Working in an Open Office?
How to get a better bottom line with a good working environment.
The modern office has evolved into an open and collaborative environment, encouraging employees to utilize each other for ideas and motivation. However, open offices can lead to distracting noises, interrupting other employees, and disruption to the workflow.
The most common distractions employee experience while working is chatty coworkers and office noise; up to 70% of employees find too much conversation in the office takes focus away from work.
Taking away focus from an assignment or project can cause stress, affect overall office productivity, and morale. While open offices can promote creativity and team building, it can also cause communication problems and a loss of focus.
How effective are distractions in the workplace?
Removing preventable distractions proves enormous benefits for employees:
A win-win situation:
By removing common distractions from the workplace, productivity increases as employees feel motivated to achieve more for the company.
On top of that, employees who feel motivated are less likely to experience stress, which can translate to fewer sick days and higher employee retention.
How to get there – 7 pieces of advice
Creating an optimized work environment allows employees to work effectively and productively, thus increasing the quality and consistency of the overall output.
Here are 7 ways to optimize your open office:
- Place your employees or departments according to their need for collaborative versus independent work - does their position include a lot of phone calls? If so, it would be best to place them away from data analysts who need silent concentration.
- Place coffee machines strategically throughout the office. Areas that are easily accessible to employees from short distan