Get All Access for $5/mo

Ideal Approach For Creating A Perfect Workspace That Emits Excellence Working in a small space cramped with a good number of professionals can kill the employee well-being.

By Bhavik Sarkhedi

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Shutterstock

If you have an office where employees don't feel inspired to work and that has the kind of environment that heralds yawn-provoking lethargy, it is a time to think of effective ways to transform your office's latest work culture. Being an employee myself, I have realized that working in a small space cramped with a good number of professionals can kill the employee well-being, engagement, and their natural enthusiasm. It will be almost impractical to manage everything from noise, information exchange, light effect, premise air, and most important of all, personal space.

Let us understand the importance of having unique, business-specific approach for creating a perfect-looking workspace that eventually reflects excellence, all from the eyes of an expert.

From the critical eyes of workspace design specialist

Monica Parker, workspace director Morgan Lovell, is a big name in the world of workspace transformation and explains how lacking comfortable office workspace potentially threatens your own business prospects and compromises the ability of working professionals.

She emphasizes creating and customizing offices after the type of business or work and the taste of each individual involved therein. She says their approach not only includes making a workplace a fantastic place but also conveys that designing a perfect office environment goes much deeper than decorating the space with fancy chair and fascinating furniture pieces.

It's not just about spaces with a wow factor, she says, although it does hold good importance; it's about crafting workspaces that are crucial to employee empowerment, motivation, and business goals.

An insight into the relation between workspace and professionals

When an employee is given an opportunity to explore their creative freedom to do more with their office space, the employer must expect high prospects of employee satisfaction and enhanced productivity. With the focused idea of losing control over the way professionals go about the business of producing competitive work in their own style, you make sure you receive and experience nothing but excellence in return.

Another biggest, and perhaps direct benefit employers experience is the increased level of confidence in employees' functional attitude. This additional facility to enable them to shape their own custom workspace does the job of a power booster and works wonders for their professional morale and efficiency level.

An idea of tailoring personalized space

To your surprise, when employees are allowed to personalize their office space with decent freedom, things become even more exciting for each individual working inside the professional body of any premise.

Your employees tend to feel naturally driven to work with doubled spirit and zeal when they enjoy beautiful environment and space, eventually resulting in a better, organized and unified system that brings you utmost business satisfaction.

The limitations of open-office plans

There are many companies that sincerely promote the idea of seeing a boost in employee commitment towards their team and work ethics through open-plan office. Although they don't have the luxury of privacy, they still manage to collaborate greatly with their surrounding people and establish transparency.

These companies also walk an extra mile to finance the activities like personalizing and decorating the desk space. Employees happily customize their dashboard with the help of pictures, mascots, coffee mugs with their favourite pictures and supporting messages.

However, here comes the paradox: a recent survey by Ipsos manifests that almost 90% of office goers around the world are not completely satisfied with their work culture, and the main reason is insufficient privacy. This indicates that open-office plans have certain limitations, which include limited privacy and poor focus, as Meg O'Neil, senior designer and developer of advanced applications and marketing at Steelcase confirms.

A workspace unanimously loved by everyone in the office is the one that generates growing productivity every day.

Try whatever helps

The best way to bring balance in the working system of a company is to appreciate the sense of innovative thinking, and trying to adopt the holistic methods of workspace improvement would be a great, innovative solution.

Plants and decoration

Despite the fact that decoration does not impinge directly on the office productivity, when combined with motivational messages and green plans, office decor does yield impressive results.

A research done in 2011 on understanding the office productivity suggests that when plants were introduced to the office system, an employee began to experience the increase in their attentiveness and overall capacity compared to the earlier situation.

The interpretation of decor doesn't necessarily hint at buying heavy expensive furniture. Although furnishing your office does elevate its value when visited by clients, it plays relatively less significant place in enhancing the work culture efficiency.

An experiment conducted by Knight & Haslam (2010) studied the effects of workspace more carefully and found that compared to bare offices, employees working in decorated offices produced higher productivity and observed improvement in well-being and focus.

Certain elements of motivation help you bring your workstation to life, some of which includes a comfort rug, walls, and sensible furniture.

Colourful rug

This may sound like the most fundamental contribution towards building a pleasant workplace ambience. However, it does spread it effect and appeal to both your feet and eyes equally. Applying a colourful rug improves the aesthetics of the place and accompanies your feet best as office workers enter the reception and into the work floor.

Paint your walls with your favourites

Your premise walls need attention in terms of paint colours and the content you paste on it. Wallpapers and beautiful artwork are always welcome, and you can go beyond this basic adornment to capture positive attention from professionals without distracting them.

Like employee desks, walls can also be personalized with employees' personal photos along with their achievements and special roles they have played. You ask them to submit the photos to frame them so that you can hang them at reception walls and hallways.

While working with my previous employer, I discovered an interesting workspace enhancement where they hung photo-framed slogans and motivational quotes from the historical and business leaders of the world. It literally worked for my own psychology and turned me into an inspired professional as I am today!

Bhavik Sarkhedi

Author of The Weak Point Dealer

Being bibliophilic in nature and engaged in personal diary writing since I was 9, the enthusiasm I have for writing can be expressed clearly when I write about the intersection of Technology,  Startup, Entrepreneurship and Juggle themBohemian by nature, Rapper by Passion, Story-Teller by Soul, and a Wanderlust, he wants to explore the intersection of philosophy and psychology. He is smartly dumb, genius moron, dynamically stubborn and occasionally an engineer. Die hard fan of TV seasons and  fictional characters- Sheldon Cooper, Chandler Bing, Charlie Harper, Daenerys Targaryen, Barney Stinson, Joey Tribianni and Tyrion Lannister.  Writes about Social Media, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Latest Tech Trends. The author of The Weak Point Dealer and 'Will You Walk A Mile?'

Starting a Business

I Left the Corporate World to Start a Chicken Coop Business — Here Are 3 Valuable Lessons I Learned Along the Way

Board meetings were traded for barnyards as a thriving new venture hatched.

Business News

Apple Reportedly Isn't Paying OpenAI to Use ChatGPT in iPhones

The next big iPhone update brings ChatGPT directly to Apple devices.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Branding

ChatGPT is Becoming More Human-Like. Here's How The Tool is Getting Smarter at Replicating Your Voice, Brand and Personality.

AI can be instrumental in building your brand and boosting awareness, but the right approach is critical. A custom GPT delivers tailored collateral based on your ethos, personality and unique positioning factors.

Growth Strategies

AMD Confident About Increasing Market Share In India

The semiconductor company is positive about the business environment in India on the back of growing investments in data centers and AI, Cloud repatriation, as well as technology refresh taking place across companies on both server side and client devices

Marketing

Are Your Business's Local Listings Accurate and Up-to-Date? Here Are the Consequences You Could Face If Not.

Why accurate local listings are crucial for business success — and how to avoid the pitfalls of outdated information.