How your physical workspace can affect your performance and productivity

The physical office space is very important in attracting staff to come to work and affects how they perform once they are at work. The physical workspace is the one we can see, touch, and taste, and smell – a multisensory experience. Think about your workspace and how it makes you feel. When you are in your workspace do you feel motivated and productive or do you feel as if you are walking into a dentist or doctor’s office?

Businesses should consider what they can do to give employees a variety of work settings and technology that enhance and support their work tasks as well as supporting the over company objectives. The choice of settings available to your employees should be specific to the business and its culture, supporting different teams in their activities.

Different modes of work settings within an office environment allow the employee to use the space for their activity, that best suits the way they work and how they feel. Office environments are marked by variety and include many different types of work points with the inclusion of hot desking, collaborative team tables, focus rooms, lounges, informal meeting areas and breakout spaces.

Collaboration is essential to businesses, and to tasks and activities where teams must work together to achieve an outcome. With the support of business policies and alignment of the right tools and technology to optimise productivity, it allows workers to optimise their own job performance, increasing job satisfaction, fulfilment, and motivation.

Think about your business or the business that you work in, and the departments and teams that make up your business and how they all work together. Which individuals need offices, who needs to focus, what teams need to collaborate and innovate? Stimulating employees by providing task-centric modes of working, makes for a dynamic working environment.