You want to get the most out of your office space. After all, one-third of your life and your employees’ lives are spent in the office.
Your office design has a huge impact on the overall well-being and attitudes of your employees. It can also influence productivity.
If you want to start the new year with fresh office design, keep reading to discover the hottest office design trends to create the best office design for your space.
1. Open Concept Designs
It seems like that whenever you think of office designs, you think of awkward-looking cubicles that have no personality to them at all.
Office designs have shifted over the past few years to open floor plans that take down the walls between employees. This is meant to foster more collaboration and break down silos between departments.
The open spaces are mostly common spaces that can be perfect areas for employees to work on big projects together and meet. That can improve productivity time, too.
2. Take the Office Out of the Office
Some companies are designing their office spaces in a way that’s influenced by other public places. They’re open spaces, but don’t feel like an office at all.
Instead, these office spaces are designed like large public libraries, hotels, and fitness centers.
3. Design for Flow & Technology
Have you ever been to IKEA? You’ll know that walking through one of those stores is like walking through a maze. Behind the scenes, though, each turn is deliberately created to drive a certain behavior.
Designers put a lot of attention to the overall design of the place, and there are lessons that you can take into your office design.
You can drive certain behaviors or flow during the day, you can incorporate them into your design.
For example, let’s say that in order to go to the restrooms, employees have to pass a number of people and things that create huge distractions. You can create a flow between workspaces and restrooms by minimizing distractions and eliminate time wasters.
You also have to think about the flow of technology in your office design. One of the potential pitfalls of having an open concept design is that you could have a ton of exposes wires in your space. That creates an ugly look and a work hazard.
You’ll want to consult with your IT team as you’re laying out floor plans to make sure that the team can easily remain connected and the design won’t strain your network infrastructure.
4. Different Environments Under One Roof
Your employees are unique individuals. You’ll know from managing them that they don’t all respond to the same messages and management techniques in the same way.
They also respond to and interact with the office environment in different ways. You have your outgoing staff members that love the open and active spaces. They thrive in these environments.
The quiet and shy people on your team would prefer to have a quiet space where they won’t be bothered.
You can accommodate both in your office design by incorporating quiet corners or adding booth spaces to your design. This allows for both types of people to work in the best environment that works for them.
5. Be Flexible in Your Design
When you’re designing your new office space, you want to design for the present and the future. You don’t want to have to redesign your space every time you hire a new employee.
What you want to do is look at your business plan and vision. Think about where your company is going to be in the next year and the next three years.
You’ll want to have a plan in place to accommodate your business growth.
6. Incorporate Natural Light
There are times of the year when people leave for work in the dark and drive home in the dark. There aren’t many opportunities to feel the light of the sun or connect with nature.
Several large windows can add a lot of warm natural light to your office environment. You’ll want to connect with someone who specializes in commercial windows and doors to get the most light in your space.
7. Use Colors Wisely
You want to have a color scheme that matches your brand. You also want to have a color palette for the office that gets the most out of your employees.
The colors you choose can impact the mood of your employees and the overall space. Warm colors like orange, yellow, and red can heighten the senses, while blues and violets can create a calming effect.
You want to choose your color palette wisely. You can choose calming colors as the main colors and then use warmer colors as accents.
8. Add Plenty of Amenities
Office workers spend a ton of time at the office, and they’re always looking to achieve a perfect work-life balance. More employers are providing cool amenities in the office to provide a better balance while they’re in the office.
There may be foosball tables or beer coolers in the kitchen area, where employees can unwind at the end of the day.
You’ll want to make sure that you ask employees what’s important to them and be prepared to meet those needs.
9. Don’t Forget About Furniture
You can have the most perfect floor plan, but it won’t be complete without the furniture. You need to choose furniture that’s stylish. It also has to be comfortable and fit with ergonomic needs.
You may decide to invest in standing desks to keep employees active and engaged. You want to make sure that the colors match the overall design and provide the right accents to the grand scheme.
Create the Best Office Design
Businesses are trying to get the most out of their employees to increase productivity and maximize revenues. Yet, they forget how office design can influence those two things.
The best office design incorporates a lot of natural light, is open, and inspires collaboration and creativity.
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