Increasing Productivity by Redesigning Your Workplace
Our guest author this week is Dan Boram, CEO, Aura Office Environments, a leading firm offering workspace planning, location advisory, interior office design and construction management.
Research suggests there is a direct relationship between workplace design and employee performance. According to 46% of professionals, their current workspace has significantly affected their productivity. Moreover, a poorly designed workspace can negatively affect employee performance and attitudes towards the company.
But how precisely can an office layout be altered to produce a more productive and purposeful work environment?
Here are three strategies for increasing productivity through office design.
Have a variety of different work areas
Some people require isolated spaces, while others prefer open areas for collaboration. The first step is to determine how your staff performs best. Finding out how your workforce works best can be accomplished in different ways, including employee assessments, surveys, and individual or group discussions.
Once you have determined how your team works best, you can modify your office layout and design to include different types of workstations.
For example, if your sales team requires a noise-cancelling section away from others to make their best sales calls, you can include a section for modular phone booths. If the marketing team wants an area to collaborate and bounce ideas around, you can incorporate an open workstation with dry-erase boards for brainstorming.
Alternatively, if the accounting staff needs a highly private spot to concentrate on payroll, isolated offices with closed doors can be beneficial. Everyone produces their best work in their own unique way. By restructuring your office layout to include multiple workstations, you can ensure that everyone is equipped to do their most productive work.
Place emphasis on ergonomics
Another strategy to boost productivity in your workplace is to ensure that your office design plan includes options for increasing ergonomics.
Ergonomics is the “science concerned with fitting the job or task to the physical and mental capabilities of the worker.” Using ergonomics concepts in the workplace can minimize injuries, accidents and health problems while also increasing productivity and quality of work.
Some ways to boost ergonomics include adding adjustable chairs and desks to workstations to encourage good posture and a neutral body position. Furthermore, lighting, temperature, and humidity are ergonomic essentials and must be a high priority when designing a productive workplace.
One suggestion is to ensure there is sufficient lighting in the workplace. Limited or weak lighting forces your eyes to work overtime to make sense of the task, causing visual fatigue and headaches.
Cultivate a dynamic company culture and employee experience
Company culture is the foundation of a business. When teams are connected to each other, the company’s vision, goals, and mission, everyone flourishes, and the organization performs better in the short and long term.
Office design can have a significant impact on company culture. Providing an engaging work environment is one way to enable a strong company culture. However, an office design should reinforce an already strong culture, and a ‘fun’ working environment should not substitute for poor leadership and unsupportive management.
Creating third spaces where employees can engage with one another and discuss non-work-related subjects is an excellent way to improve your company’s culture. Integrating an office café, picnic area, or fitness facility are fantastic additions to any office and can catalyze employee connection.
By introducing these third spaces into the workplace, employees can feel at ease with one another and have a comfortable environment that encourages social interaction and fosters a sense of belonging. When employees feel like they belong and have a deep connection to one another and the company, it promotes a strong company culture, which leads to a productive workforce.
The bottom line
Workplace design has a significant impact on productivity. When different working styles, ergonomics, and employee experience are considered an office can increase productivity, company performance, and create an environment that benefits everyone.
The workplace needs to be adaptable and motivating. Results require creativity, commitment, and dedication from everyone involved. The result will not only look aesthetically stunning, but it will also significantly boost business performance.
Disclaimer: Avisar Chartered Professional Accountant’s blog deals with a number of complex issues in a concise manner; it is recommended that accounting, legal or other appropriate professional advice should be sought before acting upon any of the information contained therein. Although every reasonable effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this post, no individual or organization involved in either the preparation or distribution of this post accepts any contractual, tortious, or any other form of liability for its contents or for any consequences arising from its use.
