When starting a business, most people focus on the essentials such as marketing, customer acquisition, hiring, product development, competition, and funding. While quietly ignoring other aspects of the business whose impact is not immediately obvious. Productivity will easily fall within the upper echelons when renumerating factors that are essential to business growth.

But despite the advancement in “knowledge” of productivity, there is little to no progress. For instance, productivity in the UK is said to grow at an average rate of 0.5% between 2008 to 2020. This is about 2.5% lower than what it used to be between 1974 and 2008 (source). Clearly, productivity is taking a nose dive when technology is at an all-time high.

So if technology is not the cause, what then could be behind the drop in productivity? One of the understated aspects of a business’s productivity is the workspace setting or environment.

Why is the office workspace important to productivity?

Considering that the average employee spends 40 hours every week in the workspace, it is impossible to overlook the impact this has on their overall productivity. A recent study revealed that the average productivity of an office employee is 2 hours 53 minutes each day.

The rest of the time spent was spent on social media, reading news websites, discussing out-of-work activities with colleagues, and taking lunch or smoking breaks (source). Although this study pertains to employees in an office environment. The findings apply easily to employees in coworking spaces as well as remote workers.

The idea here is that the impact of the workspace on productivity is easily overlooked because it seems negligible at first glance. After all, what’s a little smoke break going to cost the business, or a short chit-chat with a colleague? However, one can only get the big picture when looking at it from a holistic point of view.

5 minutes of distraction every hour may not seem bad until you look at how much toll it takes on your ability to focus. This is not a new topic of discussion. According to this study, a small distraction won’t just take up your time (by increasing how long you complete the task at hand), but can also decrease the quality of work done.

If this is true, then it’s time we pay more attention to our workspaces, whether it’s in the office or at home.

Traditional or Open Workspaces - Which is better for productivity?

Traditional workspaces were enclosed spaces that were big on privacy but offered little opportunity for spontaneous collaboration among employees. In time, the traditional workspace was replaced with open workspaces that encourage collaboration (both spontaneous and intentional). But the sacrifice was privacy.

From a creative point of view, it is easy to see why open workspaces can be of help to the overall productivity of a business. The question remains, is this better, and if so, by how much? As it turns out, open workspaces may be aesthetically pleasing, inclusive, and promote collaboration, but when it comes to productivity, these types of workspaces take the backseat.

A Harvard Business Review article on “The Truth About Open Work Spaces”, mentions that it has a negative impact on productivity and reduces face-to-face interactions by up to 70%. Also, the absence of borders or boundaries between employees means there is no limit to the number of possible distractions.

Look at it this way, if employee A takes all necessary precautions to ensure he has a productive day, and employee B doesn’t, at the end of the day, both employees will be negatively affected by the action of employee B. Perhaps this is one reason why remote jobs have become an attractive option to some employees in the past few years.

5 factors to consider when building the ideal workspace

We’ve looked at how workspaces can impact productivity, now let’s look at the five (5) factors that should be considered when building the ideal workspace.

Company culture

This is the values, mission, and vision of the company as well as the accepted attitude and behavior of its employees. The company culture has a huge influence on productivity because it determines to a large extent the design of the office workspaces. For instance, Steve Jobs believed that a spontaneous conversation was needed to inspire creativity. Thus making him one of the earliest promoters of open workspaces.

Team vs Individual work

While creativity is a big part of most businesses, not every department excels with teamwork. Looking at this, a business could decide to incorporate both traditional and open workspaces to create a more inclusive environment that takes into account the different needs of its employees.

For instance, employees in the marketing and sales department stand to benefit more from an environment that promotes collaboration compared to employees in the HR or accounting department.

Employee welfare

While it is not possible to satisfy employee individual preferences, businesses can make some allowance to ensure that employees who feel out of place in the workplace can have a more productive day. This would mean having an enclosed office space for employees who focus less on the typical open workspaces.

A good example is the phone-booth-styled pods in Amazon headquarters. An outdoor workspace for more natural light and air. Companies like Apple and Amazon are now planting trees to help give a more natural ambiance in the workplace. All of this can help employees relax and focus better on their jobs.

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Nature of business

The nature of the business will determine to an extent the design of the office workspace. Not every business requires onsite employees. For example, an e-commerce business can be run successfully from a home office.

Supermarkets, fast food outlets, and restaurants are also on the list of businesses that do not necessarily require a complex office setting. But a SaaS startup on the other hand is a completely different story. If clients frequently visit your business office, then this will affect the layout as well.

You will have to lean towards having more enclosed office spaces for private discussions.

Efficiency

Designing for creative collaborations may be the priority for most businesses, but this should not come at the cost of efficiency. This is another area where open and enclosed office spaces differ. Most people work more efficiently in an environment that could seem littered to another employee.

In the traditional office workspace, this won’t be a problem as each employee has control over their environment. But in open workspaces, individual control is limited and this can be a problem. Additionally, workspaces should be designed to foster communication among employees.

While internal communication has improved significantly, there is still a need for a face-to-face once in a while. Not only does this help to strengthen professional relationships among employees, but it also boosts team spirit, brings clarity to unanswered questions, and enhances problem-solving.

All of these will lead to better efficiency and productivity in the workplace.

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