Innovative Office Design to Promote Productivity

Productive employees create profitable businesses, which means it’s important for you to make your team as productive as possible. While incentives and time tracking may immediately come to mind, there are other things you can do that don’t actively involve your team doing anything differently.

Innovative office design is an effective way for business owners, CEOs, and managers to capitalise on their employees now and into the future. But what does innovative office design look like? It can be any of the following things:

Living Walls

Living walls, or green walls as they are sometimes known, are ‘walls’ of vegetation inside or outside a building. They improve air quality by absorbing carbon dioxide and are also a natural form of sound pollution.

However, some business owners are also finding that something as simple to install as a living wall contributes to their team’s well-being and productivity. When you decrease noise and pollution in an environment, you’re inadvertently creating a healthier work environment.

Natural Light

We all need natural light, and it’s probably not surprising to learn that staff are more productive when they have as much natural light as possible. Current evidence suggests that lighting, well-being, and performance go hand in hand.

Employees prefer to be near windows or in workplaces with natural lighting, which means they will seek it out to perform some of their best work. If your workplace doesn’t currently prioritise or maximise natural lighting, or you don’t believe your team is proactive or motivated, consult commercial interior fit-out experts.

They can work with your current floorplan and help you develop a new space that will create a workplace that your staff will love and thrive in and will undoubtedly contribute to your team’s productivity levels and engagement.

Office Zones

Open-plan offices have their place, even if their desirability has waned in recent years. Now, to maximise your employees’ productivity, business owners are relying on office designers to create designated office ‘zones’.

These zones are set up for specific tasks, such as fun areas for lunch breaks, private zones for jobs that require total concentration, collaboration zones, and quiet zones. When your employee can choose a space in your workplace that best suits the tasks they’re working on, they may be able to make the best use of their time.

Promote Movement

Everyone hits productivity walls, which is when you’re unable to move forward with a project due to a lack of motivation, drive, or a problem you need to solve first. Sometimes, stepping away from your desk for a mental break can be all it takes to solve that problem and get back to work, but our current office environments rarely allow for this.

Fortunately, with a change in office design, you can promote movement and have your team back to being as productive as possible. Promoting movement can be as easy as installing a communal rubbish bin and taking away bins that would typically sit beside each employees’ desk.

Even placing the printer, stapler, and other shared office products in different locations can provide your employees with the mental breaks they need. When they have to walk to an area to use something, they are returning to their desks with ‘fresh’ minds.

Get Creative With Colours

Some business owners paint their offices or workspaces a particular colour because they like it, or it works in with their branding. However, some owners understand the importance of colour psychology and how particular colours can have different psychological effects.

When you’re a business owner trying to boost productivity in the workplace, exploring your paint colour options may be worthwhile. Blue is often seen as one of the most productive colours, and is also known to promote intellectual thought.

However, red may also be worth incorporating in some parts of your office since it’s understood to increase your mental energy flow. Research also shows that green may encourage growth and creative performance.

Purchase Ergonomic Furniture

While not specifically office design-related, ergonomic furniture in your newly designed office space can undoubtedly impact your team’s productivity levels. When they feel comfortable, they will be more likely to perform better.

Ergonomic desks, chairs, keyboards, and IT equipment, can all be worthwhile additions to your workplace to put your team in the most comfortable and natural position to achieve the best output.

Incorporate Variety We all work differently and achieve productivity with our own techniques. Some people can get their creative juices flowing while sitting at their desk, while others need to walk and talk. Create an environment with the help of interior fit-out specialists that cater to all types of people.

Provide comfortable working environments for those who thrive in their own space, but don’t neglect social areas where some people feel more comfortable getting their motivation and drive from other people. It may surprise you to learn how easy these areas are to incorporate into the average office floorplan.

Start Making Changes

Productivity is the number one thing you need from your employees to benefit your bottom line, but finding out what works can take some time. Now might be the right time to talk to interior fit-out specialists like Zoosh Studio, who can come up with ways to introduce some of these office features above.