Workspace Trends

In India 2015
A Survey Based Report

Executive summary
Indian cities are bustling with activity and more
people than ever are going to work in smart, corporate
oces. In fact, India is one of the largest oce occupier markets in Asia with approximately 425 million
sq ft oce market size and annual absorption of 30 to
35 million sq ft. This, combined with the changing
work styles, work culture and mobile technology is
powering an unprecedented focus on new workplace
designs. And why not? After all, a workplace is where
one spends a substantial part of their life.
We surveyed more than 50 companies at management/ top executive level from various industries such
as IT/ITeS, BFSI and Health Care etc. located in major
cities in India to identify the latest trends in terms of
design, area, furniture and accessories among corporate occupiers.
Some of the key findings from this survey are:
>

Workplaces are opting for open and exible environments. Seniority still matters, however cabins are
giving way to large-sized private cubicles for senior
management.

>

While teams are located in, and are operating in

open oce spaces, quiet areas and privacy can be
found as and when required in designated meeting
spaces. At the same time, collaboration spaces
located near work groups are also trending.

Open is in.
Heres the proof.
oof
Walls are coming down and workplaces are trending towards open and exible environments.
>

>

>

There is a greater focus on creating more ecient

and cost-eective workspaces, so design strategies are playing key roles in accommodating more
people using less space.
Oce furniture is getting smarter. Ergonomics is
increasingly becoming the key consideration, from
selection of chairs to smaller, smarter storage
accessories and mobile storage units to writable
wall surfaces.
"Probably the greatest potential of substantially
increasing productivity and inuencing employee
behavior in the direction of the organization goals, lies
(mostly untapped) in workplace design. Furniture,chairs & carpets often remain the last items to be
nalized and procured on projects or just in time for
their lead times not to be outside the projects schedule.
Whereas in reality, these should be the rst items to be
nalized as part of a workplace strategy & design that
reects the organizations goals, vision & culture, and
then everything else should be designed to support the
workplace"

>

>

80% of the respondents preferred to have open layouts for their oce spaces.
About 16% of the respondents primarily from banking, legal and consulting firms preferred
closed or semi-open cubicles.
Only 4% of the surveyed companies still prefer enclosed oce plan and follow a hierarchical
structure while allocating workspaces.

Colliers view
Open dynamic spaces have directly contributed towards a positive change in work processes and oce
culture in many organizations. However, we feel nature of work greatly inuences the choice between
open plan and enclosed oce plan. There has been a general shift from closed oce plans to open oce
culture, although companies in sectors like banking, legal & consulting etc. are transitioning much
slower than other sectors.

4%

Enclosed Oce Plan

16%

Closed Or SemiOpen Cubicles

80%

Deputy Managing Director,

Colliers International India

Open Layouts

Workspace Trends In India | Colliers International

Islands and oases

Ergonomics and economics

Organisations are increasingly realising the significance

of collaborative spaces to make well-integrated teams.

We have identified seven potential selection criteria for oce furniture and chairs - lead time, brand, price,
ergonomics, quality & durability, exibility & mobility and sustainable design. Our survey infers that out of
these, exibility & mobility, price, quality & durabality and ergonomics are the top four factors across all companies. Sustainable design, brand and lead time have the least impact on decision.

make smarter oces

drive balanced collaboration

>

>

Up to 67% of our respondents said that they have

open environments that are complemented by
both open collaborative work spaces and enclosed
dedicated conference rooms.

67%

28% still have enclosed and dedicated conference

rooms for all kinds of meetings and discussions.

Open
Shareable
Workspace

Colliers View

28%

Separate
Conference
Rooms

5%

With average employees spending 8 to 10 hours in oce, ergonomics seems to be one of the key selection
criterion. From their past experiences, organisations are realising that the use of less user-friendly chairs has
impacted productivity, with several employees suering from typical ailments like back, neck and shoulder
pains.

Other

we think the need for quiet and private spaces is also a fundamental requirement for most organisations and is fullled

Colliers View
Organisations have become increasingly aware of this factor while selecting chairs for their employees. In our experience, most of the corporations are currently using chairs having medium height with mesh nish, multiple-point

through individual work booths or separate conference rooms.

locking, adjustable armrest and lumbar support.

Collaboration is the seeding trend in workstation designs in India. While we agree with the importance of collaborative spaces,

Quest for cost eciency

drives workstation design

Ecient space utilisation for cost eciency to achieve optimum ROI is one of the key drivers for the selection of
workstation typology. However, not at the cost of functionality and collaboration.
>

17%

L-shaped workstations remain as the favored typology among occupiers for their
overall functionality with more than half of the respondents preferring this layout.

>

Linear layout is trending up due to its eciency in space density. Earlier it was
primarily used in the service industry comprising of KPOs, BPOs and Call Centers
but now Consultancy & BFSI sectors are increasingly moving towards this layout.

>

Typical workstation measure is 20-30 sq ft in large corporate workplaces. (Density

depends upon various factors like base building design, ancillary facilities etc.)

Medium Height
With Mesh Finish

Lumbar
Support.

Colliers View

Adjustable
Armrest

Collaboration & space eciency are the key factors driving workplace design. More and

Y-shape

more clients are moving towards at organizational structure and open-oce plans. Therefore, hierarchy, tenure, and seniority are now a lower priority in deciding the workplace
design & allocation. There is an increasing trend of senior management moving in to open

28%
Linear

5%
Others

50%
L-shape

Multiple-point
Locking

workstation culture or sometimes shared cabins but still get more space with guest seating
capacity, to meet their functional requirements. Quite of few organizations still have cabins
for the senior management, which are typically 90 to 110 sq ft in size however, the size can
be as large as 150 sq ft for the CXOs. In pursuit of using workspace more eciently, some
companies are even using hot-desking where multiple workers using a single physical work
station during dierent time periods.
5

Workspace Trends In India | Colliers International

Smaller, smarter multi-purpose

Conclusion

Oces are moving towards smart furniture and accessories. Generally Workstations have fixed or mobile pedestal
units for personal storage and two door cabinets in common areas for common storage, smarter accessories like
writable wall surfaces, white boards and soft boards are trending. The idea of using separate lockers for personal
storage over pedestal units looked interesting, but is yet to catch on barring a few call centres and BPOs which have
multiple working shifts.

Companies are acknowledging that there is a direct correlation between workplace design and productivity.
Decision makers are proactively modifying their workplaces to foster creativity, teamwork, employee retention and productivity. Collaboration is the name of the game in workstation designs in India. Recent trends
observed in India include opening up of oor plans, trendy break out areas and cafes, as well as ergonomics
focus. However, cost still remains a major concern for decision makers. Much inspiration can be taken from
companies like Microsoft, Allstate Corporation and Fractal Analytics which are leading the way with
cutting-edge oces, having already experimented in their past oces to create the best working environments for their employees.

oce accessories

Colliers View
Though workstations still have xed pedestal units for personal storage, the two-door cabinets in common areas are being

Respondents Profile

replaced by compactors which is mobile shelving storage systems where storage units are mounted on mobile trolleys, thereby

Methodology

eliminating unproductive aisles. Also, other components and accessories in modular furniture industry are seeing evolution to

Colliers International Indias research on oce workstations, namely, a survey to

IT/ITES, Telecommunications

42.0%

adapt to changing company priorities (moving from privacy to collaboration); for instance the partition/ screens between work-

determine the trends in India, was conducted via questionnaire. Qualified responses

BFSI

12.0%

stations are becoming lower, allowing eye contact between employees or in many cases demountable screens are used to allow

were sought by Colliers Research Team from respondents. Respondents in each

Manufacturing / Industrial

10.0%

region hailed from various parts of India and were asked to reply to a series of

Healthcare / Pharmaceutical

questions in a web-based survey. Responses were received from a range of industries,

Consumer Industries

20.0%

including Banking and Financial Services, Telecommunications, Information Technolo-

Other

10.0%

exibility. Filing pedestals for the employees have also been adapted to be mobile cushion top pedestals in many cases, to facilitate collaboration between employees and also reducing load on enclosed meeting spaces.

gy and Information Technology-Enabled Services, as well as Professional Services.

The survey result was presented in the form of graphical themes that focused on

50%

Oce Space Planning, Workspace Design, Collaborative Space Planning, Storage and
Furniture Accessories, Oce Chairs and Brand(International or Domestic). All

Fixed Pedestal Unit

respondents to this survey are qualified industry veterans with vast experience and
knowledge in the field of project management or space planning, or decision makers
and individuals currently holding the position of managing director, project chief, CEO,

30%

director and so on.

Mobile Pedestal Unit

10%

Two-door Sliding
Storage Unit

5%

Separate
Locker Room

5%
Others

Workspace Trends In India | Colliers International

Industry

6.0%

Type of oce
Corporate Oce

80.0%

BPO / KPO

14.0%

Call Centre

4.0%

Other

2.0%

Area occupied
Less than equal to 10,000 sq ft

30.0%

More than 10,000 but less than equal to 50,000 sq ft

44.0%

Call centre

12.0%

Other

14.0%

502
67 countries on
6 continents
United States: 140
Canada: 31
Latin America: 24
199
EMEA: 108

$2.3

billion in
annual revenue

Authors:
Surabhi Arora
Associate Director
Research | India
Surabhi.Arora@colliers.com
Sachin Sharma
Manager
Research | India
Sachin.Sharma@colliers.com
To visit Colliers Research click here
For more info on our Project
Management services contact:
Saacketh Chawla
Deputy Managing Director, India &
National Director, Project Management
Saacketh.Chawla@colliers.com
To visit Colliers Project Management click here

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billion square feet

under management

16,300

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