Paris Centre Ouest tops the list. Its accessibility and the quality of its living environment contribute to its popularity.
To compile this ranking, Ifop developed a summary indicator, the Workplace Index, which measures managers' overall satisfaction with their offices by region, based on 29 criteria (feeling of well-being at work, office location, quality of the building, quality of facilities, services offered).
The top 5 :
- Paris Centre-Ouest (1st, 2nd, 8th, 9th, 16th and 17th arrondissements)
- Boucle Sud de Paris (Boulogne-Billancourt, Issy les Moulineaux, Meudon, Sèvres, Saint Cloud)
- Paris Rive Gauche (5th, 6th, 7th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th arrondissements)
- Ex aequo, La Défense and Couronne Est (Vincennes, Montreuil, Charenton, Bagnolet, Saint Mandé, Saint-Maurice, Joinville le Pont, Fontenay sous-Bois, Nogent sur Marne)
A great place to work
Paris Centre Ouest comes top for the quality of its living environment (green spaces, cleanliness, neighbourhood activities). The district also scores highly for shops, amenities and restaurants, with 86% of satisfaction. Unsurprisingly, almost all managers in Central West Paris (88%) are satisfied with safety in their neighbourhood.
An easily accessible district
Executives are delighted with the accessibility of Central West Paris by public transport (90 % of satisfaction!) Satisfied with their commuting time, executives working in Paris have an average of 8 minutes less commuting time than those working outside Paris, a "saving" of 30 hours a year, the equivalent of 4 working days!
The impact of commuting time is twofold. Firstly, it is psychological, influencing feelings of well-being at work: the closer you work to home, the happier you say you are at work. It's also economic, since the time saved on transport is partly reinvested in the company: the closer executives work to home, the more likely they are to consider that "the office is a place where [they] like to spend time".
An ideal business district
90 % of managers in Central West Paris are satisfied with their geographical proximity to their clients and partners. 65 % of managers in Central West Paris believe that their offices have a positive impact on their company's performance. This is 4 points better than elsewhere in Paris and, more importantly, 10 points better than in neighbouring departments (Hauts-de-Seine, Val-de-Marne or Seine-Saint-Denis).
There is one downside, however: while the Central-West Paris sector performs well for work and business, it comes last when it comes to the presence of spaces for socialising and relaxing in offices (only 60 % of satisfaction). "This is a good example of how we can anticipate companies' expectations in terms of workplaces and take them into account in the design of our property projects," concludes Dimitri Boulte.
La Défense and the south-west suburbs, rivals of Paris
La Défense tied for fourth place in the Paris Workplace 2015 ranking, just off the podium. The modernity of the facilities and the presence of services are highly praised by the "Défensiens". Executives working in La Défense generally appreciate the external visibility of their building and its reputation (81%), although they are more reserved about its architectural quality (66%).
But the weaknesses are not ignored. What makes La Défense unique as an office district can also prove to be a handicap: 77 % of managers and executives prefer to work in mixed districts, combining housing, shops and offices, rather than in business districts composed mainly of offices. La Défense also suffers from a relative lack of accessibility compared with Paris.
Podium
The southern loop of Paris (Boulogne-Billancourt, Meudon, Sèvres, Issy-les-Moulineaux) is on the podium of the Paris Workplace 2015, behind Paris Centre Ouest but just ahead of Paris rive-gauche. The Southern Loop has three key strengths:
- accessibility by car, which received the highest level of satisfaction of all the areas tested: 76 %, 16 points higher than Paris ;
- a certain peace of mind, reflected in a high level of satisfaction with the quality of the living environment (cleanliness, green spaces, harmony of the neighbourhood), and with the feeling of safety (91 % satisfaction rating, second highest score);
- the architectural quality of the buildings, which, with 81 %, had the second highest satisfaction rate behind Paris centre Ouest (82%).
And Seine-Saint-Denis?
The northern suburbs of Paris (Saint-Ouen, Saint-Denis, Pantin, etc.) only ranked eighth (out of 10) in the Paris Workplace survey. This is due to the poor perceived quality of the living environment, the feeling of insecurity and the lack of amenities and shops. However, executives in Seine-Saint-Denis are no more unhappy than others: they rate their well-being at work at 6.8/10, exactly the same as the general average for executives in the Paris region. And a majority of them do not want their company to move (52%).
They particularly appreciate the department's accessibility by car (78 %, 18 points more than Paris and 10 points more than Hauts-de-Seine) and the layout of common areas and communal spaces in their workplace. In other words, companies in Seine-Saint-Denis are taking advantage of a lower price per square metre than in Paris to offer their employees more space, thereby partially compensating for the region's lack of attractiveness.
