You may not know this, but your interior office design matters as much as what you have to offer. Think about this – what is the first thing your customer notices when they enter your workplace? Chances are your clients look around at the furnishings, artwork, and cleanliness of your facility. Apart from finding helpful, friendly employees, they want a well-organized and pleasant business.
Beyond that, you want to provide a well-functioning work environment for your employees that will improve productivity, morale, and more. In this blog, we will take a look at some specific reasons why your office interior matters, as well as provide some tips for how you can boost your employees’ moods through design choices.
4 Reasons Why Office Design Matters for Your Business
- Reflects Your Brand
Your office interior can help to tell the story of your business and can help to reflect what your business stands for and the personality your business has. For example, does your company strive to be environmentally conscious? Build an office space that showcases your committee to sustainability through green solutions. Moreover, having a well-designed office space that takes into account your company’s brand and culture, can help to attract and retain talent. - Improves Productivity
Countless studies have been done on the importance of productivity in the workplace and how to successfully increase a team’s output while keeping them happy. Stress and negativity can spread across a company, creating a toxic environment that zaps productivity. A happy workplace and happy employees have been shown to result in “lower medical costs, more efficient work, and less absenteeism.” When it comes to office design, it’s important to create a space that facilitates productive and purposeful work while leaving room for creativity. - Creates Community
Offices with intentional design can help to create a work environment where employees can not only thrive but support one another, fostering a sense of community. The future of workplace design hinges on fostering social connection, especially as the ways in which people work continue to evolve. By building up your company’s community, you are able to focus on employee happiness and improve the retention rates of talented employees. - Enhances Collaboration and Company Morale
True connections come from being present and being attentive to what others are saying when working together. Intentional office design will encourage employees to utilize collaborative workspaces to share ideas and boost creativity. This goes beyond simply removing walls and creating an open office, the workplace environment needs to facilitate collaboration among employees and aid in boosting morale. You can’t just want your employees to come together and bounce ideas off one another. You need to use your office design to lead them in the right direction. A well-designed office interior can take a traditional workspace, boardroom, or face-to-face meeting to new, innovative levels.
Tips for Intentional Office Design
Now that you have an idea of why office design is so important, what can you do to make your employees happier through office design? In this next section, we share a couple of tips to improve your office interior for your employees.
- Lots of Light
Spending day after day in a drab, artificially lit room would have just about any employee sprinting to the nearest recruitment agency. Artificial light can have a negative effect on humans, causing eye strain and fatigue, as well as headaches. Humans need natural light, it helps us feel good. And research has shown that offices with large areas of natural light or windows have lower levels of illnesses and more motivated employees that power through their workload.
Incorporating more natural light in your office design doesn’t have to mean knocking new windows into your building. It could be as simple as rearranging workstations to ensure they’re closer to windows, opening the blinds, or improving the quality and tone of artificial lighting. - Design with Color
Color is such an easy and inexpensive way to transform a space, and it can have a positive impact on employees. There is a balance to be found between neutral colors that calm the mind and accent colors that are bright and interesting. For example, yellow can make people feel optimistic, it’s a great choice for high-energy, creative spaces. Whereas green promotes harmony while boosting creativity and blue encourages a sense of trust, communication, and efficiency. - Dynamic Spaces
The idea of returning to an office to sit at a desk all day doesn’t sound appealing to most employees anymore. Flexibility is a key way for a collaborative workspace to be successful, and flexible furniture enables teams to create a space that works for them. This means getting creative with the kind of workspaces you provide to employees and how you allow them to customize the space to work for them.
Updating your office to be mobile, versatile, and personalizable does not have to be incredibly expensive or time-consuming. By making intentional choices about the kind of furniture you obtain and the kind of spaces you create, you can create a highly dynamic space that promotes creativity, productivity, and innovation. - The Power of Plants
Incorporating plants in offices is not a novel concept, but there has been a resurgence of increased natural elements in office spaces that goes beyond putting up faux greenery as decor. Bringing live plants into the office not only improves air quality, but can help to reduce stress, anxiety, and fatigue among employees. Plants are an incredibly inexpensive way to update your office design at your own pace. Incorporating a few plants when you see fit could include anything from greenery-draped walls to succulents on window sills, or potted plants on desks. - Promote Healthy Habits
Offices often foster sedentary behavior, but the right designs can make significant contributions to employee health. Incorporating items like ergonomic chairs to help improve posture, sit-to-stand desks to promote movement throughout the day, and other ways to boost activity among employees is crucial to their overall well-being. Some employers may even consider going as far as including treadmills or walking pads and shower facilities to help their employees foster healthy habits.
The Takeaway
Your office interior will have an impact on your clients and your employees. With improved lighting, natural elements, and incorporating more dynamic and flexible furniture you can boost your employee productivity, foster a sense of community, and showcase your business’s personality. Whether it’s big or small additions, intentional office design is crucial to your business and its overall success.
Interested in updating your office space? Reach out to Kentwood Office Furniture to discuss your project needs with our in-house team of designers. We’re here to provide comprehensive furniture design services, manage space planning, finish selections, workstation visualization, and more.