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Tips For Designing an Office
1. Make Sure You Have Enough Light and Space in Your Office
Natural sunlight is often ignored in office space design, but it should be a primary concern when it comes to office design and layout. This could play a huge role when it comes to productivity. Believe it or not, natural light makes it easier to see details and perform basic tasks because it reduces eye fatigue and causes fewer headaches.
Another important factor that comes in to play when considering the way your office is designed is office space. Give your employees enough space so that they can circulate the room and move around freely. It’s frustrating to get out of your desk and bump into everything around you because there isn’t enough space to move. The trick is to get a balance between enough space and having workers interact with one another in the office.
2. Create “Break” Spaces
Breaks are an important part of the day and employees can get the chance to enjoy there time away from being at a desk all day, which can aid creativity. Make sure that these spaces take down barriers to communicate and encourage creativity in the office. Designating a casual meeting or lounge area is beneficial for employees to not only relax but exchange and share thoughts with one another.
Another great idea is to have fun games in your break room that employees can play if they want to take a small break. For example, setting up a putting green is a great way to entertain employees and even clients when they want to take a few puts. In the picture above (which is a great example of what a break room should look like) employees are seeing playing ping pong, which is another great game to add to your break room. A good way to motivate employees is by rewarding them with new games that can be added to the break room if they meet certain goals.
3. Keep Your Office Clean
Making sure that your office is clean, organized, and free of clutter is important for employees. “A clean office is a happy office.” But in all seriousness employees will be able to focus on daily tasks and work efficiently with a clean office. One way to reduce messiness in your office is by banning food from your desk. Your employees will know that they need to eat away from their desks to keep it tidy. Also remember to always keep a trash bin near each desk so employees can easily throw away garbage. Having a clean office will also keep rodents and bugs out which will save you from calling the exterminator.
4. Invest In Office Furniture
Buying the right furniture from the start can save your company thousands of dollars in the long run. For examples if you’re buying office chairs, spend the extra $200 more per chair, your employees will appreciate it. Sitting in a comfortable chair could be the difference between lower back pain and discomfort at work and peace of mind. This has actually been proven! Workers with ergonomic office chairs call in sick less and are more productive. Investing in ergonomic office furniture is a great way to keep your employees satisfied and productive.
While setting up your break room, investing in a nice T.V. is also a great way to show your employees that you care about them. Purchasing a nice couch is also another great way for employees to relax while away from there work stations.
5. Branding is Important
When designing an office it’s important that everyone who visits knows what company they’re walking into as soon as they reach the door. Branding should be instilled into the space where all things happen. Putting your logo on the wall with your company slogan is a great start.
A great way to combine branding and function is to integrate the identity as a space identifier. Remember the physical appearance of your office lays the foundation for your corporate culture, it’s the heart of your company and impacts the way the people view your organization. When designing your office space, inject your firm's slogans, logos, philosophy, attitude, products and color palette into the environment in order to showcase your firm's corporate culture at the most elementary level.