What a Harvard Business School professor thinks about open office plans

Harvard Business School organizational-behavior professor Ethan Bernstein debunked and demystified the fad of open office plans in a recent review. So why are workplaces still trying to implement them?

Transitioning after COVID

In a post-COVID world, when employees shuttle in and out of offices on a schedule, people have been letting go of personalizing desks and cubicles. Dividers between desks may foster safe social practices, but with teams working in person on alternating days, flexible workspaces are gaining popularity.

However, the science indicates that this is a less effective way to communicate with your co-workers and that your business may suffer from a less organized office space.

In one 2018 study, Bernstein and fellow researcher Stephen Turban monitored two Fortune 500 companies’ transitions from traditional cubicles to an open office.

Both companies, which weren’t named in the study, had similar ideas: running an experiment by making one floor of their office spaces completely devoid of walls. Would it make employees more productive to work without borders? And would they be able to direct employees to engage in social contact with those outside of their team?

Motion-detection devices were installed everywhere from lights to Wi-Fi connections, and there were sensors in chairs and tracking software for emails and Slack conversations, as well as devices like Fitbits on the workers. Using this data, the companies maneuvered and tweaked their open office plan to identify how it would suit their employees best over time.

But the researchers learned that architecture and desk placement were only half the battle. In-person interactions decreased by up to 70% after the transition to an open office, and electronic interactions increased to make up for it. Additionally, the study found that people naturally withdrew from “vibrant face-to-face collaborations” when presented with too many options for socialization.

Can we strike a balance?

Research has shown that the tried-and-true method of fixed seating with teammates results in higher productivity and deeper relationships between co-workers. Open offices, on the other hand, can make workers feel distracted and cause them to make more errors.

When people have assigned seating, they’re more likely to work in groups but less likely to go to communal workspaces. This could be a bummer for the artsy architect looking to reinvent the modern office, but for regular white-collar workers, simple team seating is always the best option.

Despite workers’ continuing distaste for open offices, companies still feel the need to test out this workplace format just to see if there’s any merit to it. Pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline ran pilot programs that they called a “workplace performance hub,” collecting information on lighting, temperatures, aromas, and sounds using people-tracking systems. It tracked employees’ heart rates, lung function, performance, and blood pressure, collected via FitBits and Kinect sensors.

Despite the time and money invested in this experiment, the study’s only definitive conclusion was that employees’ mood, wellness, and “workstation variety” was improved by an environment more tailored to their needs. But it wasn’t clear whether or not an open office accomplished that.

The future is open

It still remains to be seen as to whether open offices are the best way to work. The unfortunate part about these various scientific studies, Bernstein noted, is that humans can only be manipulated by tech up to a point in the workplace. They generally socialize and communicate with the people they want to and avoid those they don’t. And if there’s no one in the area to talk to, they simply keep to themselves. So while an open office might seem on paper like it would foster new relationships, it just seems to foster further isolation in practice.

Bernstein said that even if a company plans to implement an open office, there is no one best open office plan. If the goal is getting the right people to interact at the right times, every office culture is different. As a result, every office plan should be different. Listen to the employees, not just the Fitbits, if you want to change up desks and dividers.