Rules for designing an engaging workplace
Smart organizations understand that thoughtful workplace design can be a powerful tool to enhance the performance of their people. In a workplace, people are the engine that keep businesses growing, improving, adapting, and innovating. Therefore, an office, being the place where workers spend most of their time, must be designed for harmony and collaboration. A good design has a powerful influence on how people think and behave and has an enormous impact on how they work. This further influences their ability to stay focused and productive on job. A collateral benefit of an engaging workplace design is that it also enhances employee health and wellness. Globally renowned corporations are now focusing on redesigning workplaces by embedding creative and innovative design concepts with the sole intention to boost employee morale, teamwork and augment productivity. So, taking into consideration the nature of the current work culture, how can a workplace support human performance and all of activities involved such as collaboration, innovation creativity and deep thinking? Here are a few tips that can help to achieve this and more importantly, differentiate a good workplace design from a great workplace design: Workflow Designing an engaging workplace requires a multidisciplinary approach, which involves addressing cultural, operational, spatial and business-related needs. The first step is to include the basic activities and work flow of employees, early on in the process of idea generation, and apply it creatively towards the latter stages of design, implementation and operation. The basic aim is to it enable smooth flow of movement, which will definitely enhance productivity. Colours The effect of colours on an individual’s productivity and mood has been universally proven and accepted. For instance, if yellow inspires creativity, blue stimulates the mind, and green helps to create a calming balance. However, choosing the right colour that fits in the culture of the workplace isn’t enough. The saturation and intensity of the choice of colour is more important here. Highly saturated, bright colours stimulate while softer, muted colours soothe. The Company’s Brand Philosophy While designing workspaces, the company’s attitude, philosophy, brand colour, logo design, culture, and products/services should match the design colour palettes. Such prolific efforts towards designing a workplace positively boosts employee loyalty as it make employees feel proud to be associated with the organization. Consequently, customers will pay more attention to the brand. Moreover, this results in a myriad of benefit; while it reflects higher productivity, instils a higher sense of belonging in employees and promotes a positive vibrant workplace culture, it also builds greater customer trust and loyalty. Open plan concept and Hot-desking With technology changing every aspect of our lives and also the way a business functions, there is a need to update workplace design to suit the modern needs of employees creatively. From open space concepts to hot-desking, there are many such modern-age concepts that are taking the industry by storm. Open plan ensures that the space is used as efficiently as possible, without the need for walls or partitions, whereas hot-desking enables businesses to retain less space overall through encouraging staff to work remotely. Incorporating such elements in workplace design ensures smooth workflow and also makes people feel welcome, invite curiosity and encourage people to actively participate and collaborate- behaviours that are fundamental for individual and group creativity. The pivotal role of well-designed workspaces in employee growth is clearly evident. Today, businesses’ realize the worth of paying more attention to workplace design, which ensures that employees are more productive, innovative and loyal.
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