4 Tips for Designing a More Productive Office Environment
If you ever find yourself in a position to design a new office environment, one of the most important things to keep in mind is that enabling productivity goes far beyond aesthetics alone.
Yes, it’s important to focus on the visual element when bringing an office to life. You need something that is fresh and exciting. You’re trying to craft the type of place that people actually want to come to every day. Most people will spend more time in the office each week than they do in their own homes – “drab” isn’t a word that should be in your vocabulary.
But you could have what is objectively the best-looking office in your industry, and it ultimately won’t help if it hurts productivity instead of empowering it. That’s why thoughtful planning is essential. Only then will you be able to empower the type of collaboration, creativity, and employee well-being that you and your people need to thrive.
Table of Contents
1. Choosing the Right Layout
Even if you’re not building a new office from the ground up, choosing the right layout is something you need to be mindful of during other situations like an office relocation, too.
At a bare minimum, you need to prioritize a layout that has an efficient flow of movement. People should easily be able to transition from their own personal workspace to collaborative spaces to shared spaces like cafeterias and back again. No area should be too terribly difficult to get to, and everything should be laid out in a logical way that makes sense, given what your people need to accomplish.
If individual spaces are in one wing of the building but meeting spaces are in another, you’ll have a lot of wasted time as people attempt to make sense of how to move back and forth.
Other best practices that would fall under this category include the use of ergonomic furniture to support long hours, creating opportunities for people to personalize their workspaces as much as possible, and utilizing as much natural light as you can as often as you can. If you have the ability to do so, embrace large, open windows that let a lot of natural light in. Try to use reflective surfaces as well. You’d be surprised by the major difference this can make to someone’s mood and well-being.
2. Integrating Technology That Supports Hybrid Work
Another key step that you’ll want to take when designing a more productive office environment involves integrating the type of technology that supports hybrid work. If yours is the type of business that can offer a flexible work schedule, you will likely have some people working from home and some people in the office at any given time.
If those people need to meet with one another, they shouldn’t have to battle technology in order to do so. Create meeting rooms that are already equipped with the right teleconferencing hardware and software needed to quickly get a meeting up and running in a matter of seconds. Make sure everyone has access to tools needed for file sharing and VoIP telephones, among others. If you prioritize enabling people to be as productive as possible from any location, having a more productive office that supports hybrid work flows out of that naturally.
3. Embrace Smart Office Technology
If supporting hybrid work and flexible schedules is a priority, you’ll also want to incorporate smart technology into your office design as much as possible. Take lighting and climate control, for example. Many modern solutions exist today that allow the lighting and temperature in an office to be automatically adjusted based on the preferences of the employees who are actually there.
If there is a day when a lot of people are present, things are handled differently than when only one or two employees are present. Not only is it a great way to support your workforce, but it also helps to save a significant amount of money on your utility bills as well.
4. Don’t Neglect Acoustic Comfort
Finally, don’t spend so much time thinking about the part of your office design that you can see that you neglect the part that you can hear. Acoustic design is equally important when it comes to creating a more productive environment.
If you’re working on an open-plan design, you’ll likely be dealing with high noise levels. In that case, you’ll want to be mindful of acoustic panels, carpets, and other materials that will help reduce those levels and absorb as much sound as possible.
You should also create specific “quiet areas” that people can essentially retreat to if they absolutely need to cut distractions out of their lives. Regardless, try to control background noise as much as possible. White noise is a great way to mask the low-level office sounds that typically exist, mitigating distractions as much as possible. This can help people boost concentration, which again goes a long way towards making sure they’re delivering their best work.
In the end, it doesn’t matter whether you’re refreshing your current space or are planning a future office relocation. An office is more than just the aesthetic part of its own design.
How are people going to come together and collaborate, allowing them to function better as a team than they could as individuals? How are people going to be able to give their all in a way that they can’t necessarily do in the comfort of their own homes? And How do you also provide a space that people actually want to come to and spend so much time in? These are the types of questions that you need to answer.
Thankfully, strategies like those outlined above help make the whole process smoother, allowing you to create the type of environment that boosts morale and drives business success at the same time. But you also shouldn’t forget that this process is iterative – it can and should be informed by the feedback you receive moving forward. If your people are telling you that they need some major change to remain productive, it’s in your best interest to listen to them.
If you’re able to take that to heart, there’s no limit to what you’ll collectively be able to accomplish in this space you’ve worked so hard to build.
