If you run a business, you’re concerned with keeping your employees as focused, efficient, and productive as possible. The design of your office space can play a bigger in role in this than you may realize. Old design approaches had rows of cubicles, with workers all toiling away at their desks. When employees spend day after day in a maze of little cubicles, it’s easy to become demoralized. It also leads to wasting time looking for coworkers, trying to find a meeting room, or being distracted by the people chatting in the adjacent cubicle.
Modern office design trends aim to open things up, for the benefit of employees and management alike. Workers will be happier with a more vibrant, open workplace, and management will be more pleased with more productive employees. Here are some tips on how to design a more effective workplace.
It’s not all about the desk
Workers today don’t need to be chained to their desk all the time. It’s not healthy for the human body to be seated in the same position for eight hours a day – our bodies were made to move. Variety also makes people feel better about their day, reducing the tedium that can set in from spending a full day at your desk. You can use an assortment of different spaces in your office, designed for different purposes.
Open up the cubicles
Cubicles are depressing, and can really make employees feel like a rat in a maze. It’s hard to be inspired and creative when you’re sitting in one of a hundred identical grey cubicles. The artificial lighting in these cube farms also dampens people’s mood and fosters a negative attitude. If you make the move to an open workspace, it creates a more vibrant environment with greater natural light, which increases employee satisfaction and may help your recruiting efforts, too.
Reduce interruptions
Another downside to cubicles is that there are almost always interruptions and distractions. Either a coworker is stopping by your cubicle to chat, or they’re having an impromptu meeting in the cubicle next to you. Having a flexible office design means people can pick their own environment for the task at hand. When they need to collaborate, they do. When they need some uninterrupted heads-down time, they can move to a quiet zone and work hassle free.
Provide spaces for collaboration
Many companies have a shortage of conference rooms, because most of the floor space is allocated to cubicles. When people can’t find an open meeting room, they end up chatting in their cubicles, which disturbs everyone around them. When you open up your office space by dismantling cubicles, there’s more room for people to work together. Employees can choose to work in a quiet zone or a collaboration zone, whichever they need at the time.
Create special purpose spaces
Cubicles are identical, and generally each person is carefully allocated the exact same items – a small filing cabinet, a white board, or whatever the company standard is. If you want anything special, such as a flip chart or extra computer, it’s difficult to arrange. You can solve this by providing special purpose spaces, such as presentation rooms with audio visual equipment, or brainstorming areas with walls of whiteboards.
Make room for socializing
When employees are allowed to interact informally, they bond with each other, and tend to feel more supportive of each other and shared company goals. They’re also more likely to share ideas and help each other solve problems. When you offer social spaces such as a dining room, employee lounge, or even a game room, it helps foster these important employee interactions.
Does proper office furniture design lead to better business? Absolutely; people work better in modern-looking spaces. Companies are willing to do a lot these days to please their personnel. Famous enterprises like Amazon and Google have already started providing their people with a different work space. Relaxation room, vibrant office colors, lounge areas, interactive games during breaks, and advanced technology for them to work with are several important aspects that boost productivity.
Creating a cool office space doesn’t just boost morale; it helps your company look innovative too, so you might want to have that aspect in mind the next time you think of implementing dull cubicles in your company.