Do you ever leave your office at the end of the day with a stiff or aching back, hips, or shoulders? If so, chances are, you’re not the only one. According to research from the Mayo Clinic, sitting for too long at a traditional desk or workstation can cause numerous health problems, including increased blood pressure, obesity, and increased risk of heart disease and cancer.1 This is all on top of the all too common back, shoulder, and neck pains that people experience.
Traditional office desks are not only incredibly harmful for human physical health, but they also affect our mental health and focus as well. Studies show that office furniture has a direct impact on employee happiness, productivity, and success, and that switching to better furniture can help with all three of these areas.2
There’s no denying it. Traditional office setups are no good for anyone. It’s no wonder that so many coworking offices these days are switching to custom workstations. Custom workstations offer employees freedom and flexibility that can’t be attained with traditional furniture. And when your tenants are happy, your coworking business prospers.
Did you know that the furniture you use in your coworking office has a direct effect on employee happiness, productivity, and well-being? A recent study by Texas A&M University’s Health Science Center School of Public Health found that adding standing desks to a call center dramatically affected employee success, boosting call-success rates by 53%. 1 Many other studies have been able to replicate similar results.
From this evidence, it’s easy to gather that furniture has a direct impact on the success of a business. But designing a coworking office for maximum productivity is easier said than done. In some offices, space is limited, making it difficult to include lounge seating, cafeteria tables, and other items that are supposed to boost employee happiness and productivity.
But that doesn’t mean that you have to abandon your ideas for your dream coworking office. You just need to rethink the way that you use space. By incorporating modern furniture for small spaces, you can free up room in your coworking office that can be used for other purposes. Here are some pieces from the Supple Collection that can help you get started.
As open and airy co-working spaces are taking over from the closed-off cubical office design aesthetic, so too are considerations surrounding custom work area furniture. Unique furniture design can encourage creativity among employees and can provide staff with the correct tools to increase production and job satisfaction. More and more businesses are moving towards unconventional office design – with some areas including zones for comfort by including bean bag chairs or napping pods; and secluded areas for private calls and conversations. The best office design concepts make the best use of space and customize needs for employees such as using small, compact desks for salespeople on the go, utilizing communal areas for marketing teams, and using comfortable chairs and private areas for customer service personnel.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), work-related musculoskeletal disorders are a common cause of lost or restricted work time. These disorders are commonly caused by office furniture that cannot be properly adjusted to individual workers. Healthy and happy employees that use standing desks, laptop stands, and ergonomic chairs are more energized and productive.
Using Color to Boost Creativity, Productivity, and Stress Relief
Boring, drab, and unimaginative workspaces do not inspire creativity. A study at the University of Texas found that gray, white, and beige offices induced feelings of sadness and depression – especially in women. Men, however, experienced the same feelings when working in a space that primarily featured purple and orange. Choosing the correct mixture of colors can influence productivity, creativity, and mood. Restful greens and calming blues can improve efficiency and focus while providing a feeling of well-being, while optimistic yellows are best used where artists, designers, writers, and creatives work. A pop of energetic red can be beneficial where physical labor is needed.
Interested in Changing Your Office Design?
Call or email us regarding your office needs and design space. We can talk about how to make your work areas productive, supportive, and comfortable.
As society advances and evolves, so do the spaces we work in. Today, the cubicle office is recognized as a thing of the past. People want to work in an environment that’s social, comfortable, innovative, and flexible. And contemporary office furniture is making this possible.
Contemporary office furniture looks nothing like traditional office furniture. Furniture that was once designed to promote privacy and quiet, individual work has now been abandoned for comfortable lounge areas, portable devices, tech integrations, and nature themed designs.
But why the sudden change? Studies have found that switching to this type of furniture can actually boost office sales and productivity.1 The bottom line is, when your employees are happy, your business is happy and more profitable. And the furniture you choose for your office has a direct impact on employee health and happiness.
As the owner of a coworking establishment, your main priority is attracting and retaining tenants. You want every customer who walks through your door to be impressed by what they see. If you’re going to convince them to rent out space in your coworking office, then you’ve got to create an environment that catches their attention.
Today’s tech savvy businesses operate in creative, unconventional ways. And they want the environment they work in to be the same. By incorporating these modern office design concepts into your coworking space, you can make your space look more appealing to renters and increase your profits.
No longer just a growing trend, the coworking movement is now in full swing. It’s hard to believe that coworker offices first showed up on the scene in the business world almost ten years ago. Since then, the number of coworking spaces has increased tremendously, and offices have evolved in inspiring ways.
Creativity runs wild through today’s coworking offices. One can walk into a coworking space and encounter everything from employees doing yoga during the workday to indoor gardens, game rooms with foosball tables and ping pong to fun seating options like bean bags and indoor swings. Owners of these spaces have taken innovative approaches to addressing their design, flow, and layout. Coworking furniture is carefully selected and spaces are designed with employee well-being being the highest priority.
In the past few years, coworking offices have grown tremendously in number. Many businesses have transitioned from traditional office designs with cubicles to more open layouts where people can work together, converse, and collaborate.
For people who are unfamiliar with the concepts behind coworking, there may be some confusion about why these changes are happening. Cubicle office designs have existed for so long, so why fix something that doesn’t seem to broken? Well, the truth is that, in a way, it sort of is. Many of the jobs that are now in high demand like those in the engineering and technology industries involve many tasks that require collaborative work.
Additionally, businesses are now seeing that employees actually work better in coworking environments and become more invested in their jobs. New data shows that 89% of workers report experiencing improvements in their mood and happiness when switching to a collaborative work space. In addition to improving employee happiness, an abundance of research shows that coworking also improves workers’ health and productivity. All of this translates into larger profits for companies.
When we decided to start our own coworking space, we had no idea that the empty industrial building we purchased would turn into the amazing space and community that Battery 621 is today. At the time, the building was nothing more than a combination of concrete slabs and empty rooms.
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