Office design: 11 tips for the best office interior
Topic: HR Consulting for Startups
When we think about techniques to boost productivity, office design is usually just a side note of “by the way“. But it shouldn’t be this way! First of all, when you want to establish a comprehensive and creative office design, you first have to take a look into the elements that are inevitable for employees, and then you can adapt elements that will boost employee satisfaction. Read more about our tips & tricks for designing the perfect office!
#1 Tips to avoid employee dissatisfaction
These elements won’t contribute to employee satisfaction since their presence is considered obvious, but their lack will cause dissatisfaction.
Seating
The importance of having correctly fitting tables and chairs goes without saying. What might not be so self-evident, is to offer your employees different settings of sitting & standing options, to perfectly adjust the environment to their own needs. Standing tables can be great assets to those who have back pain of constantly sitting or for the employees who simply want to change every once in a while. The same goes for couches and sofas. Also, having small pillows in the office can help to support back pain and the sitting position.
Lightning
Appropriate lighting is one of the major contributors to a good office design efficiency. It has a significant impact on staying focused, feeling inspired and motivated. From a health perspective, bad light conditions can contribute to headaches, fatigue, eye strain, and irritability. You also have to take into consideration the mental issues associated with low light, depression for instance. The higher the amount of the natural light, the better it eliminates the symptoms listed above. If you don’t have that, make sure you provide good central lights or individual light on the desks for each employee.
Eliminate cluttering
Provide your employees with enough place and equipment to arrange their work-related and non-work-related objects. Even though a clean desk is a clean mind, many of the employees like to place personal decorations on their desks to create a more pleasant environment. Also, providing a sufficient amount of boxes, cupboards, (document) organizers, and other desk equipment can help employees to think more clearly and store a higher amount of subjects.
Tools for comfortability
Next to pillows, many other non-technical and also technical objects can help employees during working hours. Separate keyboards, mouses (and batteries for them!), monitors and risers for the computers can be mentioned.
Level of noise
The level of noise is always different in different company cultures, departments, and office designs such as open offices. There are few lucky ones, who can fully concentrate in a noise environment too, but for most of the people, high noise affects productivity in a negative way. Overall, the distraction can be eliminated with the help of headphones, provided by the company and suitable for all computers. Also, shared Youtube or Spotify playlists can be created with concentration boosting music recommendations for focused work (white noise, classical music, deep techno, etc.).
After providing these inevitable factors, you can adapt elements that are not amongst the minimum requirements, but their presence can boost employee satisfaction.
#2 Tricks to boost employee satisfaction
The other group of elements are not amongst the minimum requirements of the working environment (hence the lack won’t create dissatisfaction), but their presence can boost employee satisfaction and provide a better overall impression of the office design.
Knowledge Corner
Design a little space to your office interior with a bookshelf, coffee machine & coffee table, and most importantly: books related to the business world and your industry. We don’t assume that everyone will sit there after working hours and spent time with reading, but it’s rather dedicated to encouraging another quite, secluded space where employees can work on their tasks in a motivating environment. Additionally, the first impression is more sophisticated for external partners and clients, while the knowledge presented in the books can actually help some people in their work.
Feeling of Belonging
You have to create an environment where all of your employees feel like they are a part of an accepting community. This doesn’t just mean that you have to establish a good company culture, but also the tangible representation of it is important. Having a corner full of funny polaroid pictures of memorable company events or encouraging to write inside jokes on the dry erase whiteboard can make employees feel more comfortable when they are in the office.
Encourage Idea Creation
Great ideas can occur at any time: while getting a cup of coffee, brainstorming in the hallway or completing totally different tasks. When ideas hit employees away from their desks, a long dry erase whiteboard installed all around the office can help the constant brainstorming session and the content can be immediately written down and saved for the short run.
If talents have ideas popping up in front of their desks, they tend to get carried away, dig deeper into it, while postponing or even totally forgetting about the tasks they just interrupted. Collecting these ideas in a structured way should be encouraged, perhaps in a work management software like Notion or in their notebooks. The emphasis of not forgetting what you did before should be stretched!
Room Scents
Like all the other suggestions above, our sense of smell can highly contribute to our productivity, well-being, and overall mood. Be mindful of what kind of scents you want to add to your workplace:
- Lemon: promotes concentration
- Lavender: fosters calmness
- Pine: increases alertness
- Jasmine: produces the feeling of confidence and optimism
- Rosemary. improves memory retention and exhaustion
- Cinnamon: enhances focus and concentration
- Peppermint: its energy-boosting smell is perfect for brainstorming
Natural accessories
Nature can always boost mood, that’s why it’s a great add-on to have plants in the office. If you think that it takes a lot of time to take care of a plant, you are certainly right about some, more finicky ones. Choose some easier plant species that require very little maintenance, like Pothos, Philodendron, Sanseveria, or Monstera. No worries if you don’t have a lot of natural light, these plants can thrive even in low-light conditions! If you don’t want to invest in plants, make sure to have artificial ones or some pictures on the wall resembling natural environments.
Colors & Consistency
Just as in your home, the colors in the office contribute to our moods and brain functions on a daily basis. Both negative physical and emotional responses can arise, if not the appropriate colors are represented. Keep in mind: the right composition and amount of color are important as well. Next to your company colors, you can use one or two more, but too many can be aggressive and disturbing.
While the office design is mainly directed to retain your employees, here a guide about how to interview and assess candidates to find the best new team members!