Using Office Space to Promote Productivity

The members of today’s workforce care about where they work. Nowadays, you have to adopt a forward-thinking environment to attract top talent. Grids of cubicles and overhead fluorescent ceiling panels won’t do it anymore if you’re looking to drive growth and attract new clientele.

Offices are no longer merely a place where you work; they’ve become an expression of how you work. So when clients come to visit, a prospect arrives for an interview, or you’re hosting a meeting with a vendor, you need to cultivate an energetic, inviting, and contemporary environment.

Beyond the obvious benefits that a well-designed office layout can provide, you may be surprised to learn how office design can elevate employee productivity to new levels.

Easy Ways to Encourage a More Productive Office

Let There Be Light!

No figure of speech here. Improving the flow of natural light throughout your office can directly impact employee engagement and productivity. Several studies have shown that encouraging natural light can result in a 2% to 16% gain in productivity in the office setting.

And the more natural light brightening up your office, the less electricity you’ll use on lighting. Brightening up your office by opening a few windows will promote employee productivity.

Encourage Movement

We all hit walls over the course of a long workday. Instead of sitting at a desk (dwelling on how little you’re getting done), standing and moving around the office for a moment can help you overcome that post-lunch speed bump. When you encourage movement throughout your office, you can help employees break up their routines by moving around the office throughout the day and engaging in face-to-face interactions.

Simple things like having a central kitchen area or an open-space collaboration area can help employees get on their feet and refresh before tackling their next big project. In addition, these short bursts of activity throughout the day have shown to lower stress levels and better health, so you’re helping your team in both the short and long run.

Cultivate Quiet Areas

While encouraging movement throughout the office can lead to breakthroughs in productivity, having areas set aside for quiet and focus-intensive tasks is also critical to helping employees get more done. Today’s office environments sometimes lean too heavily toward collaboration and end up sacrificing concentration. By establishing specific quiet areas, you can mitigate the risk of dissatisfied employees who need a little peace and quiet to get their mission-critical tasks knocked out.

Create a Relaxing Environment

We spend roughly a third of our lives working. So whether we want to admit it or not, it’s no stretch to say that the office becomes a second home. By fostering a more comfortable and relaxed workplace, you can create an atmosphere that your team enjoys coming to in the mornings.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by investing in plants and dispersing them throughout the office. You’ll be improving air quality and productivity at the same time. Natural elements like plants can boost productivity by up to 15% while increasing workplace satisfaction and engagement. Another one of our favorite ideas is having an office dog around to lighten workplace tension and give your team a reason to take intermittent breaks throughout the day.

Want to learn more about what you can do to take your team’s productivity to the next level with thoughtful design elements? Contact the office space experts at DESIGN+BUILD today, and we’ll help you create an environment that your team enjoys showing up to each morning.