It goes without saying really, where you work has a significant impact on how you work. This blog promises to advise you on how to best set your Serviced Office up to get the most out of your team.
Working in a cold, dimly-lit area, which is cluttered and untidy and barely has enough room to swing a cat, is hardly conducive with nurturing productiveness and creativity. By contrast, a spacious, stylish, bright, warm – but not too warm – and comfortable office is synonymous with fostering the very best out of employees.
Here at Carrwood Park, our serviced offices are the epitome of a stylish, practical, convenient and productivity-enhancing modern working environment. If, therefore, you have aspirations to modify the layout and décor of an existing office in 2015, or move workers into an office with an industrious design, take advice from the experts and read the Carrwood Park guide how to set up your office for maximum productivity.
Comfortable office furniture
Forcing staff to sit on hard chairs for eight hours a day and work from a computer precariously positioned on a miniscule workspace is not exactly conducive with encouraging a great day’s work.
Investing in comfortable office furniture such as cushioned office chairs with arms and a workstation that has ample room will play an important role in enhancing staff morale, efficiency, and their performance in general.
A nested approach to office layouts
A what approach you might ask? According to anthropological research, teams of seven people, give or take two, reinforce cultural norms and create the strongest trust bonds.
This is the theory behind Google’s new offices in Switzerland and Ireland, which comprise of generous amounts of wide open space and rooms with no more than eight desks in them.
Kristine Woolsey, an office designer who was involved with the design of Google’s new offices, explained to Forbes, how groups of between 6 and 8 people don’t really require a manager or team leader.
“With a group that size, no one can hide. Positive and negative behaviours stand out,” explained Woolsey.
Okay so we might not all have a company budget the size of Google’s and are able to have spacious office rooms comprising of just eight desks in each, but designing the layout of the office so there are clusters of between 6 and 8 desks is likely to nurture productivity and limit the requirement for a manager constantly breathing over the team!
Have a two-zone office
The trendiest – and most productive – of offices have areas designed to cater for non-computer work. It might be two comfy sofas either side of a coffee table at one end of the office. Or it might be a cluster of chairs surrounding a table football in the office foyer.
The most productive and stylish of offices include an area that is designed for employees to relax, to hold informal meetings, which are often the best for nurturing impromptu ideas that turn out to be the most innovative and creative.
Your office should therefore essentially include two zones – one comprising of a traditional desktop area and the other for non-computer work such as going on an iPad, staff chatting amongst each other, or for reading paper documents.
And let there be daylight
The lighting of an office should never be underestimated. Research complied earlier this year showed that forcing workers to work in an office without windows could cost the individual 46 minutes of sleep each night. And we all know the importance of a good night’s sleep in the quest for a good day’s work the following day.
The study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, says that a well-designed office can boost the mental and physical health of workers. What’s more, the research also showed that employees who sit near a window are likely to get a better night’s sleep and therefore a better quality of life than their light-depraved colleagues.
A well-ventilated office
The same principle can be applied to working in an office that is well ventilated. A different study carried out by the World Green Building found that a well-ventilated office can boost employee productivity by as much as 11 percent.
“Sitting desks in positions with good views, putting plants around the office and ensuring there is plenty of natural daylight can boost the health, satisfaction and job performance of office workers,” the report said.
Carrwood Park prides itself of having office, atriums and meeting rooms swathed in an abundance of natural light. Being surrounded by green and fertile grounds, those working at Carrwood Park also reap the benefits of exposing employees to the good views the World Green Building report talks about.
And finally – the location
As we wrote in an earlier blog about how the look and location of your office can affect a company’s branding, the location of an office is of vital importance in influencing branding.
It also has a direct correlation with the productivity and morale of your workforce. Spending hours commuting to and from work each day, battling with city centre traffic or overcrowded public transport, will not exactly mean employees turn up to work each day with a smile on their face and ‘go-go’ attitude.
Ensuring your office is well-positioned, with good access to major roads, motorways and can be found with ease, will play a significant role in improving the productivity, morale and overall performance of your workforce.
If you are looking for stylish, modern, comfortable and convenient serviced offices in Leeds that will go a long way in enhancing worker productivity, get in touch with Carrwood Park today.
