The secret to more engaged and productive employees may just be a collaborative workspace. In fact, it turns out employees are 5.4 times more engaged when working in a collaborative environment, a recent report by McLean & Company reveals. And when companies prioritise collaboration they’re twice as likely to turn a profit and twice as likely to outpace the competition. But to get those results, you have to design a workspace that makes it easy for employees to actually be a team and work together. Setting up different zones breaks up the usual siloed office layout and gives teams proper areas to collaborate on different tasks. Add the right tech and modular furniture and you’ll create an appealing office that’s great for teamwork and grows your business.
Set up activity-based zones to motivate staff
Activity-based office layouts break up the work space into different zones based on the sort of work employees do there. Employees actually prefer this type of layout because it inspires them to get their best work done, according to a Frontiers study. For example, you can create collaborative zones for teams to work together on projects or social zones where people can relax and chat on breaks. Quiet zones are also great for independent work while meeting spaces can also work well for presentations. This variety keeps staff focused and motivated because they always have the right environment to get on with each different task at hand.
Obviously you don’t need to create all these zones at once and social or collaborative zones are best to break down silos and get your team mixing. Social zones should be decorated nicely to help people relax, which helps build company culture. And a great culture really pays off: businesses with higher employee morale see a 14% increase in productivity and 78% less absenteeism as a result, says Gallup. Achieving this doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated either as you can simply display happy photos from team events to help make the space feel more welcoming. Brightly coloured picture frames can uplift the room’s mood and inject a fun energy into the space. You can even go for frames in your brand colours to really help tie the room together.
Plug and play tech to help teams work anywhere
A collaborative office should also be plug and play, which means employees can plug in their devices anywhere and start working together right away. To start, this means you should have plenty of accessible power outlets built into tables and seats. Employees then don’t have to waste time hunting for sockets. This type of furniture also keeps cords and wires out of sight, so you’re left with a calm and clutter-free office. Wireless screen sharing is another useful tool. It lets employees show whatever they’re looking at on their laptop onto a large wall screen and works completely over wifi (so again there’s no need for messy cables). Group presentations and brainstorm sessions can therefore happen much faster as no one needs to fiddle with tech settings first.
Go for modular furniture
You can also add modular furniture to your different office zones. Upholstered cube seats are a great choice here as they can be pulled together for group tasks and then easily separated for solo work. For example, teams can join them together to form one long sofa for when they need to give a group presentation. Or they can be split into groups of twos or threes for private chats, or even scattered about the room for a big brainstorm session. You can also pair these seats with mobile whiteboards that can be wheeled around as needed. You can even get whiteboards that come with felt on the reverse side. That means teams can benefit from some level of sound proofing when they’re working together. When they’re done, the boards can be flipped around so they function as an acoustic barrier that keeps the rest of the office quiet.
Designing a collaborative workspace can help your teams work better together. And it’s easy. Just combine easy to use tech with dedicated zones and comfortable furniture, and you’ll create an appealing office that people actually want to work in everyday.
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