Some office spaces are often vacant because employees spend more time in meetings or move from one office to another as part of a project, taking everything they need on their desk. These are indicators of poorly designed offices. When designing an open office plan, and especially when purchasing office furniture, it is crucial to create available spaces to increase productivity.
How Can You Optimize the Open Office Layout?
If you want employees to be productive by optimizing your office layout, you need to address the following issues. Research, observation conducting research is one of the best ways to determine how your current office layout is affecting employee productivity. You can monitor your employees for several days, observe how certain areas of the office are being used and even their personal movements. For example, if your employees are having meetings in the cafeteria, this could be an indication that the office layout is poor, because there is no place to meet in the office.
Teams, productivity the best way to track your employees movements is to determine how far they walk from one place to another in the office. It is helpful to position teams or departments working together in an open office in the same location to increase collaboration. In addition, office equipment such as printers and fax machines should be placed within easy reach of anyone who uses them.
Use natural light enhances employee morale, mood, productivity and creativity. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that every employee has access to natural light in the office. Not only top executives, but as many employees as possible need an office with natural lighting. Design the office in such a way that all your employees have access to natural light and the feedback will be positive.
The biggest challenge in office layout is the increased noise levels. It is clear that in offices for which acoustics are not calculated, noise can distract your employees and affect their productivity. For this reason, it is good to keep the noisy sections together and separate these from the quieter ones. In addition, sound barriers can be used to surround the noisy office equipment of the office. To optimize acoustics, carpets, ceiling tiles and partition panel systems should be designed to help absorb noise.
Cabling from landline phones and computers at workstations can make the office look messy and cluttered. These cords can be dangerous for workers, especially if they cross walking areas. Therefore, all wiring should be designed in a centrally located way to avoid danger to the office layout and employees.
Office layouts, also known as cluster workstations or circular core stations, allow an organization to maximize floor space and provide employees with greater workspace and privacy. When designing an office layout, there are a variety of workstation design options to make efficient use of the space you have. Ergonomics is not just about preventing employees from suffering back pain. You should have furniture that supports ergonomics in your office, as it helps to improve the mood and health of employees, so you will lead to positive productivity. Adaptation to human nature in the office by its very nature, people set their own territory, most people tend to always sit in the same place or close to the cafeteria they go to.
You will also need such a space in offices and it will give you some autonomy and control. Trends may come and go, but it is a fact that everyone needs personal space at work. It is observed that employees are more productive as long as they have a personal workspace. Employees may be sensitive to addressing if they lack their own personal workspace. However, employees tend to go on the defensive when told to move from a closed office to an open office. Therefore, managers who want to make a successful office renovation / transition will have to make some compromises.
In open office plans, every employee should have their own space. This space can be something like a personal table, chair, shelf, or a cabinet. You are less likely to get a negative reaction when you tell an employee who knows they will have their own space and equipment that they need to move to an open office. However, good communication and clarity of the reasons for this decision can help reduce or eliminate their negative reaction.
Use physical environment and cultural norms to build resilience. Company culture plays a huge role in determining acceptable and unacceptable working methods. Many offices have unwritten signs that define personal spaces. It means closing the door in private offices and wearing headphones in open offices. When you move your employees into an open office plan, will they have the space they need for their personal time? Does the office support personal phone calls or even allow private conversations with other employees? Does every employee understand and accept these unwritten rules and expectations? Every employee knows that it is difficult for an employer to always fully meet their requirements and to predict how their workflow may change in the coming days.
Every job has its own needs, and every job requires employees with unique skills. We cannot find a one-size-fits-all solution in our workplaces. However, employers should not be content with booths, large group tables, comfortable seats, large meeting rooms and soundproof, acoustic spaces, but also provide different working spaces. All of this is to ensure that employees have the freedom to choose where they can work best. People who are allowed to work in a different field when they want and do not have to work with a single computer are more productive If you want to create flexibility in the workplace, you must focus on the following three things: Consider how your employees are nonverbally transmitting the "Do Not Disturb" signal. Make sure that your employees can continue their work in different work areas and have the freedom to do it throughout the working day.
Give your employees the option to work remotely, while also giving them flexible working options as long as they can fulfill their roles requirements. When open office plans are made right, it gives your employees the freedom to choose how they want to work. It also helps create a work environment where employees can develop organic brainstorming. Open office plans will lead to positive productivity when it takes into account the culture of the organization, the needs of the employees and the nature of the work done by your employees.
