These days, the most common type of office layout is the open plan office.
We’re not suggesting this is the best option for everyone, nor it is perfect, but it is certainly the most common type of layout you will find across the country, and even across the world.
In a open plan office, you basically have one large office space and a number of colleagues working together within it. This means x number office desks and chairs, storage solutions and other equipment, such as printers, within one room.
Check out this infographic which talks about the pros and cons of the open plan office.
Source - https://designtaxi.com/news/370470/Infographic-The-Pros-Cons-Of-Open-Office-Plans/
As you can see, there are upsides and downsides, but if it’s not the right answer for everyone, why might it not be the right answer for you?
Here are four reasons why opting for the common open plan office layout might not be the right choice for your particular business.
Tasks Require Total Concentration
If your employees are working on very focused and concentrated tasks, such as statistics and numbers, an open plan office might be more stressful than productive. Having a lot of people within one space can be quite distracting and it’s likely that more mistakes will be made as a result.
You can get around this by having acoustic panels to soak up some of the noise and perhaps booths for those who really need to concentrate, but overall, a different layout, such as a cellular office layout, might be better in this case.
Your Employees Don’t Like The Idea
If you ask your employees what type of layout they like and they tell you that they’re not keen on open plan offices, then you have to respect that opinion and try and find another option. For some, open plan offices simply don’t provide enough privacy and that’s a deal-breaker for many people.
If you simply drive on with a layout that your employees don’t want, you’re going to run into problems and cause morale to dip. That’s a huge no-no for productivity.
You Have a Lot of Sensitive or Confidential Information
Whilst every office will have a certain amount of sensitive information within it, if your business deals with a particularly sensitive or confidential niche, an open plan office might not be the best option in terms of preserving that confidentiality.
Again, you can get around this by having office screens and space dividers to create a more segregated feel, but overall, a cellular choice might be better in this case.
Open Plan Offices May Contribute Towards Stress
You have to bear in mind the possibility that an open plan office may cause more stress for your employees and therefore knock down productivity and morale at the same time. In this case, you need to assess the types of personalities you have in your office, the type of work they have, whether or not the layout is going to work in terms of the way your employees go about their tasks, and their overall opinions too.
When stress becomes too much, the entire productivity of the office falls. This doesn’t necessarily have to be the case, as again, you can use different types of office furniture and accessories to reduce the effect, but it’s something you have to weigh up in terms of your office as a unique entity.
Whilst we’re certainly not putting a downer on open plan offices, because they’re extremely common and in most cases very useful, it can be a bad fit for some businesses. There is no ‘one size fits all’ answer here and the route you go down really does depend upon the work you do and the type of employees you have. Only by assessing everything carefully can you come to the right decision.