Office design is a trend that greatly affects the disposition of your staff, their productivity and overall mood while working. Therefore, pushing boundaries and experimenting may deliver results that can place you above some of your competitors. Moreover, in a world where an average person changes 10 to 15 jobs in their lifetime, you need something that will make them see you in a different light. You need something that will give them a reason to stay and, in this way, boost your talent retention. This also helps your hiring efforts seeing as how a simple tour around the office may become enough to persuade that it’s your company that they so desperately want to work for.
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The open plan
The trend you want to start from is the open plan, which, surprisingly causes a lot of debate around the office. Some of the world’s largest companies and conglomerates enforce this idea in their headquarters, yet, others fear that such a trend may backfire. Getting promoted sometimes goes hand in hand with having your own office and this is hardly interchangeable with just having your desk in a bit more secluded part of the room. On the other hand, by giving everyone a clear line of sight, you can make the place a lot less claustrophobic, which is what an open plan should be all about.
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Rooftop office garden
As for the breakroom, one of its main tasks is to keep people who aren’t working away from people who are. With that in mind, rooftop office gardens are the pinnacle of this trend, seeing as how they make this interference physically impossible. The rooftop garden brings perks of being a place of rest and comfort and it provides you with a privilege of being secluded from the outside world. Working in a real park means getting distracted by passersby and the possibility of encountering an acquaintance, which, although pleasant, isn’t something that’s supposed to happen during your work hours.
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High-tech breakroom
The most tech-savvy of your employees may find something else entertaining and, fortunately for you, this can nowadays be done with relatively small means. The first thing you want to do in your breakroom is to install a proper home theatre system. In this way, you can not only turn your breakroom into a tech haven but also make it into an unofficial conference room. Displaying a presentation is far more impressive on a 4K ultra HD wall-mounted screen than anywhere else, plus, you have the scenario where your entire team is comfortable with their surroundings.
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Active workspace
Most guides heavily focus on desks and desk arrangement while not a lot of people see a desk as their ideal work spot, to begin with. Remember your college and high school days, how often did you learn while sitting behind the desk in your room? Didn’t you rather study in the armchair, lazy bag or on the floor? With the active workspace trend in effect, you can implement this notion in your workplace as well. Give your team some options and let them choose the seating or even the position they want to work in. To some, this may sound like anarchy, while others recognize it for what it truly is, a fully customizable workspace.
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Office gym
At the end of the day, you might have noticed that some people stretch at work or even deskercise in order to stay fit. Why not take this notion one step further and make a true office gym? Depending on your choice of equipment, this can be done on a budget. Sure, getting five treadmills is a massive expense even for a real gym. However, you can get a sufficient number of jump ropes at $2 each and achieve a similar effect. Keep in mind that a changing room with showers is mandatory.
Conclusion
Apart from impressing your potential employees, this particular idea also makes a difference when you receive a visit from your investors. The way in which this works is fairly simple. All of the above-listed trends are made a reality by someone who invests in their company in the long run. For a mid-sized enterprise, installing a home theater system is not that much of an investment, yet, it’s not something they would do without hopes of a decent ROI in the nearest future. This kind of foresight is particularly appealing to investors and may make them involuntarily trust you more.
