Like many businesses across all sectors and in both the B2B and B2C space, you may have decided that enabling more efficient and effective collaboration among employees is a top priority.
However, preventing you from getting from where you are now to where you want to be collaboration-wise, is an obstacle that you never expected: your office itself!
That is, your current office layout and configuration may be – and probably is — impeding your employees’ ability to collaborate. This is not to suggest that collaboration is not happening; because obviously to some degree it is.
Rather, it means that before you look at investing in staff training or new technology — both of which may be part of the solution — you may find that the simplest, smartest, most high-impact and cost-effective way to achieve your collaboration goals is by renovating your office.
Below, we suggest 5 ways you can make your workspace more collaborative within a matter of weeks, if not in some cases days:
- Get rid of cubicles and shift to a more open workspace, where employees can more easily connect; especially if they are part of different teams. You can also provide your employees with headphones when they need to focus on their tasks.
- Switch to lighter, more versatile and modular office furniture that can be easily reconfigured based on your employees’ changing needs. In this way, teams can actually create their own working area to fit their needs, yet without isolating themselves from the larger group.
- Create “breakout spaces” near elevators, stairwells or lunchrooms (for example), which allow employees to meet, chat, unwind or even take a quick nap to recharge their batteries.
- Consider eliminating assigned seating. The reason we use the word “consider” here, is because this can be perceived as a drastic step by your employees – and you do not want to catch them off guard, and risk having your collaboration-friendly efforts backfire. As such, we suggest that you consult with your employees, and help them realize the benefits of being able to sit at a workstation or desk that helps them be more efficient and effective. It often takes a little getting used to, but once employees experience the freedom of sitting where they want, they never want to go back to assigned seating again!
- Turn stuffy meeting rooms into creative collaboration zones by replacing big, bulky conference tables with modular furniture that can be configured/re-configured to suit different needs. For example, some teams may not want or need table space at all.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, renovating your office to boost collaboration does not mean that you have to bulldoze and start from scratch – or find a new home that is already collaboration-friendly. Instead, you can implement some or all of the suggestions above to unleash a higher level of collaboration in your environment, and get your people, performance and profits trending in the right direction.
To learn more about the office renovation possibilities presented by your space – including some that you do not even know exist, but can make a transformative difference – contact the Key Interiors team today. When it comes to office renovation, we know what works, and just as importantly, we know what does not!
