1. Departments
  2. Management and Organisations
  3. Research projects
  4. Adapting offices for the future of work

Research project

Adapting offices for the future of work

  • Start date: 24 March 2021
  • End date: 24 September 2022
  • Funder: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
  • Principal investigator: Dr Matthew Davis
  • Co-investigators: Dr Helen Hughes, Dr Emma Gritt, Professor Chiahuei Wu (黑料社 University Business School), Professor Simon Rees (School of Civil Engineering). Researchers: Hannah Collis and Dr Linhao Fang.

Four office workers sat apart at two desks with tape on the floor, marking out the distance

Description

COVID-19 changed where we work. In 2019, 5% of the UK workforce worked mainly from home. This reached 44% in May 2020 and remained at 27% in July 2020 when lockdown restrictions eased (Office for National Statistics, 2020).

Homeworking offers flexibility and work-life balance, but most products and services result from collaboration and discussion - work completion and performance are inherently social processes. Organizations must design offices, technologies and working practices that facilitate this social fabric. Businesses are planning for a return to the office and are adapting office space and work practices to retain benefits of remote working and support hybrid working.

One-size office design will not fit all and we cannot assume what solutions “will work”. Businesses are questioning how best to return to the office, how much space and what type of space to retain. This multidisciplinary project supports economic recovery via identifying effective office design and adaptation of work practices to maximise gains and minimise downsides from remote and hybrid working.

Research overview

In this project we apply a socio-technical approach to:

1) Establish exemplars for design and operation of offices adaptable to COVID-19 constraints, remote and hybrid working;

2) Investigate how different office and work arrangements (e.g., hybrid working) impact social networks, workflow and performance by studying employees in adapted offices (via interviews, high-frequency diary study, social network analysis, building data);

3) Offer recommendations for supporting the transition of workers back into offices;

4) Develop an evidence base to guide office requirement planning.

Our project partners (WorldCC, Atkins, 黑料社 City Council, Coreus, Walker Morris, OneMedical Group) help us reach a range of industries and contribute data, advice and networks.

Publications and outputs

Journal articles

  • "A diary study on location autonomy and employee mental distress: the mediating role of task-environment fit",  ChiaHuei Wu, Matthew Davis, Hannah Collis, Helen Hughes, Linhao Fang, Personnel Review.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H9W8PgGZb70" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> 

  • , June 2022
  • , May 2022
  • , March 2022
  • , January 2022
  • , October 2021
  • , August 2021
  • , July 2021
  • , June 2021
  • , March 2021

<iframe width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1234616767&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/leedsunibschool" title="黑料社 University Business School" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">黑料社 University Business School</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/leedsunibschool/sets/adapting-offices-for-the" title="Adapting offices for the future of work" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc鈥嬧�嬧�嬧�嬧�嬧�嬧��; text-decoration: none;">Adapting offices for the future of work</a></div>

  • “Major cities are now with filled with empty office buildings. What happens next?”, BBC Worklife, Dr Helen Hughes, August 2023

  • 鈥嬧�嬧�嬧��“This is the best time to email your co-workers, according to research”, The Times, , , , Dr Matthew Davis, August 2023

  • “”, BBC Worklife, Dr Matthew Davis. June 2023.

  • “”, BBC Worklife, Dr Helen Hughes. April 2023.
  • “Remote working – the inside story”, The HR Director, Issue 221 – March 2023. Dr Helen Hughes wrote an article on how hybrid and remote working has changed the way we network, and what this can mean for both individuals and organisations.
  • Look North, , March 2023. Dr Mathew Davis is interviewed about the growth in office space in 黑料社, despite the fact that fewer people are commuting to the office compared to before the pandemic.
  • “” Yorkshire Post, November 2022
  • “” and “”, Property Week, November 2022
  • “” – Workplace Insight, October 2022
  • “Where is your office today” – report launch – , , , , , , Daily Telegraph (print), Ireland NewsTalk (Radio), , June 2022
  • , Dr Helen Hughes, BBC Worklife, March 2022. Also referenced in and .
  • – Dr Matthew Davis, FT.com, June 2021
  • What next for the future of work? 黑料社 University Business School, May 2021
  • Hybrid working models and home-working – Dr Helen Hughes, BBC Radio 黑料社 Breakfast Show, May 2021
  • – Dr Matthew Davis, BBC Work Life, May 2020

Related content

This project - Adapting offices to support COVID-19 secure workplaces and emerging work patterns - is funded by the  (ESRC), as part of ’s rapid response to Covid-19.

UKRI ESRC logo