Improve productivity by giving your team members a space that works for them
When brainstorming office design ideas for your company, the satisfaction of your employees should always be a top priority. Since they are the people who will be utilizing the space every day, their occupational needs are essential to creating an office layout that improves efficiency and performance.
It’s also important to remember that the way people work has changed dramatically in the last decade or so.
In the past, open plan office spaces were designed based on the manufacturing industry, resulting in basic, linear office layouts with multiple rows of desks.
While this layout was practical in the 1900s, when executive offices were kept separate from the “worker’s floor” to establish hierarchies and employees spent their days plunking away at typewriters, it quickly became uninspiring for workers.
Fast forward to today, and employees expect much more from the companies they work for. Technology has made the transfer of information significantly easier, eliminating the need for massive filing cabinets and storage facilities for paperwork. Additionally, employees now work collaboratively, and organizational structures are less hierarchical, allowing team members to take more control of their departments and the workflow they engage in.
So, what office arrangement ideas should you be considering in order to achieve a workspace that is modern and motivating for your employees?
In this blog post, we’ll be covering three office design ideas that lead to enhanced performance while also benefiting employee health.
Table of Contents
Here Are Three Workplace Design Trends Your Employees Will Love:
1. Activity-Based Design
This is one of the office space ideas that has gained a ton of traction recently. Instead of putting the emphasis on fixed, personal workstations, activity-based design places the priority on providing a range of spaces that are ideal for the activities your workers engage in most.
For example:
Let’s say you are an ambulance dispatch station, and your telephone operators often deal with high-stress situations. When it comes to the call area where your employees will spend most of their time, you could come up with a range of office desk configuration ideas. But it would also be beneficial to consider offering your team members a “zen area” where they can go to decompress from disturbing or nerve-wracking phone conversations.
Providing this space would be an example of activity-based design, since you are focusing on what your employee would do while in the space. Thinktanks offers the perfect solution to this problem with our privacy pod solutions.
Using activity-based design is an excellent way to develop the perfect office layout, since you are focusing on what your employees need socially and emotionally, as well as professionally.
For this reason, efficiency in an activity-based work environment is 14 percent higher than in a traditional cubicle office.
2. Home-Inspired Design
When it comes to feeling inspired in the workplace, creating a space that is welcoming and warm can have a massive positive impact. In fact, even adding just a few home-inspired elements can generate impressive results.
For example:
Did you know what adding houseplants to your office space can improve productivity by 15 percent?
Or that 83 percent of the employees feel that artwork is important in their work environment?
What about the fact that 57 percent of employees indicate that a well-stocked employee break room/kitchen would lead to increased productivity?
These home comforts are awesome office design ideas, especially since 91 percent of people who work remotely reveal they're more productive at home than when they're in an office.
By making many of the elements people enjoy most about their homes available in the workplace, you make it possible for your employees to feel calm, focused, and content at the office, resulting in better operational outcomes.
3. Technology Integration
Now more than ever before, employees expect a seamless experience when interacting with technology in the workplace. So, when developing your creative office layout, it’s crucial for employers to come up with new and innovative ways to make using technology easier for their team members.
Some questions to ask when developing a tech-friendly office layout include:
- How can you make workstations more mobile and flexible?
- How can you make reserving office space easy for employees?
- How can you make the communication systems within your office more convenient and effective?
- Have you invested in cloud-based storage to make accessing data easier for your employees?
- Would smart devices (i.e. Smart Thermostats) help you better regulate your work environment?
- What types of electronics can you offer your employees to improve their productivity? (I.e. headphones, smart whiteboards, wireless printers, etc.)
When considering office design ideas, it’s important to not just think of your current needs, but what your employees will inevitably require in the future. By incorporating the latest technological tools and structures now, you can prepare your business for continued success.