It’s no secret that a well-designed workplace is a more pleasant environment to spend work hours than one that is poorly planned and decorated. However, spiffier digs could also have an impact on your company’s financial health.

A new survey by the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) found a correlation between office design and the bottom line. The survey queried 1,206 full-time U.S. employees at companies of various sizes. More than half are in managerial or professional level positions who spend most of their working time in an office leased or owned by their employer. Respondents to the survey exhibited attitudes that suggest there is a strong correlation between good office design and retention. 

A sense of place is a long-standing concept. At a grand scale, this has manifest in walled cities and specific architectural traditions. This parallels rituals, traditional garb and dress, and regional cuisines in defining cultures. With the exception of a few very high-level executives, this desire to develop a sense of place seemed to have been lost at the end of the last century in corporate culture. Recently however, we’ve seen a shift: more, and more, companies are emphasizing the importance of creating a meaningful sense of place in the office environment for all of their employees.

Via gensleron.com >

However much we know about the forces we expect to come into play in our time and however much we understand the various social, commercial, legislative, cultural and economic parameters we expect to direct them, most predictions of the future tend to come out as refractions or extrapolations of the present. This is a fact tacitly acknowledged by George Orwell’s title for 1984, written in 1948, and is always the pinch of salt we can apply to science fiction and most of the predictions we come across. This is the fundamental reason why a typical report or feature looking to explore the future of work and workplaces invariably produces a hyped-up office of the present. This has sufficed to some degree up till now because the major driving force of change – technology – has developed in linear ways. Its major driver since Gordon Moore produced his eponymous law in 1965 has been miniaturisation. If we can expect computing power to double every 18 months, as More predicted, we at least have a degree of certainty about technological disruption. Of course, this has already had a profound effect on the way we work and the way we use buildings. So too has the secondary prime technological driver of the early 21st Century, the digitisation of the past and present.

Via workplaceinsight.net >

Love your job, but hate your office? For many of us, our physical workplace can be dark, depressing, bland and even dysfunctional. Windowless cubicle farms and airless open-plan floors can kill motivation and take a toll on worker performance, possibly even their health.

But a refreshing trend is taking root in workplace design: nature. 

There’s a growing body of evidence showing that workplaces that incorporate natural elements, such as plants, light, colours and shapes, have noticeable — and measurable — benefits for both companies and their employees.

Via bbc.com >

Economist Tim Harford writes about a fascinating experiment to identify the most productive and inspiring office setup

The 5S system of management — Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize and Sustain — has long stood for efficiency through tidiness and uniformity. It began in precision manufacturing spaces; clutter was discouraged because it might cause errors and delays, as were distracting personal effects. But 5S has somehow bled from car assembly lines, operating theaters and semiconductor manufacturing plants, where it might make sense, to the office cubicle, where it does not.

Management gurus today sing the praises of the “lean office.” But in this vision, one can see a very simple mistake being made. It fails to realize that what makes a space comfortable and pleasant — and, to turn to the concerns of modern business, inspiring and productive — is not a sleek shell or a tastefully designed interior. Indeed, it may have very little to do with how a building looks at all.

Via ideas.ted.com >

More and more businesses are recognizing the power of the workplace experience to drive employee performance and engagement. Global brand Airbnb, for example, has now renamed its head of human resources as “chief employee experience officer.” This is good news for workplace design and management professionals. We are well placed to capitalize on this shift in business opinion, but if we want to make a tangible impact, we need to bring practical solutions to the table. First and foremost, these need to be backed up by research. There have been few studies specifically into what makes a healthy and productive work environment. However, there are a number of research projects that examine how a human being’s surroundings impact their mood and behavior, and in particular how consumer environments shape customers’ perception of and engagement with a brand. As workplace professionals, we can learn a great deal from this consumer research and this is why workplace design and management teams should look towards consumer-facing industries for inspiration.

Via workplaceinsight.net >

The enduring struggle to improve the working conditions and performance of people through the design and management of their workplaces has more than a whiff of the Enlightenment of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries about it. The Enlightenment marked a new era in which the old superstitions and dogmas were to be overthrown by pure reason. This intellectual development was seen by its proponents as enough to convince the world of the ways in which we could improve the human condition. It’s a battle that was won in some ways but which continues to this day, as you can tell from the work of the most prominent modern day evangelists of pure reason such as Richard Dawkins, Ben Goldacre, Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens and the enduring ability of people to believe palpable nonsense. You can see the same appeal to reason as firms and facilities managers make the case for a progressive approach to workplace design and management.

Via workplaceinsight.net >