When brainstorming what the perfect workplace design would look like, what comes to mind? Is it new desk chairs, new computers, maybe new tables? Or is it new conference rooms, a coffee bar, and more sunlight?
When thinking about your workplace design, it’s important to keep in mind elements that would stimulate employees instead of making them unhappy and bored. There’s a huge difference between having the scenery of beige walls and natural sunlight mixed in with collaborative spaces and fun furniture.
The way your office is laid out can make or break your business, which is why it’s important to plan out the design thoughtfully and to understand why that’s important. Pacificprime.sg does a great job highlighting some of the advantages of workplace design that we’ll be going over, such as increased employee satisfaction, effective use of floor space, better productivity, and even attracting future candidates to work there.
People got used to remote working ever since the pandemic, and they even prefer remote or hybrid working to going into the office now. But why is that? Usually, if people like a place, whether that’s home, work, a friend's house, etc, they’ll try to spend the majority of their time there. So if an office space is old and boring with not a lot of good elements going for it, people will hate going there. People love a positive and uplifting environment full of happy, positive colleagues to share it with.
Businesses are paying attention not only to their employees’ happiness but also overall well-being when thinking about workplace design. Humanyze brings up several valuable points for how and why employee well-being should be taken into consideration, starting with the fact that it has become very important to employees to not be sitting at their desks all day and all week anymore. Doing so decreases opportunities to get up and walk around and have any form of break or exercise.
That’s why it’s important to have an office design that can let them get up and take breaks in a good environment to do so in. Elements like sit-stand desks, staircases, lounges, and things like that can facilitate movement and can make taking breaks or simply walking through the office more enjoyable too. The incorporation of nature can help boost employee well-being as well. Having some plants scattered around the office, fresh air, and especially natural sunlight puts employees in a much better mood than staring at blank beige walls, cubicles, and a computer screen.
The happier workers are, the more productive they’ll be. Officespacesoftware.com shows several studies that support this idea, and the reasons why employees are more productive. These surveys show that when put in stimulating environments, employees are less likely to take sick days, are more engaged, and are healthier. And even better, businesses are happier because it’s costing them less than when employees take more days off. After all, they don’t like their work environment. It’s a win-win because employees are happy, and businesses make more money from that productivity.
The furniture layout is incredibly important in this because, without a more open layout, like a flex space, it’s harder for cross-team collaboration to happen. Flex spaces are important to multiple different kinds of workplaces including education, healthcare, and especially for hybrid workspaces. In these flex spaces, fewer cubicles are there to separate us from our team members, and fewer walls will separate us from other teams on our floor.
It’s a lot easier for collaboration to happen because you can simply walk over to the other team, and there are a lot more choices for where you want to work. There are more official conference rooms or more casual open areas, and if you want to work in a quiet place because there’s a meeting happening right next to you, there are plenty of areas to choose from too.
Comfortability is important to space functionality as well. If people aren’t comfortable, they won’t want to work there. This includes physical, mental, and even emotional comfort sometimes. Things as simple as comfier chairs, desks, and ways to keep your posture up can help tremendously at work. Also getting enough natural sunlight, and having accessible snacks and drinks, like having a coffee bar nearby helps employees stay productive as well. Plus, if the space promotes healthier and happier people, more people will want to be around those people, so more people will want to come in for work, and more people will want to work for your company! So when employees are happy and comfortable, so are businesses.
Colleagues and teams are usually separated in one way or another from each other in an office space. Either that’s by a cubical or an entire wall. Open layouts get rid of this problem by creating an open and more collaborative environment for colleagues to more easily work together, as well as various teams. These spaces can be created by having lounge spaces, and more common areas.
Workplace design is essential to the success of a business because it makes workers happier and more satisfied, in turn making the whole office more productive. Employees will feel more comfortable and healthier with more opportunities for collaboration, more say in where and how they work, and better overall well-being.
It can be hard to visualize exactly how you want your space, but we have a virtual showroom on our website that you can check out to help with that. There, you will see several elements for design and space planning including where conference rooms, desks, and collaborative spaces are. Designing your office space doesn’t have to be hard, and with the right tools, it can even be enjoyable.
