Kyla Nievera, Negosentro.com | No business can be successful without a good workforce. Regardless of how much you invest in creating your brand image and developing a product, it can all be in vain if people behind it are not up to the task. As a happy worker is a good work, you need to think how to keep your workers under as little stress as possible. This can, of course, be done by reducing workload but it is not always doable. Thinking about the office environment your people spend most of their day in is an important element.
Make it pretty
As mentioned above, during the course of a week, most people only leave their home to go to work. Nobody likes spending their time in an ugly or uninviting place. You want your workers to be struck by a sense of beauty the moment they walk through the door. Depending on your budget, you can achieve this in various ways. Be that you are renting your office space or you’re doing well enough to build your own, you need to make sure that at least the simplest of decorating has been done. You need your walls to look like they are freshly painted and that everything is tidy and clean. Your home can often be a residence of chaos but no one prefers to have it that way, you can just be better or worse at tolerating it. The same goes for your workers so don’t make them sit in a mess.
Wake up their senses
Start with colors. A lot of time has been dedicated to the research of colors and their impact on our psyche. I am sure you yourself have spent some time looking into this whilst creating your brand logo. Use this knowledge to paint and decorate your office. Furthermore, use air fresheners to fill your office with the scent of the ocean, freshly mowed grass, pine forest or something else you may find appropriate, as long as it is subtle and not too strong.
Let there be light
This is a basic and perhaps the most obvious component of a nice office. We all hope to have an office with a view. Ensure your workers get as much daylight as possible. The space that’s left too dark should be lit by lights that closely resemble natural light.
Invest in furniture
Your workers are very likely spending a lot of time sitting down. Allow them to be comfortable while doing so. Invest in furniture that may be a little bit more expensive but will support your workers ‘needs. Have comfortable chairs that will help keep a good posture, tables that will fit the space in both size and style and have enough surface for everything your people need to work with, have Pilates balls available for those that feel that they are spending too much time in their chairs.
Add a personal touch
Offices are usually very clean cut and built to satisfy tastes of a lot of people. Let your workers personalize their working station. Encourage them to bring pictures of their family, child art, plants, dear objects etc.
Support the sense of freedom
Some people like working on their own, others like working in an open space surrounded by their co-workers. Also, most people tend to be more focused and more productive if they’re in a busy environment, motivated and drawn by seeing others work, rather than pacing themselves. Compromise by having glass walls instead of cubicles or, on the other hand, an open space. Try achieving the sense of privacy in an office using window tinting. Pay attention to the nature of the tasks certain people in your office fulfill. Don’t let people who spend the most of their day on the phone, be surrounded by a lot of noise. Also, you can have a sort of ambient music throughout the office as a background noise to cover for all the voices, phone ringing, printing etc.
You have spent a lot on HR to choose the right people for you, help them achieve their full potential by allowing them to relax and focus properly on what you’ve hired them to do.
