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The Office Environment

The office environment is something that we all would like to see improved. It used to be that offices looked very much alike, standard furniture, cubicles, coffee percolator, ugly posters.... Well, the last 15 years or so, offices changed dramatically, but not everywhere, and not always in the right way. Let take a tour and see how we can improve the office environment for both the employees and the visitors.

The door.

They say there's no second chance to make a first impression. Your offices entrance is what a visitor, and employees, see first when they walk in. These day, mistake number one is letting your employees smoke by the front door. Smell, cigarette buts, ugly ashtrays (or what used to be plants and became ashtrays) and employees that stand by the door and smoke - not the best impression you can make on your potential (or not any more) customers. So first, make sure this is not the smoking hangout.

Take ten steps back (not into the traffic please) and look at the entrance. The is the door clean? freshly painted? The floor is clean? The rug is clean? Is there a clear/clean sign with you company name/logo? Plants outside the door if weather permits?

Walk to the door. Open it. Does it squeak? does it open smoothly? Does it feel like a good door, or a piece of about-to-break aluminum frame? Obviously, you want it to give a good and firm feeling, and open smoothly and quietly.

The enterance.

Take one step and stand at the doorway. Look around. Clean? Freshly painted? Plants? Are the colors you see are bright and welcoming, or gray, dull, gloomy? An office lobby should reflect what you want your customers to think of your company. Firm warm wood feeling, hip modern style, artistic colorful style, playful, technical, hi-tech, whatever you want anyone who steps into your offices to think of your company, should be reflected in the design of your office entrance. There are no rules for what style of design you need, but it has to be clean, well maintained and well thought about.

The office.

The office design has a lot to do with functionality, and will be derived from your company’s needs. Open space, cubicles, closed offices or whatever combination needed to accommodate your business goals and the way you conduct your business. But you have to consider a few issues:

Your employees – In the Dilbert cartoon, these are “resources”. Funny and un-politically-correct as it is, employees are a valuable asset of your company, some say the most valuable asset. Treat it as such. You want to create an environment that your employees will want to be in, and will stay motivated and energetic throughout every day.

Ligh. You want a lot of light in the office, but not too bright to interrupt them, or coming from bad directions (as behind their computer monitor) to put stress on their eyes. Soft bright light is, mimicking sunlight if true sunlight is not an option, will increase productivity and mental state of everyone in the office, including yourself.

Noise – acoustics planning is not an easy task. Theatres and concert halls are planned by experts with years of experience, and planning is not always an exact science – material and structure, number of people and locations, open or closed windows, furniture location – all affect the acoustic characteristics of a space, so it is not an easy task. But when planning the office, consider issues like separating employees that are constantly on the phone from ones that are not. Have better acoustic insulation between the “noisy” departments’ employees, and between the whole “noisy” department and other quieter departments.

Water. Dehydration is bad for you, and will cause loss of focus, tiredness, and lousy overall feeling. This is easy to solve. Have water bottles available for the employees for free. Even with the “risk” of your employees taking bottles, partially full or full, home, the benefit by far is greater than the cost.

Healthy snacks. This one takes time, but your employees will eventually get used to it. Nuts and dried fruits are healthy snacks that supply energy to the body. Make them available.

Climate control. Temperature and humidity are important factor. You better off with slightly colder office than warmer, it’s easy to put a sweater on if needed, but an environment that is too warm will get everyone sleepy. People who work hard, will not be cold.

Communication. People at the office need to communicate between themselves, and with the outside world. For the outside world, you have to plan and keep your communication system up to date. Within the office, there are two factors, the technical one, which should be efficient, and interruption free, and the office topology. The farther people are, the less they will communicate. Employees that are located on different floors will hardly ever talk. Employees that are next to each other will. Put them by desks that are more than 100 feet apart, and exponentially the amount of communication drops. You can fix that by planning that employees that need to communicate will be seated in close proximity to each other,  and by creating “meeting places” – the water cooler, the fridge, the restrooms, the coffee pot (eh, espresso machine). Bumping into each other in the hallway is way more important than generally knows.

There are a zillion other issues about your office that can determine the efficiency and success of your business, but, in a nutshell, these are issues that can help you improve.

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