There’s no doubt about it, everyone wants to get the most out of their time at work. Whether you’re a Managing Director wanting to improve the productivity of your staff, or you’re an employee that needs to up their game. We’re all working against the clock, we have targets to hit, goals to achieve.
So, we do everything we can that might affect our office productivity and in tandem our health and wellbeing. We start the day with a brisk walk, we get everything we need at our desk ready to put our head down and work for the morning, we turn off notifications on our phone.
We’re all striving to get the most out of our brains to produce the best possible outcomes. And of course, it goes without saying, one factor that can seriously affect productivity in the office, is the office layout and office environment.
With over 40 years’ experience, we have designed and implemented our fair share of offices. One thing that has become very clear of late is the need to boost employee productivity, whilst encouraging a happy and healthy workplace. But how do you do it? Read on to find out more.
There are two main basic office layouts that most people consider, the open and closed office layout.
Open Office Layout (Open Plan Offices)
Think of Silicone Valley: companies like Microsoft, Etsy, Google. The open office layout is designed to help employees be more collaborative in their work, improve communication and it is perceived to create a more energetic environment. As you can imagine, however, it can lack privacy and it can be noisy.
Closed office
How a closed office can look really can vary depending on what you want. A closed office can consist of screens and cubicles to separate employees, or staff can be separated into their own offices.
Departments can have their own sections, as can management. The great thing about this type of office layout is that employees can have their own individual workspace. This can have a positive effect on their concentration and their workspace and can be totally personalised to whatever they want or are comfortable with. Nevertheless, closed office layouts are more difficult to supervise and don’t particularly encourage collaboration or community between staff.
Other factors
Of course, it’s not all about the desks and walls (or lack thereof). There are other factors that come into play that you will want to consider when designing an office layout that enhances staff productivity:
So what do you do?
There are both pros and cons to all office layouts and work environments when it comes to staff productivity. The debate hasbeen going on for a number of years now, and we’re positive that it will continue. The reason for this is because every company is different. Every company has a different starting point, a different goal in mind, and each person in that company and the way they interact with one another is unique! That’s why we recommend getting an expert on board.
If you truly want to increase your staff productivity levels, you’ll want help to design and implement the best office space that works for you. A physical environment that fosters, not only productivity, but a happy, engaged, and motivated workforce.
Staff that look forward to coming in to work because they know they’re going to an environment that they enjoy being in. So if you’d like our help in designing an office to have an impact on productivity or to maximise the productivity of your staff then get in touch and we’d love to chat to you more about it!