One of the biggest things to impact the productivity and effectiveness of your workforce undoubtedly is the environment in which you have them working. In short if your office is well designed and well maintained then your staff will feel comfortable and they will be happy working there and will be more likely to produce a high quantity of quality output. On the other hand though, if the office makes them uncomfortable or distracting then often they will perform less well and the outcome will be lower profits for the business.
In an attempt to ensure the maximum productivity and a high level of professionalism then, many managers and CEOs will design offices in a manner that is bare and looks highly ‘corporate’. These will be offices that use mostly dull colours like blacks and greys and that don’t have much personality. This has been the standard for a long time and many offices do it because it is what they have always done. However this doesn’t necessarily mean that this is the best approach and more and more people are starting to change this approach with their layouts. Here we will look in more depth at whether you should in fact be using more colour and creativity around your workplace.
In Favour of Stimuli
Many managers are under the impression that anything other than blank walls and black furniture will be distracting for their staff which is why they don’t include much colour or creativity in their layouts. Actually though it may well be that this is far from the truth and that staff could work better in a more visually cluttered environment.
The reason for this is that we crave stimuli. Go for too long without anything interesting to look at or do and you will likely start to get bored and look elsewhere for entertainment. If you have a very dry job to do like data entry or accounting, then it’s only a matter of time before you start dreaming of other things and this leads you to reduce productivity. Worse, you might go online and start checking up on Facebook which is a one way ticket to getting nothing done.
By giving your staff something more interesting to look at be it a fish tank or a Van Gogh on one of the walls, you will be able to provide just enough colour and stimuli to prevent them from getting bored so soon. When business is often so dry do you really think it’s conducive to good work to base your décor on that of a box?
At the same time stimuli also helps creative thinking and can provide inspiration. If you’re staff are staring at a blank wall then quite simply this isn’t going to encourage them to come up with new innovative ways to improve your business in quite the same way that a good piece of art might.
Happiness
If you want your staff to work at their best then they need to be happy, and likewise if you want to avoid them taking lots of unnecessary days off work then you similarly want them to feel comfortable in their office environment. Getting great office fitouts is a perfect way to make your office environment more enjoyable to spend time in and to thereby ensure that your staff can bear doing it.
The article is written by Alex Jones who writes blogs related to tips on home improvement and renovations.
