We know they've got a lot of space in America but according to the latest research from IFMA the average office worker has almost 38 sq m (407 sq ft)! This figure has actually decreased from 44 sq m (471 sq ft) in 1997 and 55 sq m (589 sq ft) in 1994. It's hard to reconcile these figures with the sort of guidelines used in the UK such as the 14 sq m per person used for the recent Total Office Cost Survey (see News story).

Of course, the devil is in the detail. Although headlined 'office space' it seems the IFMA report covers several industry categories and refers to gross space which could be 15% to 20% up on the net internal space used for the TOCS study. It all points up the importance of agreed space definitions.

Elsewhere, the report (Operations and Maintenance Benchmarks) shows that the janitorial cost per square foot is higher when using in-house staff compared to work performed by a contractor or by a combination of internal and contracted staff. The mean cost per square foot for cleaning offices, other work areas, restrooms and common support space is $1.29.

IFMA says that this latest report is unique in that it contains detailed information about housekeeping and maintenance practices. For example, 14% of respondents say their maintenance departments respond to emergencies in six minutes or less and 18% list a response time of 30 minutes or less for production repairs.

The survey was conducted in 2000 among IFMA’s North American professional members. Of the 864 responses 49% were in a service industry, while 25% came from manufacturing and 26% from institutions. Forty-one percent said the primary use of their facilities was for headquarters, while 27% reported usage for 'other offices',” and 10% said 'multi-use' best described their facilities.

Richard Byatt

Copies of the report can be purchased through IFMA's online bookstore www.ifma.org