How to Make an Open Office Layout Work for Your Team
Open office plans are trending in workplace design, and due to their flexibility and unlimited variations, most companies prefer them to traditional designs. Open offices are cheaper to build, furnish, and maintain than traditional office spaces, and they also promote spontaneous collaboration and innovation that cubicles and closed doors can’t match.Despite their ingenuity and popularity, these open office layouts are diminishing job performance. Open spaces create visual and noise pollution, and when these are coupled with social distractions, employees are finding it increasingly difficult to focus. Studies show that these constant distractions result in a 28% loss of an employee’s productive time.The close quarters and shared spaces are also taking a toll on employee health. According toone Danish study, employees who worked in open office plans had 62% more sick days than employees who worked in cubicles or closed offices.While collaboration is important, so is concentration and employee health, and office spaces need to provide options that support all of these factors. Rather than doing away with open spaces entirely, you need to include some closed or secluded spaces in your office layout. This helps prevent employee burnout and improve efficiency while providing employees spaces for quiet time when they need it most. By integrating different design factors into your open office concept, you create an office space that meets the needs of all employees. Keep reading to find out how to alter your open office design to be more inclusive of all employees and their work styles.
Offer Work Space Diversity
Employees need a variety of spaces to perform different jobs. Some employees may focus better amongst the hustle and bustle of social interaction, while others may prefer a more secluded location. Offer different types of work environments to help cater to the different work styles of your employees.Your employees may also change their work preferences over the course of a week (or even throughout the day) depending on the task at hand. Employees need options, which is why breakout rooms, huddle rooms, and ergonomic design elements are important to include in an open office layout.This is how Activity Based Work(ABW) environments play a role in your design. Not only do these environments include open spaces for collaboration, but they also incorporate spaces like soundproof “telephone booths” for personal or confidential calls, small rooms for undisturbed work, and lounge areas for relaxation and socialization.
Give Employees a Choice
Options imply choice, and choice empowers employees. If employees are trusted to decipher where, when, and how to work, employees reward that trust with increased productivity levels. This also leads to higher job satisfaction, and employees may view your company as “more innovative” than organizations that don’t provide the same autonomy.
Don’t Attempt to Control Distractions
Haworth’s study on workplace design revealed that controlling distractions is an expensive and inflexible process. What one person perceives as distracting could be invigorating to the next, and attempting to find the middle ground may be next to impossible. So instead of attempting to harness all distractions, let people control when and where to interact. Also allow your employees the freedom to be in charge of what their workspace looks and feels like. This independence will allow them to determine what helps them concentrate and what things are distracting. Plus, in a comfortable and familiar environment, employees are happier, and they’re more likely to be productive.
Keep it Tidy
Workspaces that are difficult to navigate are frustrating for your employees, clients, and visitors. Employees need to know where things are located and how to find internal colleagues, and that comes down to clarity in design.If your employees are confused or your space is cluttered chaos, this creates increased levels of stress and also decrease their productivity. Instead, design your space by considering how employees like to collaborate and where they connect throughout the day.
Allow Employees to Recharge
Provide ample and varied spaces for breaks to improve your employees morale and well-being, and in return, you’ll see better employee performance. Employees who take breaks from challenging tasks come backmore engaged and more motivated, both of which contribute to better productivity. Studies show that if those mental breaks also involve a short walk, your employees could even experience a boost in creativity by as much as 60%. An intelligent office design always incorporates multiple spaces for employees to recharge. This could be in the form of healthy snacks,comfortable and supportive chairs for short breaks, an onsite gym or recreation room, and maybe a tech-free meditation room for longer, more invigorating rests.
Something for Everyone and Every Job
Removing cubicles and envy-inducing corner offices from offices has contributed to the advancement of workplace culture, but there’s still room for improvement. Create a smart office space to support all employees, tasks, and working styles through a mix of open spaces, quiet rooms, and employee recharging areas.Visit The Back Store to find ergonomic-friendly furniture for furnishing your new flexible space and to support the productivity and health of your employees.
Open office plans are trending in workplace design, and due to their flexibility and unlimited variations, most companies prefer them to traditional designs. Open offices are cheaper to build, furnish, and maintain than traditional office spaces, and they also promote spontaneous collaboration and innovation that cubicles and closed doors can’t match.
Despite their ingenuity and popularity, these open office layouts are diminishing job performance. Open spaces create visual and noise pollution, and when these are coupled with social distractions, employees are finding it increasingly difficult to focus. Studies show that these constant distractions result in a 28% loss of an employee’s productive time.
The close quarters and shared spaces are also taking a toll on employee health. According to one Danish study, employees who worked in open office plans had 62% more sick days than employees who worked in cubicles or closed offices.
While collaboration is important, so is concentration and employee health, and office spaces need to provide options that support all of these factors. Rather than doing away with open spaces entirely, you need to include some closed or secluded spaces in your office layout. This helps prevent employee burnout and improve efficiency while providing employees spaces for quiet time when they need it most.
By integrating different design factors into your open office concept, you create an office space that meets the needs of all employees. Keep reading to find out how to alter your open office design to be more inclusive of all employees and their work styles.