There are many buzz words in the office design world, and many of them don’t stand the test of time. Some however do, and that means we need to sit up and take notice, and maybe figure out if they can work in our own environments or not. One of the latest buzz words, and one which has stuck around for a while now, is the experiential workspace.
The name sounds fancy, but the explanation is actually far simpler than you might think. The experiential workplace is geared up for the employee, and basically adopts a psychological take when designing the layout of an office space. For instance, choosing glass desks (or glass meeting tables) to reflect light and create a brighter feel, compared to darker environments which create negativity.
Opting for a breakout area, away from the quieter zones, so that people can concentrate and collaborate as needed, without becoming stressed with interruptions.
The experiential workplace is about the experience of working within that space; how it feels, how it inspires, and how it motivates.
An experiential workplace is designed to be functional, productive but also enjoyable.
Why go to all this trouble? It’s very simple. A workplace which focuses on how it looks, how it feels, how easy it is to work in, and how well thought out it is, will ensure that staff are happier and therefore stay within the business. In addition, there won’t be a need for urgent recruitment, and in actual fact, it’s more likely to encourage new talent to apply to the business, therefore increasing the chances of success and growth for the business in the future. All of this from choosing amazing office furniture, ensuring that everything is placed in the right area, and thinking a little outside of the box!
One of the main reasons why staff are more likely to work within an experiential workspace and not leave to go elsewhere is because they won’t have the “grass is greener” approach. They will have an office experience that they enjoy every day and they will judge that positive experience against what it would be like to move and work for another company. The chances are that the experience will be too precious to risk.
Things to Think About When Designing an Experiential Workspace
The first step is to ask your employee to step way from their office desks and to talk about what they like about their current working environment, what they don’t like, what they wish they had, and any ideas they might like to put forward. How can you design a workspace which suits employees if you don’t ask them what they want? This will also boost morale, because whenever you make any change in the office environment, you need to ensure everyone kept up to speed and consulted.
It’s a good idea to do this as an informal collaborative exercise, but you do need to find out the individual needs of your employees too, because everyone will have subtly different requirements. Once you know these details and you have a clear picture of how your staff work in the best way possible, you need to design the area according to that information. Everything you do should be geared towards ensuring those needs are met, and that ideas given to you by employees are also considered and incorporated wherever possible.
It’s likely that your new workspace will be full of variety, including spaces, innovative office furniture choices, and decoration.
For instance, ergonomic chairs and adjustable office desks are a great idea, because these can be adjusted to individual needs, but you could also look at standing desks too, to add an extra dimension of variety
The experiential workspace is often an open plan design, and that means you need to think about zones. These zones will ensure that different types of work can go on at any one time, without anyone being disturbed or annoyed at what their neighbour is doing!
Quiet zones with designer office chairs for comfort are ideal for close work which needs to be concentrated on carefully. In addition, collaborative zones, perhaps with mesh chairs for extra flexibility should be incorporated for brainstorming and work which requires teams to bash out ideas. Within an open plan environment, how do you manage to keep the noise down and stop it bleeding from one space to another?
To answer this question, many offices have chosen booths, desk pods, or acoustic panels and screens, which absorb the noise and provide a physical block between one space and another. This helps to avoid distraction and therefore annoyance when someone is trying to concentrate.
Consulting with your employees is the only way you will get the information you need to design the perfect experiential workspace.
If you do that, you’ll put your employees in control of what they need and when that happens, productivity is on the rise.