Office Remodeling Tips to Improve Productivity and Morale
If we asked you how engaged your employees are, what would you answer?
A. Everyone is fully-engaged!
B. I could count the number of disengaged people.
C. I’m not sure.
If you answered A or B, we’re sorry, but you have too high expectations. If you answered C, don’t worry – you’re not alone.
The thing is, not a lot of business owners and employers are aware that the workforce consists of more than half (51%) of disengaged employees.
No need to panic yet. Because with the right strategies, including using the best office remodeling tips, you can bring your organization’s engagement up!
But how exactly do you go about using office design to increase productivity?
Don’t worry. We’ll guide you through every step of the way.
Keep reading to learn about these office improvement ideas that’ll make your workplace work for everyone!
Office Design, Employee Happiness, and Productivity
We’ll let you in on a secret:
Productivity and morale have a lot to do with the work environment. A workplace that works is one without employees contributing to the yearly $550 billion losses due to non-productivity.
That’s right.
This is how massive the effects of unhappiness in employees are. When a worker doesn’t have the ability to work to their full potential, it means your business is losing a lot of potential customers too. Customers who bring business to the table and can make your organization grow and prosper.
But that’s not all that’ll happen when you let your employees stay disengaged.
It’ll cost your business a lot more to find and hire new talents than to retain existing employees. You may just have to spend an amount equivalent to about six to nine months’ worth of an existing talent’s salary to get a replacement!
There’s also the simple fact that once you find the right talents, you want to keep them for as long as possible. While them wanting to stay still depends on them, as an employer, you have many ways to contribute to their favorable decision.
One way is to make them happy and satisfied with the surroundings they work in. This is where office design comes into play.
From the simplest pop of color green office plants give to having the right lighting systems, office and design layout can either make or break your employees. Of course, that includes their level of productivity.
That’s why as early as now, you should already rethink how to revamp your office space. And so, without further ado, let’s start this list of workspace design and productivity improvement tips!
1. Design for Floor Safety and Beauty
Did you know that falls cost the United States a whopping $70 billion every year in worker’s compensation and medical expenses? In the United Kingdom, falls also top the list of most common accidents in workplaces.
Sadly, many of these are preventable accidents. If only the workplace design and layout included additional safety and protection against slips and trips, which most often leads to falls.
The good news is, flooring systems have gone a long way from being simplistic and functional. Nowadays, you’ll find companies such as FLR Group offering commercial floors designed with specific industries in mind.
For instance, in retail stores that get a lot of foot traffic, you need to have anti-slip and -trip floors. The volume of traffic such establishments get also make ease of floor cleaning and maintenance a must. But don’t forget aesthetics too, since you also want your floors to complement the rest of the interior design.
The bottom line is, your floors should never compromise safety for beauty, or the other way around. Flooring systems designed for both keep not just your people safe from slips, trips, and falls, but also your potential customers.
Also, remember that negligence can land you in the world of legal troubles. Furthermore, slippery floors will give your employees that constant feeling they’re in some sort of danger zone. This can – and will – then lead to them losing focus.
The inevitable results? That lack of concentration brings down their productivity, while their constant worries can force them to quit their jobs and look for a “safer” workplace.
So, before any of these happen, update your office floors. It’s an initial expense worth the cost to raise employee productivity and morale.
2. Keeping Things Private
Workplace privacy is as important as collaboration. In fact, a study found that workers’ productivity drops as much as 50% due to lack of visual privacy. This means that when they don’t get the “seclusion” they need, they’d need twice as much time to get their job done!
Here are a few stats to put things in perspective:
On average, people spend roughly about two and a half hours dealing with emails every day. That includes reading and responding to them. That also means your employees most likely use up more than a quarter of their work day for emails alone.
If there’s lack of privacy in the workplace, this can lead to your people needing as much as five hours for email correspondence alone! That’s a lot of time that they could have otherwise spent on more income- and revenue-generating activities, such as honing their business presentation skills.
Always keep in mind that some people have excellent abilities to deal with office disruptions. But for many others, the inability to work alone or in isolation can hinder them from reaching their peak performance. In fact, it can even add to their already-stressful jobs.
This said you should delegate a space for your hardworking talents to enjoy some private working time. Whether it’s for video calls for clients or even for personal calls, give them a place where they can do so in private.
3. Set Aside a Space for the Sole Purpose of Relaxation
Stress is a major problem, whether it’s in the West or in the United Kingdom.
It’s such a big issue in workplaces that as many as 70% of Americans cite their job as the primary reason for their elevated stress levels! In the United Kingdom, surveys reveal that in every four Britons, three suffer from a great deal of stress.
Indeed, everyone will feel this unwanted, negative emotions throughout their lives. As natural an emotion as it is though, it’s something you can’t treat lightly in the office. For starters, because it has a huge impact on productivity.
But this isn’t the only reason you should set up a space for relaxation in the workplace. Stress is so damaging that it can reach the much more serious point of self-harm.
Even if it’s only a simple room with comfortable couches and a quiet, relaxing ambiance, it can already help keep the severe mental issues stress can deal. A few minutes of break in such a spot can help your employees unwind even for just a bit.
This relaxation also gives them the energy boost they need to get through the rest of the workday in a more productive and healthier way.
Giving your hardworking talents a place to escape their job stressors also shows them that you’re indeed a caring employer. Employees who feel that their bosses look after their health and safety are more likely to remain loyal to the company.
4. Get More Light In
What kind of light are we talking about? For starters, more sunlight.
Sunlight is the best type of office lighting, not only because it’s free and unlimited, but also because lack of natural lighting decreases alertness!
In fact, experts say that sunlight is the best medicine for common occupational eye health issues. Those instances of headaches and impaired vision (blurry eyesight and eyestrain)? Natural light can help keep these productivity-minimizers at bay!
Think about it. A dim, dreary work environment can make anyone sleepy. Now, you don’t want to find your people yawning, snoozing, even snoring by lunchtime, do you?
A great way to prevent this from happening is maximizing window use. If possible, have professionals fit your office with bigger windows that let more natural light in.
You can always put up window treatments, such as blinds, on them for more control over the amount of light that enters. Open them all the way up to get the most sunlight in or draw them close when the sun reaches its peak.
What’s important is to give your people access to natural light – it’s good for their productivity and their overall well-being.
Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late to Start Implementing these Office Remodeling Tips
There are many other office remodeling tips that you can follow, but the ones discussed above should be on top of your priority list. So, start implementing these workspace design and productivity strategies! You’ll soon see a huge difference in the satisfaction, happiness, and of course, output of your beloved employees.
Don’t forget to check out our blog’s productivity section too! We’ve got more tips and tricks waiting for you there to help create a healthier, safer, and better-performing workplace.
