Great office design never happens by accident, it is achieved through thorough planning, a clear vision, unwavering creativity, combined with expert knowledge of what available products will add value to your initial design thoughts. In this article, we will examine 3 of the key factors that every company should be considering before they embark on designing and transforming their future workspaces.
1) What and Why….
Any level of change can be disruptive for a company’s productivity. However, a well-considered office refurbishment can be overwhelmingly constructive for a business looking to create a future-proof culture and performance. The key to ensuring that the odds are stacked in the favour of a positive outcome is to make sure you have a good understanding and communication of “what” your new design is going to achieve and “why” this is going to be fantastic for the future of your business.
A great way to start this thought process is to give your curiosity a kickstart by asking yourself, your colleagues and your employees the following questions.
· Who are our employees and what does their growth look like in the next 5 years?
· Is there anyone else that uses our space and why?
· What impression do we want our visitors to perceive when they enter our spaces?
· What present workplace behaviour would we like to change?
· Do we understand why people are not coming regularly to the office?
“Curiosity leads to knowledge, knowledge leads to understanding, understanding leads to successful planning” Asking the right questions and listening to your employees can alleviate the risks surrounding a big change and help to create an aligned vision, a shared belief in the power of positive change and ensure all design decisions are understood during the planning phase.
2) Assess the design concept that works best for you.
There are obvious trends in office design that match and mirror social trends and employee expectations, such as the most recent moves towards flexible working, agile spaces and improved social areas.
While there are obvious practical limitations to consider; room dimensions, access points etc, the final design you decide upon needs to align with the culture, production and outcome that you’re looking to strategically create in the long term.
Simply imitating the latest trends and adopting them will not necessarily give you the result you expect for your business. Discussing the design options available, getting expert advice on what is possible with great design is a great way to refine and home in on a solution that works perfectly for you and your business.
At Zentura we thrive on supporting our partners in making the right design decisions for them and ensuring the outcomes you expect from your office design are achieved. Contact us today to discuss your thoughts with one of our experts.
3) Invest in technology
From the beginning of time, productivity has been inextricably linked to the technology available to us. From the invention of the printing press to the increased connectivity that comes from internet-enabled devices, peak productivity has always been reliant on employees having access to the right tools. No matter how amazing your workplace culture is, without the tools to allow your employees to thrive, your productivity will never move beyond its glass ceiling.
Investing in technology is often a scary proposition. However, there are some fundamentals that you can rely on to offer some comfort and ensure that the technology investments are successful for boosting your business productivity.
A) People will always need to connect with each other
If the technology you are investing in makes connecting easier, more successful and less time consuming then it is inevitably going to well adopted and provide a productivity boost.
B) Where time is limited, making tasks easier is always beneficial
This may seem like a simple thought; however, a number of businesses still rely on laborious, time-consuming tasks to run their business that could be automated/semi-automated with simple technology. Rather than see this as a risk to the business, this is an opportunity to relinquish your employees from these arduous tasks, unshackle their pent-up creativity and deliver previously unimaginable productivity boosts.
C) Technology as a power to attract and retain talent
Top talent is always looking to improve their own productivity and deliver bigger and better results. This often leads them to choose businesses where they are supported by the best tools, by ensuring your business has maximised technology as a key differentiator it may be possible to attract, retain and develop the best talent within your industry.
To discover how technology can give your business a boost visit our Zenconnect page to see how our smart-tech-enabled spaces are helping to provide immersive experiences and enable virtual and hybrid working for all types of businesses. From your reception to your meetings spaces, high technology pods to fully immersive mixed reality presentation suites, Zenconnect are pioneering ground-breaking digital and virtual collaboration experiences for the workplace.
