Designing an office for your company and employees is a pretty exciting event. You have the opportunity to reflect your company’s values and mission through all aspects of your office’s design. However, you should also take advantage of creating an office that is functional, productive, and efficient.
Through subtle design and layout tactics, you can actually improve productivity and employee morale without them ever noticing. In this article, you’ll learn what to consider when designing your office, in addition to some of the best commercial office space design ideas to use.
1. Movement
Employees are going to be moving throughout the office on a regular basis. Whether they’re moving from their desk to get a cup of coffee, use the bathroom, or talk to another colleague about a project, you can expect movement throughout the space.
This constant yet sporadic movement may be distracting for some of your other employees. So, while designing your office space, consider adding closed corridors or walls to keep these movements from distracting others.
Another idea is to keep departments that closely interact with each other close in the layout. This way, your employees spend less time walking across the office to talk to a colleague and more time working.
2. Work Space
While you’re focused on designing the entire commercial office space, you should also consider the personal workspaces of your employees. You want to allow enough space for them to work comfortably without feeling cramped or too close to their colleagues.
This is also important for productivity. If employees are placed too close together, they could distract one another with items on their desks, phone conversations, and more.
3. Privacy
Nowadays, open offices are encouraged. It creates more of a community and openness within the company’s culture. While we are all for the wide-open spaces in a commercial office, there should be some spaces that offer your employees privacy.
Whether they have to take a personal emergency call or need to have a private conversation with a colleague, having some space for privacy is important.
4. Décor
The layout of your office space is important, but so are the interior decorations! Decorating your office should be fun and an expression of your company. Feel free to get creative with using your company’s logo and your brand colors to decorate.
Although, a major tip to increase productivity is to incorporate blue hues throughout the office. It’s been scientifically proven that the color blue encourages focus and calmness.
5. Communal Space
Your employees are spending most of their waking time in your office. Instead of solely promoting working, you should also encourage socialization and relaxation for your employees.
A communal space can be anywhere from a comfortable breakroom to a fun game room with snacks. Or you can get even more creative and create a small café-like room where your employees can grab a cup of coffee and pretend they’re in a hip coworking space.
Remember, it’s all about balance!
