Redesign Office For Massive Productivity
There is a lot of discussion today about whether an open office or a traditional layout is better but that should not be the first question. What's more important is understanding the kind of people who are going to work in that space. Extroverts, creative, and younger workers love them since they allow easy community, team work, and social opportunities. Introverts, focused, and older workers hate them since they result in more interruptions and difficulty in concentrating. People responsible for corporate real estate budgets love them since they result in a lower square footage per person and less cost. But the decider should ultimately be whether the office space improves the ROI! Yes that's right, it should inspire employees to come in and give their best everyday, personally and as a part of teams.
Potential employees 'read' office atmosphere just like one does body language. And if they do not find it up to their requirements then they will either pass the opportunity, or join and remain mediocre employees at best. The office layout and the environment it fosters can have tremendous impact on employee productivity, inter-personal relationships and ultimately the bottomline. There has been hard numbers based research that has conclusively proved how applying the retail store format to office spaces to make it more attractive to employees, and grouping people together in different combinations, among other things, increases employee engagement and motivation leading to leaping productivity levels.
Kristine Woolsey has been studying this phenomenon since the past two decades. She revealed cutting edge insights in our conversation including how one company increased its revenues by 78% by changing its office layout and how Google is using this research in formulating the floor plans of its own offices.
Published by The 8020Strategy Group,