Making Space Matter – Office Design and Productivity

At Officescape, we’re the most innovative and customer-focussed office fit out organisation that you’ll find anywhere. Plenty of services offer to redesign your office, but far fewer will apply the same level of attention to detail that we will, and even less will take into account the productivity of your employees. ‘Productivity?’, we hear you say, ‘what’s that got to do with design?’ Read on…

Quite simply, we thought we’d talk about this because it’s absolutely integral to what we do. If you check out the homepage on our website, you’ll see that we make a pretty bold statement; we say that office design is ‘critical to your success’. You may not have thought about this before, but it’s an undeniable fact, and is pretty much the reason behind us doing what we do. Think about it; office staff spend all of their working time inside (surprise surprise) an office, and so the place itself affects them in a very real way. Need some convincing? Here are a few pointers to display the link between office design and staff productivity (which more or less dictates your business success)…

Lighting and Productivity

How many offices around the country are lit by slightly hazy, even flickering fluorescent tubes? A fair few we’ll bet, and many employees struggle with such lighting. When you think about it, straining your eyes or constantly battling headaches is obviously going to grind down your staff productivity, so your lighting can affect the overall success of your business. As a rule, natural light is always best.

Layout and Productivity

For many years, an ‘open plan’ layout has been lauded as the best way to ensure office productivity, but that’s not necessarily the case. Open layouts do offer a lot of breathing room, but they also remove any sense of privacy, which can lead to a lack of interaction and an abundance of personal music headphones being used. As a result, satisfaction, and therefore productivity, can degenerate.

Colour and Productivity

Colour psychology is a real thing, and can make a massive difference. For example, a cool green or blue office “feels” relaxing, whilst a warm yellow office has been said to boost creativity. Inversely, a dark office can be oppressive, so getting your colours right is definitely worth a little extra time.

Ergonomics and Productivity

This is a specific category for a wide-ranging talking point, but for today we’re going to restrict ourselves to desks and chairs. If a desk or a chair is uncomfortable, then it’ll have exactly the same effect as bad lighting; your staff will spend too much time battling with niggles and various ailments – like sore backs and legs – and not enough time working. Quite frankly, who could blame them?

Clutter and Productivity

Clutter is distracting; it’s scientifically proven to be so. Therefore, your office space needs to combat this, promoting a tidy environment through the use of plenty of storage. This can be hard to do, as ‘tidy desk’ policies are hard to enforce, but your office design can clearly play a big part, and if your workers are able to concentrate more, then your office productivity is going to skyrocket.

Hopefully, you’ll now realise that office design can play a massive role in ensuring the success of your business, and rest assured we’ll have lots more to say on this topic in the future. In the meantime though, be sure to contact us if you have a need for a professional office re-fit that takes your exact needs into account. To find out more, please call +44 (0)1553 811 833 today.