There is one thing which every business needs to be - productive.
Without productivity, your business is doomed to fail. It’s simply not possible to succeed, grow, or make a profit when your productivity levels are falling fasting than the leaves in autumn.
There are many different elements which create a productive picture, but ensuring that morale is high in your office space is one of them. The best way to ensure morale is high is to listen to your employees and make sure they feel valued, but also to avoid the possibility of office conflicts.
When conflict is present in an office, the entire contemporary office is in a state of disarray. Even if just two people are involved in the problem, the vibes from that conflict permeate out into the rest of the space. That means anyone who is sitting at an office desk within close proximity feels inclined to either take a side or becoming slightly involved by listening to their colleague talking about the issue. It’s not a very pleasant way to work and it’s certainly not a productive one.
The reasons for conflict are far-reaching, but have you ever thought about the role your office layout could play?
If your office isn’t designed very well, if desks are too close together and everyone is sat too close to one another, you’re actually increasing the chances of fallouts and misunderstandings. This is a very stressful office environment and humans need personal space!
Also, you might have a layout which is adding to stress and anxiety because it’s simply not suitable for the people who are working within your space. For example, if you have a large office and you’re working in an open plan way, this could increase stress if people are trying to knuckle down and concentrate on their work. These types of spaces are known to be quite loud and this makes it difficult to concentrate. When this type of stress enters your office, it’s easy for people to snap at one another and fall out for the smallest thing.
That’s just one example, but can you see how increasing stress because of the layout of your office could be contributing towards unrest?
What is The Answer?
For that reason, it’s vital that you look at your office on a regular basis and make changes whenever necessary. This doesn’t always mean renovating or making massive changes, but it does mean small tweaks here and there. If you need to move office desks around because they’re too close, do it.
The problem is that many businesses don’t really have much of a choice in terms of the layout they have to go with initially because of the shape and size of the room they have. Perhaps this is why so many businesses go down the line of open plan offices.
However, if you do have scope to change things, it’s something you should consider. Cellular offices might be a route you can go down, but how about the agile method? This is a very popular route and it gives employees the choice of where they want to work on a daily basis.
Creating an agile workspace doesn’t actually have to cost a fortune, and it’s simply a case of looking at the size of your office and working out whether having separate zones for different types of work is viable or not.
The bottom line is that as an employer you need to be mindful of the different roles that the way your office is arranged can play. If you can reduce the chances of conflict by reducing workplace stress, you should work towards that aim.
Why not ask your employees what they think about the layout of your office and whether they can come up with suggestions that might make their working experience more positive? By doing that, you won't have to constantly be sticking Band-Aids over regular conflicts, and instead, you can look forward to the increased productivity we mentioned at the start.