If you take a look at the offices of the world’s trendiest companies, you’ll notice something interesting about them. With the notable exception of Amazon, practically all of them have funky, hip offices that look more like kids’ playrooms than places of work.
For the business observer, the pertinent question is, “why?” What’s the point of spending money on bright colors, interiors, and matching chairs? Does it make a difference?
According to some of the most innovative firms in the world, it does. The superficial elements, like the color scheme, have the most significant initial impact, but planning goes deeper than this at top companies. Google, for instance, deliberately designs stairwells and lunch zones to facilitate “chance” encounters, helping to improve communication across the company. According to top researchers, physical space is the greatest asset that companies can utilize to encourage collaboration. Serendipitous meetings can often blossom into projects that wind up changing entire firms for the better.
Companies like Google and others in the tech sector aren’t alone in their office obsession, though. Many other businesses in unrelated areas plow millions of dollars into their office spaces to make them more conducive to productive work. Examples include brands in the restaurant industry, retail sector, and travel.
The reason is simple. When you invest in your office space, you directly affect the working environment, which has massive knock-on effects on the people who work in your organization. Almost always, investing in your office space pays off – sometimes in ways you never imagined.
So what are the trendiest companies in the world doing with their office spaces? And how can you follow their lead and improve on it?
Introduce Collaborative Workspaces
In any organization, there are many types of employees. Some are extroverts and love surrounding themselves with colleagues all day. Others are introverts and need space to unwind and recharge their batteries between social interactions.
The old approach to improving collaboration was to simply treat everyone in the office as though they were an extravert and line up desks, one next to another, to facilitate conversations. However, data suggests that this approach isn’t optimal for the introverts on your team and could make them dislike coming to work in the morning.
Trendy companies, like Salesforce and Pixar, therefore, are adopting hybrid solutions. Instead of forcing everyone to sit together in a big room, they’re creating multiple spaces and finding smart ways to get people to rotate through them during the day. Introverts love it because they get regular private time to concentrate intensely on their projects. And extroverts like it because they’re not trapped all day in some awful grey cubicle.
Using spaces wisely like this can yield all kinds of benefits for firms. Staff members are much less likely to leave searching for greener pastures. Teams can work in harmony. And those who need to give something 100 percent focus can do so.
Make Use Of White Space
Having lots of white space might sound old-school, but it is something that many modern companies are doing for multiple reasons.
For instance, DC-based architectural firm Marshall Moya Design uses white space to encourage employees to leave notes on the wall. The idea is that office spaces shouldn’t be passive containers for work, but active in the process itself.
The idea is gaining traction elsewhere too. Having lots of blank walls, desks, and floors help to declutter environments while at the same time, making brainstorming easier. There’s also evidence that it helps fill spaces with natural light by bouncing incoming rays onto adjacent walls.
Ultimately, though, the primary motivation appears to be productivity. Decluttering workspaces seems like an excellent way to get ten to twenty percent more out of people. Multiply figures like that across an organization, and you wind up with some very impressive savings. Where possible, try including whiteboards and other areas that allow colleagues to actively engage with the building around them and use it for their daily tasks.
Make The Workspace Interesting
Even though people are at work, they still want their office spaces to be exciting. After all, they have to spend the majority of their adult lives in them.
Now companies are listening and adding elements that make office spaces feel different from the traditional grey boxes of old. Employees report experiencing different emotions following office fit-outs, changing how they perceive their work, and enhancing their productivity.
Companies are experimenting with all kinds of setups that add interest and, sometimes, make offices feel more homely. An office distribution company based in Rockford, for instance, recently added what it called “a fireplace nook” to its headquarters, providing a comfy space for employees to hang out between bouts of work. The space is literally a comfy couch built into a makeshift cubicle with a side table, and globe of the Earth. But it contrasts beautifully with the rest of the environment, fits with the company’s overarching theme, and generally makes the office more exciting.
Other companies are experimenting with creating social spaces reminiscent of youth clubs. For instance, some brands are building games rooms with pool tables and darts. Others invest in outdoor kitchens and bar-bec-cues, providing a space where workers can cook and enjoy food with each other during lunch breaks and after work.
Even simple changes can make a big difference in how people perceive your office. You don’t have to do anything extravagant. Buying a few bean bags and putting them in a meeting room can immediately change the space’s atmosphere and function.
Add New Interactive Technology
While office design is improving all the same, so is computer technology. Today’s devices can do things that were unthinkable just a decade ago.
Cutting edge companies are keen to make maximum use of new technology, kitting out their offices with impressive systems that automate tasks, and add to quality of life. For instance, firms are using conference room schedulers – electronic devices fitted to the exterior door – to showroom availability in real-time. Others are incorporating charging stations for both handheld devices and vehicles. Tablets are even making their way into reception areas, providing tools that visitors can use to check themselves in.
However, many firms are yet to upgrade their office environments and leverage high-tech to the fullest extent possible. They’re missing out. Often, all that’s required is a quick electrical panel inspection to ensure that the building can support the new technology, and firms are ready to go. The vast majority of vendors supply turn-key solutions, meaning that there’s no need to dedicate your development team to implement.
Think about the efficiencies that your company could achieve if you enhanced the computer technology at your headquarters. You could vastly improve the output of your staff and cut your admin costs. Sound good?
Incorporate Play
Play isn’t just for kids. It’s also for adults – even in the workplace. It brings a whole new meaning to the concept of work hard, play hard.
Many companies are now seeing the profound logic in associating work with play. Ideally, they should be the same thing. When people play, they’re having fun – and, ultimately, that’s what’s conducive to producing the highest quality output. Bosses know that if they break down the distinction between paid activities and things that people want to do with their time, they can rise to the top of their industries and achieve the impossible. Full buy-in is what they want.
To that end, Klick Health, a healthcare communications company, says that it is introducing play wherever it can to encourage employees to get into the right frame of mind.
The lengths the firm is going to are quite extraordinary. For instance, it has installed stationary bicycles in the boardroom to encourage people to get a workout while negotiating, instead of just sitting passively. Company bosses hope that physical activity will put people in an altered state of mind, encouraging them to think differently than if they conversed passively.
Improve Access To Sunlight
Finally, companies are going to extreme measures to improve access to sunlight in (and out) of their offices. Recent scientific evidence suggests that people work better when exposed to higher levels of natural light compared to artificial alternatives. There’s something about the specific combination of wavelengths from sunlight that makes people more alert and awake.
Now, some companies are taking this information a step further and abandoning the office altogether and hosting meetings in outdoor spaces. Shutterstock – a company that provides stock images – is now actively encouraging employees to get outside and recharge their batteries. According to the firm, the more they can get out during the workday, the better.
The technology to implement these kinds of policies has been around for several years now, so it is no surprise that offices are taking advantage of them. Office grounds saturated with WiFi means that people can work from their computers while surrounded by nature. The office garden could become an essential part of the operation – not just a quick afterthought. What a difference that could make.