Everyone Hates

Your Office
The four biggest problems
with your corporate office
and how to fix them
 03 The Case of the
Increasingly Confusing
Corporate Office

07 Why Your Office is

Making Your
Employees Unhappy

15 The Solution is in the

Palm of Your Hands

20 Find Your Way to

Better Company
Outcomes

2 The Future of Aviation with Indoor Wayfinding

 The case of the
increasingly
confusing
corporate office
The modern company is growing, but the are swapped out for gleaming white tables

modern office is shrinking. In 2010, the and plush beanbags, the entire under-

average office worker enjoyed an aver- standing of what a modern corporate

age of 225 square feet to call their own. office should be is shifting from a cultural

By 2017, that size had shrunk down to an perspective and many companies are still

average of 157 square feet per worker. working out the kinks.

There are multiple reasons for this trend Kick ball leagues, company social outings,

of shrinking personal space, including the and the return of work-life balance are

globalization of companies, the embrace some of the many modern cultural shifts

of mobile working, the popularity of open that are taking hold in companies around

office design, and the reallocation of the world. This has thrilled many office

budget to technology and amenities. workers, but left some wondering just

where they fit. An afternoon tequila tast-

However, it isn’t just the lack of personal ing in an open office is not exactly condu-

space that has thrown some office work- cive for the team that still has to hit that

ers into a tizzy. As rows of tired cubicles 4 p.m. deadline.

3 The FutureHates
Everyone of Aviation
Your Office
with Indoor Wayfinding
 Mobile working is
here to stay
Flexibility is one of the most attrac- frames increases their productivity, happi-

tive benefits to today’s modern worker. ness, and company loyalty.

Gone are the days of being chained to a

desk from nine to five. The competitive Additionally, globalized companies are

company has seen the benefits in offering comprised of teams with members that are

remote working opportunities to employ- scattered around the globe. That means

ees. Employees report remote working physical office locations are rarely running

and working during less traditional time- at full occupancy capacity. As employees

plug in at home, at the neighborhood

coffee shop, or from Aunt Edna’s couch in

Boise, desks at the office are sitting empty.

In fact, recent studies have found that only

Only
59 percent of office desks are occupied on

of office desks an average day.

are occupied on
To adjust, companies are moving towards

an average day the trend of hot desking, in which employ-

ees reserve a desk for the day whenever

they come into the office. This enables

4 Everyone Hates Your Office

 companies to make better use of the space

they have, but can create difficulties when

trying to track down individual employees.

The modern open

office design
The shrinking square-footage-per-person

does not necessarily mean entire office

footprints are getting smaller. Companies

are simply squeezing more employees into

existing spaces. The death of the cubicle

farm and rise of the open office concept

means more employees than ever before

are huddled around large tables, elbow to

elbow at clusters of desks, and wandering

through spaces looking for a little quiet

time.

5 Everyone Hates Your Office

 In theory, this design move is believed to accelerate innovation,

encourage communication, and foster creativity. But the lack of

personal space and increase in noise and other distractions have

left some employees feeling frustrated.

The most successful

companies invest in
tech
As companies assign less space per employee, they are reallo-

cating that real estate budget into better office amenities and

technology that is more advanced. High end coffee machines,

full spread breakfast bars, fancy office furniture, and the best of

modern technology are all wooing today’s top talent.

In the tech world, for example, three of the industry’s top compa-

nies–Google, Amazon, and Microsoft—are putting more and more

space in between themselves and their competitors because of

significant investments in technology. Namely, their own technol-

ogy. The modern office is becoming increasingly automated and

employees are happy to let software take over the menial tasks so

they can focus on work that is more important.

6 The FutureHates
Everyone of Aviation
Your Office
with Indoor Wayfinding
 Why your office
is making your
employees
unhappy
Millennials, those born between 1981 and Problem 1: Diverse office
1996, now make up the largest generation layouts make it difficult to
in today’s workforce. This generation of find where you’re going
digital natives brings with it new expec- Companies are increasingly adopting less

tations of working life. They work hard, traditional workspaces to accommodate

smart, and fast. And they expect to be the modern needs of employees. It would

provided with the tools and technologies be surprising to walk into an office today

to help them do so. and see an endless row of cubicles. That

sea of beige has been replaced with wide-

As the modern office continues to adapt, open space, fashionable Scandinavian

companies must consider the possible furniture, and large, sunny windows.

repercussions of these changes weighed

against the danger of sticking with the There are fully stocked office kitchens,

status quo. cool on-site coffee bars, and a wealth of

options for common space, conference

7 Everyone Hates Your Office

 space, and chilling out space. Many creative companies have given

their meeting rooms fun new names that reflect company culture,

such as Twitter’s bird names, Airbnb’s cities of the world, and the

Food Network’s fruit theme.

Each creative new flourish can bring tremendous benefits to the

productivity, motivation, and morale of employees. But re-defin-

ing how a modern office looks, committing to diverse spaces, and

eschewing many of the traditional office functions can also create

a significant amount of directional confusion.

Additionally, many businesses share buildings and even floors

with other companies, which can add confusion to the corporate

landscape and make it difficult to navigate from point A to point B

within the office walls.

Diverse office layouts make it burdensome for both employees

and office guests to find where they are going. Fifty percent of

office workers report spending excessive time looking for confer-

ence rooms due to wayfinding problems. The average office

employee reportedly spends up to 30 minutes a day hunting for a

room for their purposes. That means a company of 1,000 employ-

8 Everyone Hates Your Office

 ees spends an average of 60,000 hours a Problem 2: Lack of personal
year searching for meeting rooms. That’s space increases stress
the equivalent of 30 full-time positions. Modern office design has brought about

the rise in activity-based working. Open

Not only is this a waste of company office floor plans are designed to promote

resources, it affects employee productiv- collaboration, innovation, and creativity,

ity and increases frustration. Any increase but not everyone finds their productive

in frustration is a direct hit to employee groove in this design set up. Some offices

engagement, which is harder than ever have even found this new design has

to foster in today’s competitive corporate done more harm than good to employee

environment. well-being.

A recent Gallup survey reported that only Newly opened work spaces bring with

about 30 percent of U.S. employees felt them the challenges of noises, smells, and

actively engaged in their work. As the past visual stimulations that can drive some

10 years have shown, that will not cut it for employees to distraction and significantly

the average millennial worker, who jump increase stress. Employees battle with

jobs every 3.2 years, on average. Compare feeling self-conscious to take a personal

that to the typical baby boomer, who stays phone call, discomfort with the possibil-

put for an average of more than a decade. ity of someone always looking over their

shoulder, and pressure to look busy at all

This is incredibly costly for companies. times.

According to that same Gallup survey,

losing employees to job hopping costs U.S. Offices have responded by providing

businesses $450 to $550 billion per year.1 various styles of working space and

9 The FutureHates
Everyone of Aviation
Your Office
with Indoor Wayfinding
 semi-private rooms for workers to tempo- minor aggression. At worst, it’s a major

rarily utilize, such as huddle rooms, barrier to productivity.

private phone booths, and other reser-

vation-based quiet spaces. The rise of Lastly, the lack of dedicated personal

remote working and globalized teams also space means workers have no desk or

mean employees need frequent and easy area to truly call their own. That leaves no

access to rooms with specific tools, such room for family photos, pleasing knick-

as video conferencing technology and

projection. This puts employees regularly

on the move.

Not only does the rise of the modern office

make it difficult for employees to find

of office workers
specific rooms or other points of interest,

but also it makes it even more difficult to spend excessive

find each other.
time locating
As employees move more fluidly through colleagues
office spaces, perhaps taking up residence

in a new desk, room, or common area

each day, it can become difficult to keep

track of where colleagues are located or knacks, or other personal items that help

find them when needed. According to a employees personalize their space and

recent survey by Senion, 55 percent of find joy throughout the day. It also neces-

office workers report spending excessive sitates that employees schlep all of their

time locating colleagues2. At best, it’s a essential electronics, resources, and other

10 Everyone Hates Your Office

 accessories to and from the office every

day. I can’t be the only one who has ever

experienced the agony of settling into the

office in the morning and realizing I left my

laptop at home.

All of this contributes to employee stress,

which hurts your company more than you

might think. Stress currently accounts for a

loss of an estimated $300 billion to compa-

nies in the U.S. each year, connected to

accidents, absenteeism, employee turn-

over, and other medical, legal, and insur-

ance costs3.

11 The FutureHates
Everyone of Aviation
Your Office
with Indoor Wayfinding
 Problem 3: Work is regularly A study published in the Journal of Experi-

interrupted mental Psychology found that after only a

An office that is navigationally challenging 2.8-second interruption, subjects doubled

to employees is doubly so for office guests. their error rates when they returned to

This is a breeding ground for stress and their task. After a 4.5-second interruption,

frustration for everyone. Those looking for error rates tripled5.

rooms will either waste time wandering or

interrupt the work of someone else to ask Reports of exhaustion are higher for

for help. those who are frequently interrupted, and

those employees are more likely to report

Nothing kills productivity faster than feeling overloaded with work. The Inter-

frequent interruptions. Interruptions also national Journal of Stress Management

rapidly drain energy and decrease work- also reports that interruptions aren’t just

place satisfaction. According to a study fatiguing, they can be attributed to phys-

by University of California Irvine4, office ical health problems, such as migraines

workers spend an average of 11 minutes and back pain, in as many as 12 percent of

on a project before they are interrupted. employees6.

Even worse, it then takes an average of 25

minutes to get back to the point they were Decreased productivity, energy, and work

at before the interruptions. satisfaction from interruptions costs U.S.

companies an estimated $588 billion a

year, according to research by Basex7.

12 Everyone Hates Your Office

 Employees have better things to do than The group taking the biggest brunt of the

act as directional guides to colleagues and directional burden is the front desk staff

guests. Woe is the unlucky employee who who become de facto tour guides to office

sits closest to the floor entryway. They visitors. This takes away from time that

should be spent on more important office

tasks.

Office workers
spend an average of Problem 4: The old way is…

11
old
When is the last time you unfolded a

paper map to figure out where you were

minutes going? The same can be said of today’s

workforce navigating the modern corpo-

on a project before rate office. Old-fashioned signage is not

they are interrupted cutting it when it comes to helping people

find where they are trying to go. Confusing

layouts and unclear maps and signs only

add to employee irritation.

will tell you they spend loads of time each

day giving directions to people looking for It’s been said the average human attention

conference or meeting rooms to those span is eight seconds. Whether that is true

from a different company, building, or or not, the fact is that in a busy office envi-

floor. ronment, no one is going to take the time

13 The FutureHates
Everyone of Aviation
Your Office
with Indoor Wayfinding
 to stand in front of a traditional mounted

wall map and confidently map their route

to their destination. Most offices are noisy

and visually distracting. This makes it hard

for people to take in the necessary infor-

mation from a floor map, no matter how

simple the design.

When we become overstimulated or suffer

information overload, our brains compen-

sate by taking in even less of the informa-

tion we may be trying to retain. In fact,

office signs and maps are typically viewed

for less than a second. If the information

people need cannot be absorbed nearly

instantly, they will turn somewhere—more

specifically, someone—else for help.

Regularly shifting office environment also

mean these mounted maps can quickly

become outdated. That’s one more

expense for companies and one more

hassle for employees.

14 The FutureHates
Everyone of Aviation
Your Office
with Indoor Wayfinding
 The solution is
in the palm of
your hands
Add up the estimated costs of dissatisfied, A comprehensive indoor wayfinding solu-

stressed out, and regularly interrupted tion puts searchable, interactive indoor

workers, and it could be said that corpo- maps into the hands of every employee

rate office layouts are costing companies and office guest. Users can pull up maps

$1.4 trillion a year. So what has to be done? right on their smartphones to navigate

There is one solution for all four corporate through every floor of the office to find

office problems: indoor wayfinding. specific rooms, desks, or printers.

MapsPeople’s MapsIndoors solution, for

Solution 1: Indoor example, is built on Google Maps technol-

wayfinding helps ogy. That means the same type of inter-

employees find their way face and functionality of Google Maps

An increasing number of companies are is now available inside the hallways of

investing in indoor wayfinding solutions to your office. Employees can access the

solve the problems of the modern office. maps from existing applications on their

15 Everyone Hates Your Office

 mobiles or desktops, or use it as a stan-

dalone application.

Even on unfamiliar floors or different build-

ings on the corporate campus, employees

always have the assurance of step-by-step

instructions and foolproof maps, which

eliminates all that time spent wandering

hallways and searching for conference

rooms or other spaces.

Solution 2: Indoor
wayfinding helps employees
find their colleagues
Not only does MapsIndoors make it easy

to find specific rooms or resources within

an office, it also makes it easy to find

colleagues who might be hot-desking on a

different floor, holed up in a phone booth,

or working in a huddle space at the tap of

a screen.

16 The FutureHates
Everyone of Aviation
Your Office
with Indoor Wayfinding
 MapsIndoor’s indoor positioning provider Guests who arrive for meetings can seam-

records specific devices’ locations so it is lessly transition from outdoor navigation

possible to pinpoint the location of other to indoor navigation that takes them all the

users. Those who need a quiet space way from their front door to their specific

completely free of interruption can adjust conference room for the big meeting.

privacy settings to be sure they cannot be

found. Consider all that wasted time spent giving

directions and then trying to get back into

the disrupted productivity groove that

Solution 3: Indoor would be saved if your office offered the

wayfinding reduces tools that made it impossible to get lost.

interruptions Remember: It takes 25 minutes to get back

Eliminating the frequency of lost employ- to the point they were every time a worker

ees and guests eradicates a major produc- is interrupted, which happens on average

tivity disruptor. Front desk staff and every 11 minutes in the typical office envi-

employees are no longer tasked with help- ronment. It’s a wonder any work ever is

ing colleagues and guests find their way done at all.

to conference rooms, restrooms, or other

points of interest within the building or Indoor wayfinding will reduce errors, help

throughout the corporate campus. employees complete assignments faster,

17 Everyone Hates Your Office

 and help employees feel less burdened Solution 4: Indoor
from both a mental and physical perspec- wayfinding increases
tive. The gains in productivity alone would workplace satisfaction
be significant. Consider also the reduction In addition to increasing productivity,

of absenteeism, medical costs, and insur- indoor wayfinding has a direct correlation

ance costs. with increased employee satisfaction that

extends much further past the ability to do

their jobs with fewer interruptions or easily

Indoor wayfinding
find their way to the nearest restroom.
is the next step
in automating The bulk of your employees were born

minute tasks and plugged in to the internet and grew up

with smart phones in their hands. They

empowering
walk through their cities with Google Maps
employees with the showing them the way. They order their
information they meals delivered with a few taps of their

need to do their jobs fingers on their phone screens. They keep

better in constant touch with friends and family

by instantly clicking hearts and leaving

comments in their social apps. And they

expect the same level of one-click conveni-

ence to follow them into their office.

18 The FutureHates
Everyone of Aviation
Your Office
with Indoor Wayfinding
 The most successful companies invest in ing employees with the information they

the tech that helps their employees work need to do their jobs better. Just as work-

better, smarter, and faster. This is not only ers need to regain control of their envi-

an investment in outputs, but in happier ronment with various workspace options,

employees. they also need the tools to help them navi-

gate there easily.

The modern office is equipped with

advanced video conferencing and intuitive Indoor wayfinding solutions also help

messaging apps so teammates around the control the natural flow of people. Employ-

world can keep in constant contact with ees or guests who enter the building to

one another. Web-based project manage- find a throng of other workers waiting for

ment and workflow platforms make organ- the same elevator can use indoor wayfin-

izing and sharing tasks easy. There are ding to show them an alternate route to

tools for minimizing distractions, collabo- their final destination. Indoor wayfinding

rating better, and giving and taking notes. can even guide employees directly to an

Indoor wayfinding is the next step in open parking space in the office parking

automating minute tasks and empower- lot, saving time and frustration.

19 The FutureHates
Everyone of Aviation
Your Office
with Indoor Wayfinding
 Find your way to
better company
outcomes
Bring your office floor plans to life with fully integrated, search-

able indoor maps from MapsPeople. For more than 120 years,

we have worked with maps and helped people navigate the

world. From hand-drawn maps to today’s cutting-edge

indoor mapping technology, MapsPeople are the industry

experts. We have worked with Google Maps for more

than seven years and we are proud to be a

Premier Google Partner.

For more information on how

MapsIndoors can help your

company improve outcomes,

increase employee satis-

faction, and free up

resources, contact us.

20 Everyone Hates Your Office

 References
1 https://www.gallup.com/services/176708/state-american-workplace.aspx

2 https://senion.com/office-worker-survey/

3 https://www.stress.org/workplace-stress/

4 https://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/chi08-mark.pdf

5 http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-00033-001

6 https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/str-a0031637.pdf

7 http://www.basexblog.com/2005/09/09/cost-of-interruptions-588-billion-and-growing/

21 The Future of Aviation with Indoor Wayfinding