In October and November, 2007 Skanska conducted a survey known as the Skanska Office Index through the GfK research agency. The goal was to obtain information concerning the requirements and opinions on office spaces. The survey was carried out among 600 companies in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic (200 companies in each country) that have more than 50 employees and/or at least 500 m2 of office space.
In the Czech Republic, 41% of the respondents are of the opinion that there will be more employees in the office spaces that their companies rent, while only 6% expect a decrease.
Approximately one third of the respondents stated that they will need more office space in the coming year. Only 7% were of the opinion that they would need less space than today.
It appears that there is a dispute between the current state (and the state that the respondents prefer) on the one hand and the employees' preferences on the other in terms of the arrangement of the office space: the respondents stated that most of the employees (64%) would like to work in separate offices rather than in open-space offices, while 32% of the employees actually have separate offices available to them.
If the respondents in the Czech Republic would decide on the rental of new office spaces, then the following would be among the most important factors: energy costs; whether the spaces provide a pleasant and high-quality working environment; parking spots available near the property.
Overall it seems that the respondents' companies from the Czech Republic put a heavy emphasis on the issue of the environment. Most of the companies are developing their own activities oriented on environmental protection. A total of 78% of the respondents from the Czech Republic believe that environmental issues will be more and more important when deciding on which office spaces to use. While 31% of the Czech respondents are personally disturbed by environmental problems, in Hungary it is 79% and in Poland 57%.
The respondents from the Czech companies evaluated the market on which they are operating very positively overall: 88% describe their industry as expanding. In Poland this share comprises 94% of the respondents and in Hungary 59%. When considering their company's position within its industry or field of activity, more than half of the respondents (57%) from the Czech Republic stated that their company is developing better than the industry's average value, and 36% believe that their company's rate of development corresponds to the industry average.
Source: Crest Communications
