Factors that affect an employee's productivity go beyond their desk. The environment where employees work has a major impact on their productivity. As this Midwest Real Estate News piece states, "It makes no difference how seasoned or small or large your business is. Office design impacts happiness in the workplace and overall productivity." These five simple improvements you can make to your office space are proven to boost office productivity:
1. Have Resting / Collaborative Spaces
Even the sleekest offices can make employees unhappy and unproductive if they feel chained to their desks. Create spaces and common areas (besides meeting rooms) where employees can get away from their desk to collaborate, change up their work environment scenery or even take a 20 minute mental break to read a business magazine.
2. Layout
Think about how your employees work. Are they collaborating on projects and need space to meet? Are they mostly making phone calls? Think about the roles of your different employees and organize your office based on that. Be sensitive to sound. Brokers who are making phone calls should probably be separated from the rest of the office those with jobs that require less talking on the phone. Bringing in a professional to help is a great way to get creative insight on how best to utilize your space. For the Teva Pharmaceuticals project, Hoefer Wysocki Architects knew collaboration was high on the list of needs for the Teva employees. So, they designed with this in mind, making spaces and layouts easy for employees to communicate and work together on projects.
3. Get Natural
Research shows that having a plant on an employees' desk or even having plants in an office space keep your employees happier, increasing productivity and cognitive attention. Having real plants be part of your office decor can even improve employee health by filtering the air to remove mold and bacteria.
4. Office Supplies and Equipment
An employee who constantly has to adjust their less quality desk chair or suffers from headaches due to an older monitor is going to be a less pleasant (and productive) member of your company's workforce. Companies should make employee office equipment preferences a priority and not cut corners when it comes to making an employee comfortable while they work.
5. Lighting
It is proven that employees who enjoy more natural light in the workplace are happier and perform better than their counterparts in setups that don't have natural light. Lighting should also guide the layout of your office and where you sit your employees. Someone like an accountant who is looking at spreadsheets all day will likely need more light than someone like a broker, who spends the majority of their time writing emails or making calls. When seeking office spaces and when improving upon current spaces, keep natural lighting as a top priority.
Maximizing office productivity is very largely dependent on how comfortable employees feel in their work spaces. Applying office environment tips will make employees happier and thus, improve office productivity. Contact me for help with your office productivity needs. You can see my site and contact information here.
Contributor:
Sales Associate
Block Real Estate Services, LLC
No comments:
Post a Comment