Many businesses have come a long way from vast, gray cubicle farms. Office design is no longer one-size-fits-all; successful office design takes into account teamwork, employee morale, efficiency, culture and many other characteristics. If you don’t go to work every day to happy employees doing great work in efficient ways, your office setup might be part of the problem.
Your office should be designed around the employees and the work they do. So, as you’re figuring out the best layout for your office space, keep these considerations in mind:
Solo or collaborative work? If your company’s work thrives on collaboration, your office design needs to support collaboration with an open workspace where people can see and speak to each other. However, if employees work pretty much on their own and need a quiet space to get things done, high-walled cubicles might be the way to go.
Before you relegate collaborative efforts to conference rooms and closed offices and dismiss the idea of an open work space, know this: According to a study by Herman Miller, 70 percent of collaboration occurs at a work space, not in a conference room or hallway.
Reporting structure. If your company works in small groups or pods headed by project leaders, you might want to consider arranging the office space so that all group members have easy access to that project manager.
Supplies. For many office employees, the largest chunk of a daily workload happens on a computer and a phone. If that isn’t the case for your employees — that is, if they do a lot of printing or must refresh their supplies daily — make sure you design the workspace to give them quick and easy access to the supplies they need. Shelves and storage cabinets should be nearby and well-organized so that employees aren’t wasting time walking to a different part of the building to rummage through office supplies to find what they need.
Who will see the office space? A workspace should be designed to meet the needs of the business and its employees, but are those the only people who see the workspace? Whether or not potential clients regularly get an eyeful of your office space is an important consideration. Client expectations (and therefore their confidence in your business) can be reinforced or weakened by the office design. Make sure your office projects the image you want prospects to see.
Work culture. Forty years ago, no one was talking about work culture; a business was a business, and employees came in the morning and worked all day. But these days, it’s unavoidable. Work culture isn’t only about office design, but about how employees work, the language they use, and their interpersonal behaviors. Nonetheless, if you want to attract and retain the best employees, your work space should reflect a culture that puts employees at ease and makes them feel comfortable.
Create a rest stop. Hard-working employees deserve a break every once in a while, a chance to step away from their work stations and relax their minds and their bodies. Create a comfortable area away from the work area where employees can have a coffee or a snack and leave the work behind for a few minutes. Such a rest area not only rests your employees but promotes spontaneous brainstorming and idea sharing and reinforces the company culture.
There’s no such thing as a universal ideal office space. If you’re thinking of redesigning your work area, before you move even a single chair, you need to consider your business and how it works, your employees and what they need, and your clients and what they expect. Customize your space to create the most efficient and comfortable office you can. And don’t be afraid to experiment a little. If one arrangement doesn’t work, you can always move things around again.
Originally posted on July 8, 2013 @ 7:23 pm