Productivity and employee happiness are
perhaps two of the most important factors to making a successful business. It
doesn’t matter if you produce an excellent product or have great customer service,
if your workforce isn’t motivated, the firm will fail. Whether
you are thinking about having a complete office refurbishment of a simple
refresh we think there are four simple steps to improving office productivity.
Improve the layout
When trying to improve productivity, it
is worth thinking about how the different departments in your office interact.
Sometimes, it is worth reorganising spaces to move these areas closer together
or changing how they communicate. When we space plan a new office space we
always conduct a survey to find out which departments work more closely together.
It’s surprising how often these teams are usually farthest apart. On average
workers spends more than four hours each week trying to locate documents,
papers, and other materials. Therefore, while investigating how these departments
interact, we also do thorough storage audits to evaluate how records are stored
and updating filing systems to make them easier to use.
Depending on what your company does,
staff members might work better in small cubicles, in open plan offices, or
even within rooms in teams. However, regardless of these differences, each
environment needs adequate furniture to maximise productivity. Good back
support and flexible desks with good storage space are essential. Improving
office furniture should not just be limited to buying a nicer desk and chair
though, upgraded technology can make a big difference.
It is worth thinking about how
furniture is positioned within an office, Open plan offices which include chill
out zones, gyms and modern breakout areas, are designed to give staff members a
reason to stay in the workplace – as well as keep them happy and motivated.
Workplaces are quickly becoming more than just locations to do a job, and
thinking of them as fun places to be might greatly improve employee
productivity.
Improve the lights
Although individuals will obviously not
perform well in darkened rooms, choosing the incorrect type of lighting can
have negative effects. For example, artificial and dim lights have the
potential to cause eye strain and headaches while florescent bulbs could make
it difficult for people to focus on their screens. Instead, using as much
natural light as possible is a far better solution. Furthermore, having a
substantial amount of natural lighting in the office should help cut your
electrical bills!
Changing attitudes
Although changing the layout, lighting,
and furniture of an office can greatly improve productivity, involving staff
members in the decision making process and helping them feel valued can also
increase their efficiency. Asking what the staff members would like in their
office can greatly improve their attitude towards the company and change in the
new environment. Consequently, although the other solutions mentioned above
might cost money to implement, this is one measure which won’t cost a penny –
but is arguably priceless.
