10 Tips to Increase Productivity at Work with Office Design

2/13/2019 (Permalink)

Office design & layout.

According to the report “The Impact of Office Design on Business Performance”, it was in the 1980’s that the “combi-office” concept came to light. The philosophy behind this office design was to encourage a communicative office structure.

Following are a few factors that the right office design can influence:

• Retention and motivation of staff
• Optimization of total occupancy cost
• Productivity of staff
• Creativity and innovation in the workplace
• Skills and knowledge of staff
• Catalyzing culture shifts
• Responsiveness to technological or business change
• Customer retention and attraction

Now, let’s have a look at how to use office design to streamline you team’s workflow:

10 Tips to Increase Productivity at Work with Office Design

1. The Right Lighting

The right angle of lighting can mean the difference between staying focused and feeling depressed. Bad lighting leads to headaches, eyestrain, fatigue, and overall irritability. Lighting below 3500K will make your employees less productive. Why not give your employees a desk lamp to help them work more efficiently?

2. Chair and Table

An uncomfortable chair can direct the mind of employees from their chairs. They will forever be adjusting themselves to find the right angle. Here’s what you should do: the computer on the table should be at eye-level, the chair must have a foot rest, and the declining angle of the chair should be slightly titled to avoid back pain.

3. Clear Clutter

Get your employees’ desks cleaned every morning and encourage a clean work station. Instead of providing a huge work space, make the placement uniform and communicative. The management starts with you, so you need to enforce some rules.

4. Combination of Paint Colors

Blue affects the mind, red your body, yellow your emotions, and green your balance. Instead of using one color or going with white (a color that stifles individuality feelings), experiment with all of them and make sure to include some abstract designs.

5. Spray the Right Scent

A combination of lavender, pine, and cinnamon will work wonders on your employees’ productivity. These scents tend to increase alertness, improve focus, and induce a relaxing feeling.

6. Let Them Listen to Music

Music increases productivity by improving mood. So play light music, at a moderate volume, in the background.

7. Provide Different Spaces

Give your employees more room to work and by that we mean different environments. Apart from their personal space, make space in your office for break rooms, eating area, lounge area, game room, and relaxation room.

8. Organize the Teams

Instead of separating employees based on their job function, create a work space that puts colleagues together. This helps them generate solution quicker and get work done faster.

9. Refreshment Corner

Junk food leads to diminishing returns, which is why it is better to offer healthy snacks in the refreshment corner such as veggies and hummus, nuts, unsweetened yoghurts, freshly cut fruit cups, and more.

10. Bring in Nature

According to a study, a green office increases productivity. This might be due to the clean air that plants promote and they way they keep the place lively.

It’s time to make some changes in your office. Try these tips and you will see an increase in your employee retention rate.