The success of a business relies heavily on the productivity and motivation of its employees. Your staff are the lifeblood of your business, and providing them with a comfortable, safe, and efficient workspace is your responsibility.
It is your duty to your business and your employees to give them the right setting and environment in which they can do their job and thus help your company thrive. A properly productive office setting is not just about the placement of furniture or providing a break room.
It is about directing the flow of movement around the furniture, the ambiance in the space, and generating the correct ‘vibe’ that is best suited to the work type. Achieving the results you want can take many different forms. Perhaps all you need is to hire a building contractor who can raise your walls to give your employees properly separated spaces to concentrate. Or It can be as simple as providing all the staff with ergonomic chairs to reduce their discomfort from long hours of sitting at the desk.
As long as a result is a happier and more motivated workforce, you are sure to see a sizable improvement in your staff’s productivity.
Open Space Layouts Cause Stress
An open office layout may be cheaper for you in terms of rent and maintenance, but it costs you untold amounts in employee health and dissatisfaction. Studies have shown that open office layouts result in lower employee satisfaction, lowered productivity, and higher stress and fatigue levels.
Happy employees lead to happy customers. Thus, it follows that by giving your employees are workspace where they aren’t so stressed, you can guarantee better customer satisfaction.
Adapt the Space to the Type of Work
Evaluate the field of business you are in and the activities and tasks that your employees carry out, and then design the office layout with this information in mind. Provide the employees with spaces that are conducive to carrying out their tasks.
Give your accountants and HR staff more space and storage options, give your software developers an office and allow them to furnish it as they please, and always make sure to provide your staff with a purposeful break room. They need to take breaks from their desk. Giving them a nice space to relax will allow them to return to their work refreshed.
Change the Lights
If you cannot make sweeping structural changes at this time, then consider smaller changes that could have incremental positive effects over time. One way to achieve this is by changing out your current lighting system to a better one. Poor lighting can cause headaches, trigger migraines, lead to eye strain, fatigue, and stress.
Install warm LED lighting in recessed settings and, where possible, open your curtains and let in the natural light. People do better in natural light and are less likely to feel strain, stress, or fatigue.
Refresh the Paint for a Quick Fix
If your building does not have enough windows to let in enough natural light, then you can make the space feel fresher by painting it. Avoid white and bold block colors as this presents a uniform sameness that is dull and fatiguing for the eye. Color research shows that certain colors induce similar feelings in most people. Green is linked to creativity, blue to productivity, and red to analytical thinking.
Take a survey among your staff to see how the majority of responses to certain colors. Then, pick the three best paint layouts and allow your employees to vote on which they prefer. They will appreciate your thoughtfulness, and you will have a more cohesive and productive workforce.
Get Some Plants
Place different types of plants that do well inside your office and allow people to bring their potted plants to work. People generally feel more relaxed around plants.
Having plants around the office also guarantees that the air within the space is fresher and cleaner. This, too, can only have a positive effect on your employees.
Another factor to keep in mind when considering changing your office space is the new generation joining the workforce. Today’s youth are aware that they will have to spend longer periods at work than the generations before them. They know that the majority of their life will be spent working. Therefore, they are looking for workspaces that align with their values and attitudes.
This is a good thing for the future of your business. Adapting your office space to be more personable will make it more attractive to the young people who will soon become the primary users of your services.
