives, such as open plan, a single study, or working from home. This includes the 16-35 age range, who contrary to popular belief, favour this option over remote working, due to the focus-friend quiet it provides, something that could indicate a change in working attitudes within this demographic.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Department Heads/Executive levels revealed that they’re much more likely to work remotely than their younger counterparts, something that reverses traditional views. Wundamail’s research found that Department Heads/Executives prioritised comfort, greater privacy and peace and quiet above all else: affording individuals plenty of space to focus on specific tasks. This is reinforced by the fact that professionals within this demographic prefer to operate from single person studies, to a far greater extent than any other subsection surveyed, and something that directly opposed the younger participant’s need to have easy access to their team and managers.

The workplace is somewhere that we spend the majority of our time, so ensuring that it is functional, comfortable and a positive environment for our mental wellbeing is of the utmost importance. This may be difficult to achieve when running a team of people, all with different individual needs and preferences, but flexibility is at the top of the list for many prospective employees, and something that businesses should be prepared for moving forward in the modern working world.

By Rebecca Crowe, who is a content writer for Diskette, who enjoys travelling around the world (as much as she can!) and blogging about it on Wandering and Wine in her spare time.

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