Work environments are typically thought of in quite a straightforward fashion, and to many people, the image that the mind conjures up isn’t often a flattering one. Work environments tend to be thought of as boring places, likely due to the nature of work being seen as a chore more than anything else. Some workplaces try to rectify this by injecting a measure of ‘fun’ into the area, but this can often backfire and not incite the reaction from employees that is intended.
Therefore, you want to think of ways that can help your place of business stand out, becoming a more engaging place to work, as well as one that can encourage genuine creativity and productivity.
Try Something New
You don’t necessarily have to adhere to ideas and design philosophies that have become staples of other working environments; you can try something new, but you must lend some consideration to the impact that you want and the effect that it’ll likely have. If this is the route that you do take, be prepared for some trial-and-error, but an open and transparent approach to this with your employees might help your chances of success, as well as their patience with different attempts. This isn’t to imply that you have to do anything completely revolutionary, but even introducing something like a collaboration table in the hopes that it will strengthen and improve how you work together as a team might go over more smoothly if your staff are aware of what results you’re hoping for.
However, if you are interested in trying a wide variety of new approaches towards improving productivity in the workplace, it’s also important that you have respect for your employees’ time. Introducing new working conditions every other week might prevent them from falling into a productive rhythm and might ultimately be doing more harm than good. Understandably, you would want to try new things, but understanding your staff as people and how they best work might help to guide your hand more effectively.
The Aesthetic Design
The way that the interior of your workplace looks might be something that you haven’t given a huge amount of consideration to, perhaps thinking that it’s secondary when it comes to affecting employee performance or the results of your business. That might not be as accurate a perception as you’ve been led to believe and conducting some research on how aesthetic qualities can improve mood and productivity could have you giving this space a second look. Perhaps one of the foremost factors to consider here is natural light. While this might not be something that you feel you have a huge amount of control over – with the location of windows being what dictates it instead – you can use color to make the most of the natural light that you do have, impacting the atmosphere of the space in a direction that you feel appropriate.
Aesthetic design can go beyond this, though, to the types of furniture that you use to the general interior design style of the office. Part of this might be in keeping with your brand, but you might also feel that considerations of mental health and wellness take priority.
Emphasize Comfort
If one of your biggest concerns is indeed making this a space that your employees can feel more positively about than they might do if this were a typical workspace, then you might think about changes that place particular emphasis on how comfortable they feel here. Understandably, you might feel some hesitation here, as you still want them to think of this as a place of work and put in the amount of effort that is going to lead to the appropriate productivity, but it’s a fine balance to strike. Perhaps you want to put your focus on removing some of the more unpleasant or unnecessary stresses that people might feel in negative work environments, such as hostility from the higher-ups. This might be something that you address through nurturing an open and trusting dynamic with them, encouraging them to be honest with you and returning that favor by doing the same, and working towards solutions to problems together.