Office Design Tips to Urge Collaboration

According to Frederick Herzberg, the psychologist who created the hygiene theory, having a well-designed office is crucial to keeping employees engaged and productive. It also helps reduce attrition and the expenses associated with high turnover rates. Because of this, many companies are beginning to add specialized commercial business furniture and decorations to ensure that their offices feel more comfortable. One of the first things that needs to be addressed during the design process though is the amount of collaboration that needs to take place between those who have to work together in a room. To help make this a little easier, the following is a list of tips to use to keep the conversations flowing:

Think About Who Needs to Talk

Long ago, top company executives had little to do with discussions regarding seating arrangements. But that is beginning to change because of the new advancements in business, which suggest the use of an adaptive leadership approach that was invented by Harvard business professionals. In adaptive leadership, communication between all of the levels of employees is a top priority to ensure that any issues that come up are addressed quickly. So instead of having closed offices or cubicles, teams and their leaders need to have an open-plan workstation set up in a circle-like arrangement.

Consider the Company’s Brand

Brand loyalty is important for ensuring that customers keep coming back to buy more of a company’s products and services. So employees need to have every aspect of the brand embedded into their mindset as they work to make sure that they respond to each other, the company’s current customers, and anyone who may become a potential customer in a way that is reflective of this brand. Something that helps with this is to design spaces based on the company’s brand specifics. For example, if the products that are sold are environmentally friendly, adding some of our architectural glass walls to conference rooms and other areas of a building will allow plenty of light in, so a building has more of a natural feel to it. It will also help with encouraging others to feel invited to come in and talk.

Add Some Quiet Places

Open floor plans have a lot of benefits, but when important meetings need to be held, it isn’t always easy for a small group of people to talk without interruption. One way that this issue can be solved is by creating some elegant private offices with extra seating that remain uncluttered to reduce distractions. Many companies are beginning to offer these as go-to spots when important business discussions need to happen.

These are just three of the office design tips that can help urge collaboration among your employees. For more design information and office furniture NJ products, be sure to contact our design specialists at Extra Office Interiors today.