Creating a streamlined office environment isn’t as easy as clicking your fingers, that’s why offices need managers!
The task of creating and maintaining a productive work environment requires an energetic mind that can respond to the needs of others, find inventive solutions and also know what is and isn’t feasible. Here are some tips to help you craft a more productive office space for your business.
Being Heard… and Listened To
Employees want agency over their decisions, so find ways of giving choice to the people who work there. For example, a weekly or monthly open meeting for suggesting changes to the office space or company. This could be for small things like board meeting timetable allocations or for potentially larger things like the selection of optional company perks.
A sense of purpose helps give employees job satisfaction, so think about what sort of training programs you can have that are meaningful to the business and practical to carry out. Can senior staff do an optional lecture once a week? Or perhaps you can arrange a course package deal employees can do from home. Here are some ideas for simple ways to show your employees you care.
Freedom Of Choice
The workday doesn’t start at the office. It starts the second you wake up, every step that takes your employees to the office, dressing in work-appropriate attire, breakfast, the commute, is part of the workday. Giving employers a variety of places they can work will decrease the number of ‘non-productive’ hours spent everyday preparing for work and increase their freedom to do their own thing. Reducing commuting time increases employee happiness.
To make working from home schemes successful, start slow and increase the amount of time employees can work out of office as they prove they will work just as effectively without supervision. Start with half days and have manager meetings to allocate what tasks need to be done. Some people don’t work well without their work environment, so working from home is a privilege earned.
Onsite Recreational Areas
You always hear of the top companies offering their employees some sort of recreational area where they can get some downtime and recharge a bit. Think of the enviable pictures or write ups we see of Facebook or Google employees and the office spaces they get to enjoy and hang out in.
It could be a gym area, café hangout, subsidized canteen, games room or even reading area, having a space where people can comfortably step away from their desks and disengage for a few minutes will help them to continue being productive later into the day.
For companies where people are working long hours, or who have a gym onsite, a shower and changing area is then a must. The Water Heater Reviews Site provides some insights into appliances you can easily fit into the office space.
Comfortable Living Environment
If your employees sit for multiple hours a day, then they will need comfortable chairs. When choosing an ergonomic office chair, consider the heights and weights that each chair can tolerate comfortably as well as how long-lasting the chair is likely to be. You may also want to consider some standing desks for anyone to use. These could just be higher platforms with a power socket for laptop users to come and use for thirty-minute slots.
Culture of Feedback
Mistakes are inevitable. Every business has to deal with them at one point or another, and employees have to have an environment where they can take responsibility for their mistakes without shame and get reasonable support where needed to fix them. Identify where mistakes are made and how the team responded to them. Areas where employees don’t admit to mistakes or are afraid or repercussions need to be smoothed out.
This can be achieved by having a daily problems talk, where every employee gets one minute to describe an issue and everyone gets to pitch in a suggestion. Rapid think tanks like this increase camaraderie and normalise problem-solving. Plus, it introduces a daily cycle of feedback which is useful for managers and promotes collaboration within the team.
This should cover some of the basics that will help employees focus on their jobs and not on distractions. The needs of each office space will be slightly different for each company and employee, so what are your own personal experiences of office productivity done right? Leave a comment below with your tips.
