Increasingly outdated workplace strategies are stifling productivity and contributing to greater staff turnover, according to recent research from Durham Business School and management consultancy JBA.

The series of four studies, commissioned by office management firm Regus and based on surveys of over 8,500 people, argue that the typical UK workplace is evolving faster than other sectors of the economy, and that many firms are struggling to keep pace with changes in employees' expectations.

Speaking about the reports' findings at Sun Microsystem's UK user conference earlier this month, JBA chief executive John Blackwell said output per hour in France was 29 percent higher than in the UK, with Germany and the US more than 12 percent more productive. He argued that rigid workplace practices and the UK's comparatively poor skill level were contributing to these low productivity levels.

The report found that many firms were over-reliant on city centre offices, which cost an average of £23,500 per employee per year but are typically under-utilised and are unpopular with employees. Staff that spend five days a week in the office were found to be twice as likely to be thinking of quitting as those who work flexibly.

The study also revealed that city centre locations are finding it harder to attract highly skilled staff because more employees are migrating to "talent ghettos" in more "affable" rural and suburban areas.

Blackwell said that the failure to provide flexible working was also stifling productivity because a quarter of staff feel that they are at their most productive outside traditional office hours. "Employees are increasingly thinking 'if management get out of our way we could get more done'," he said. " There is a need to respond to when your workforce feels productive and that means empowering them to work when they want. Younger generations will expect this flexibility."

Robert Hamilton, solutions designer at Orange Group, also spoke at the Sun conference. He said that the number of interruptions found in the office had made it a "pretty lousy place to work", and that supporting staff who want to work from home is now essential. "How often have you heard people say 'I'm going to work from home because I've got to get some work done’?" he asked.

However, despite staff that have the ability to work from home being more productive, easier to retain and 40 percent less likely to suffer "burn out", the report also revealed that many home workers feel they are being sidelined by colleagues, have poorer promotion prospects and get fewer opportunities for training. "Organisations that respond to this demand and offer equitable treatment no matter where people work are going to get real benefits in recruitment, retention and productivity," said Blackwell.

Hamilton argued that alongside investing in technologies to support home working, IT chiefs also needed to change the way they perceive other staff, and give up some of their control over what applications employees can use. "There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: IT and drugs," he observed. "IT has to see staff as customers now because [if they don’t like something] they have a choice."

Hamilton cited his office as an example, where many staff use Google Mail rather than the corporate email system, which has less storage. "If it is the right tool for people to do their job, you've got to let them use it," he advised.