The global economy grows more competitive each year. That’s why enterprises are making agile, modern workspaces a top priority. An agile work environment does away with dedicated workstations and instead uses flexible, shared spaces, allowing employees to choose how and where they work.
A thoughtfully designed, agile workplace enhances productivity and reduces the cost of real estate by right-sizing space and increasing capacity. It can also help you attract, retain, and cultivate the best talent for your company. Here’s how you can design a high-performance, modern workspace that inspires and motivates your employees.
Workspaces That Motivate
A modern workspace isn’t just about aesthetics. Sure, a tastefully designed work environment helps put people at ease. But it goes deeper than that. Traditional floor plans with dedicated workstations waste space, costing your company valuable resources in the form of unused real estate.
Our surroundings also have a profound impact on our motivation to complete tasks. You might think that with a big enough salary and benefits package, you can motivate your workforce toward the next innovative breakthrough in your industry. However, motivation doesn’t always work that way.
And don’t be caught confusing an agile work environment with an open floor plan. Although open floor plans were once in vogue, the truth is that they are noisy and distracting. And despite promises to the contrary, open workspaces can even put a damper on workplace collaboration by reducing face-to-face interactions between employees.
To stay motivated in the workplace, most people need to feel a sense of autonomy, competence, and connection. Market research agrees—a well-designed, modern office boosts employee productivity. Flexible workspaces are especially effective at giving people the power to choose the space that best suits the task at hand.
Quiet areas promote focused concentration. This makes it easier to reach a state of flow and complete tasks that require deep, independent thinking. At the other end of the spectrum, open and inclusive workspaces help people feel connected to their coworkers and allow them to collaborate effectively.
Unfortunately, most companies fail to provide workspaces that meet the needs of their workforce.
Want to learn more about creating a high-performance modern workspace? Download our whitepaper, Optimizing Corporate Real Estate for the Modern Workforce.
Redesign for Productivity
Is your business behind the times? If it is, you might be doing your employees and your business a disservice.
Learn to recognize inefficiencies that could impact employee productivity. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Does your company allow its employees to choose where and how they work?
- Do people have access to space to engage in casual chats or ongoing collaborative work without disrupting other employees?
- Does your workspace support learning and information exchange between workers, regardless of their department or team?
If you answered “no” to any of these questions, it’s a sign that your workplace is hindering the productivity of your employees.
But when does it make sense to overhaul your workspace? Think about redesigning if you’re getting ready to significantly increase your headcount or move into a new space. These are golden opportunities to take a critical look at your workspace design and make improvements.
Be a Champion for the Modern Workspace
Reinventing your workspace can transform the employee experience, but it requires the hard work of an internal champion. As a champion, take the lead on building an initiative that maximizes employee satisfaction and productivity.
When it comes to creating a modern workspace, your real estate is your most strategic asset. Seek out new technologies that can monitor and track your space usage and other useful building and facilities data. This will help you get informed before making any major changes.
Building a Modern Workspace Strategy
How do your employees interact with and connect to space? A workspace redesign won’t do you any good if it’s not functional for the people who use it. To build a better workspace, you need to understand how your employees work in their current space. Here’s how you can develop a successful strategy to build a functional, modern workspace.
Use technology to strengthen your real estate strategy
Technology solutions provide valuable insights into space utilization and real-time occupancy information. This helps you minimize costs when building your strategy by:
- “Right-sizing” office space
- Evaluating multiple move scenarios
- Helping you start the transition to flexible or activity-based workspaces
- Planning for peak utilization
- Increasing real estate capacity with flexible, ratio-based seating
Data-driven insights will also help you gain support from your organization’s stakeholders. With supporting data, stakeholders are more likely to get behind a transformational workspace strategy.
Keys to driving change with a strong workplace strategy
But how do you know when you’ve built a successful strategy? Here are some important boxes you’ll need to check if you want to drive meaningful change.
- You’ve identified KPIs within your real estate strategy to track the growth of your business.
- You have technology in place to help you maximize your space utilization and overcome guesswork in space acquisition and consolidation.
- Your decision-making process is proactive.
- You have access to dynamic data for ongoing insights to consistently optimize your real estate portfolio and align with changing needs.
Closing Thoughts
With the global economy moving at a rapid pace, enterprises are looking for new solutions to stay ahead of the curve. A well-designed modern workspace will allow your employees to reach their fullest potential and help your business flourish. Technology solutions can give you valuable, data-driven insights into how to transform your workspace and employee experience.
