Designing a new office space or renovating an existing space requires more than just picking out new ergonomic chairs from a catalog, painting the walls a fresh color and bringing in live greenery.  Detailed and comprehensive Space Planning is required to balance employee productivity and group collaboration with employee space for creativity and focused work. Harvard Business Review surveyed companies and their employees to determine how the physical setup of office workplaces affected employee productivity and satisfaction. Their research “suggests that once again, people feel a pressing need for more privacy, not only to do heads-down work but to cope with the intensity of how work happens today.”

This doesn’t mean that designing your office space is an all or nothing proposition, cubicles vs. private offices.  Rather, it means that “since people can work anywhere, you should provide a space that employees are happy coming to.” Most employees spend as much or more time at work than at their own homes, so flexible spaces that meet multiple needs for collaboration and privacy are vital to employee satisfaction and engagement.

A Space Planner is a key member of your office renovation team. They will help you determine your organization’s needs for:

  • Collaboration
  • Communication: Open vs. private
  • Communication Control: Are employees able to shift between private and public communication of their work and projects?
  • Privacy:  Are employees able to retreat to a private or as the HRB study calls “strategic anonymous” location such as an office cafe?

Expanding the notion of workplace to include the entire building, not just a series of cubicles, conference rooms and offices, increases the need to make sure your Space Planner on your design team is in sync with your corporate culture and employee needs.  Whether you are looking to incorporate comfy privacy pods or upgrading your break room to function as a cafe, our professional design team is ready to help you assess and implement your needs to increase employee satisfaction and productivity.