Whether you’re setting up your business in an office space for the first time, or you’re upgrading to somewhere more spacious, it can be difficult to decide what to do with your office space to make the most out of the room you have available. In this post, we’ll give our top tips for how to optimize your office space to create a bright, motivating area for you and your employees that keeps staff member satisfaction at the forefront of your business model.
Create a Floorplan in Advance
The first thing you’ll need to do is make a floor plan for your office well before furniture begins to arrive or teams want to start moving things around. It’s useful to include your team members in discussions around the office layout, as they’ll be spending most of their time there, and a positive environment that they’ve been consulted on will be much better received than disruptive changes implemented without their input. The research backs this up, with evidence showing that employees perform better when they’re given control over their own workspace.
Introduce a Variety of Spaces
Next on the agenda is to make sure that you are introducing a variety of different spaces when you’re organizing your office space, as different employees will have different preferences and requirements for how and where they like to work. Creating different workspaces throughout your office that allow for different kinds of working is a great way to overcome this. Collaborative or open plan areas are a great choice, but you can also introduce smaller, walled working ‘pods’ that employees can use for focus time on important projects.
It’s a great idea to introduce a laptop locker, too, where staff can freely access a high-powered laptop that can keep up with the demand of your business at any time throughout the working day. An Intel 11th Gen Laptop is a great choice for a laptop that could be available in a laptop locker, as their fast processors mean staff can be certain that they can work from anywhere in the office, at any time, and not be held back by technology.
Prioritize Natural Light
While natural light is an obvious benefit to any workspace, it might be surprising to learn that a Harvard Business Review concluded that natural light tops the list when it comes to what staff want to see in the office. Not only does natural light improve happiness in employees and increase energy levels, but it also reduces the frequency of headaches and eye-strain, making the office a much more natural place to work.
It can be hard to get the office layout right at your business, and the effects of poor planning or unsuitable workspaces can lead to reduced productivity and demoralized staff. However, all hope is not lost if you’re trying to get things right – as long as your employees have access to high quality, reliable technology and natural light, and they’re involved in conversations around changes to their workspace, you’ll find that your office space will naturally become an extension of the needs of the business and its employees.