Office Design Plays A Large Fraction In Workers Performance

By Adam Cheng

The office design of a workplace is very important. This aspect of a work environment can make or break a company in how efficient the job gets completed. An office design needs to take into account a few key elements such as size of the space, company goals and employee input. These are all very important aspects in designing a perfect office space.

Improving and maintaining employee morale as well as productivity is a goal of many big companies. A high employee morale means more work is getting completed. Many offices are small, dark and dreary. This mood will affect how the employees work and that in turn affects profits. An office manager or owner needs to decide on what is the correct solution to the problem of office design and then decide how to proceed to correct it.

Observations of the workplace need to be the stepping stone to any office redesign project. A manager needs to ask himself if there are any areas of the office that appear to be a problem and are some areas too small for the equipment in them.

Someone trying to determine whether the present office space is suitable should draw a picture of the traffic throughout the office during a workday. See how workers move within the building. A visit to worker areas and conference rooms every half an hour can show what is getting completed in what area and what is not.

Communication with employees is crucial to finding a design that works well. However it can also bring about employee demands that are not realistic. Work with employees to come to a compromise on the most important problems. Just remember that one office design will not please everyone. Do the best you can.

Before the redesign occurs, make sure to decide about what your office goals would like to accomplish. Make a list and decide on four or five goals to address. Some popular ideas are if the supervisor has the corner office with windows, it may be beneficial to put the rank and file workers around the corners near the windows and put the supervisor towards the middle of the space. By placing the employees who spend more of their time at their desks near the windows, it will increase their morale and productivity.

After determining where the areas of concern are in a workspace, the next question is what should occur? Should a total redesign with construction take place or will just rearranging furniture and equipment suffice? Will the job be too expensive and would it be more realistic to shop around for new office space entirely?

Office design can be a tricky thing to accomplish. It is worth the time to plan and think it through. It is very important for the whole team to be involved in planning and deciding what to pursue. In the end, it will create a better work environment that promotes more productivity and increase revenue. - 30445

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