How well your staff work is ultimately what will dictate the success or failure of your business. You can have the best business model in the world, but if your staff fail to be inspired or you can’t motivate them to want to do their work, then things will move slowly and you will fall behind the competition whose staff are innovating and putting their all into what they’re doing.
There are many things that affect the productivity and eagerness of your staff, and some of these factors will be chronic aspects that you can’t easily alter even if you want to. One thing you can change easily though that can have a profound impact on your staff, is your office space they work in which can affect how comfortable they are as they work, and also the way in which they work. Here we will look at some positive changes you can make easily to improve the efficiency and creativity in your workspace.
Interaction
The way that Steve Jobs altered the offices at Pixar has now become a part of business legend. Apparently his first thing upon arriving at the studio was to open up the office layout into an open plan where everyone could interact in one large space – so that the animators would be talking to the script writers, and so that the coders would be chatting to the marketing folk. All this meant the proliferation and rapid development of new ideas, and a fervent energy that lead to the creation of classic and truly imaginative films that became a part of popular culture.
Comfort
Too many offices these days are stuck in past, favouring the ‘corporate’ vibe and executive look and feel over what actually works and what actually makes staff comfortable. Having someone sitting in front of a desk for hours on end looking at a grey wall and a grey computer is hardly going to encourage good will or inspiration. Instead then, why not give your staff the option of several places to sit by giving them laptops and creating multiple seating areas? And why not give them more vibrant and colourful things to look at? Chances are you’ll end up with happier staff who work better and are more inspired to come up with new ideas.
Minimalism
The state space that we work in can directly affect the state of mind we have when we’re working. While this works in a number of ways, the most obvious impact this can have is on how easy it is to concentrate and as a general rule a cluttered and busy space will mean a cluttered and busy mind and will be distracting. Try then to create a space that’s more empty and that’s more efficient in its use of decorations and furniture and this will be less distracting for your staff. At the same time this will help you to keep things tidier and better organized and will help to inspire efficiency in the way your staff work. Use skip bins to reduce the clutter in your office, but remember this doesn’t mean it should be dull and characterless.
When Leona Saunders is not working, she is busy blogging about the various environmental issues that are affecting the entire world today.
How To Increase The Efficiency Of Your Office With Some Basic Changes
