How do you know that your employees are in the best environment? What factors stimulate your workforce into producing their best work? Please read on as we outline below some ideas. We’ll also outline an overview of work space productivity.
Your workplace (and by this, we’re primarily talking about office environments) is evolving. This is being driven by technology (always on, always available) and modern working practices (flexi-time etc).
If you can develop the correct working environment, it’ll increase your productivity. And improve employee satisfaction. Happier employees are more productive.
So what elements should you consider to promote an innovative, creative and above all, productive environment?
For your workforce to be happy, relaxed and stimulated, certain factors should be present. These factors (outlined below) are seen as almost the ‘cost of entry’ for any office environment.
Air quality – this has a detrimental effect on productivity if air quality is poor. Don’t forget to have your air conditioners serviced regularly.
Lighting – particularly the inclusion of natural light has a bearing on how well someone works in an environment. Generally, the more natural light available, the better. Light levels vary during different times of the year. The further North you travel in the UK, the bigger the difference between summer and winter light levels.
Colour is frequently cited as having a major influence on a person’s mood. Green stimulates creativity. Blue is relaxing, entrusts loyalty and well being. Red stimulates increased brain activity and yellow is supposed to increase cheerfulness. Many employers employ colour as an inexpensive way of helping productivity.
Music is supposed to promote productivity, but that depends very much on the style of music. It may be difficult to get all your colleagues to agree on this. What is the most appropriate music for an office? Which music will be enjoyed by everyone?
Many companies will do away with the cubicle style of working. They are looking for a more open, collaborative way of working. Working well together is the lifeblood of any organisation. So for all forward-thinking firms, think about this aspect of working.
A typical modern office has some open areas to encourage colleagues to share space. This also helps with creative ideas. For some workers, an open office space means a lack of privacy.
Which in turn sometimes causes dissatisfaction. For the majority of workers however, its a reflection of how people interact. Because of that, its here to stay.
So the trend within the workplace is towards a more modern, flexible and mobile way of working. Colleagues multi task, meet and work productively and creatively here.
The office environment works at fostering a sense of teamwork and interdependence amongst the workforce. This is the goal of many organisations.
Some variety in where people can sit is encouraged to prevent workers getting stale.
Why not use hot desking to encourage a non-static way of working? One idea might be to use a random lottery to assign work places!
All contemporary companies have a work environment which reflects their company culture. Ideally, this culture is designed-in as much as possible. This helps promote innovation, creativity and of course productivity.
How do you define and pin down your company culture accurately? How do you get your environment to reflect and support your culture? By doing this, you can ‘live’ your culture more easily.
Its pointless if you have a buttoned up work environment for a buttoned down company culture (or vice versa). Your environment supports your company culture. Or works against it. Make sure its working to help you.
So there you have it. A short tour of the impact of work environments. Of course, if you want to change your workplace for the better, get in touch. We will have something for everyone.
Flexspace lease units at variable terms, sizes, and locations. We cover the UK. We even allow some flexibility on how the units are kitted out. That’s because we’re flexible, The clue’s in our name!
You can rent a Flexspace unit for a minimum of 12 months all the way up to 10 years or more.
Most sites have different unit sizes, so you can move and grow with Flexspace. Choose workspace on your terms.
Most of our units are so flexible that you can shape the space to be precisely as you want it to be.
From Cafes to Gyms, Galleries to Labs, we’ve seen and done it all. Choose space to fit your needs.
