Your workspace is where you spend eight hours of your day or 40 hours of your week. If you think about it, it’s a pretty long period of sitting, working, and thinking. It can get mediocre throughout the day, and it can also lead to boredom, leading to decreased productivity. So how do you ensure that the workspace does not affect the productivity of your employees? Here are tips on ensuring their productivity:
1. Take Advantage of Natural Lighting
Natural lighting boosts the mood, productivity, and energy of your employees. It also prevents depression among your employees. You can take advantage of this fact by allowing natural light in as much as possible. There are windows for commercial use that can withstand environmental factors while remaining aesthetically pleasing. This will ensure that your employees get their much-needed natural lighting when working.
Don’t forget to install blinds over the windows if the natural lighting becomes too much for them. This will ensure that the glare won’t affect their morning productivity. The key here is to provide natural lighting without the burden of discomfort.
2. Provide Complete Office Supplies to Your Employees
While working, your employees will look for supplies in their drawers or stand to lend to their colleagues. This is inconvenient because your employees will become distracted and spend much unnecessary time searching for supplies. To avoid this, place all supplies that they will possibly need on their table. This way, they can focus on the work at hand instead of worrying about where to borrow that much-needed office supply.
3. Encourage a Clean Workspace
A cluttered workspace is a cluttered mind. Your employees cannot work efficiently if their workspace is filled with unnecessary mess. Encourage cleanliness at all times and encourage them to organize as often as they can. Provide trash bins at every desk, so they can quickly dispose of their garbage. If you can, provide each table with a box of tissues and a hand sanitizer so that they can clean their tables regularly.
4. Create a Cozy Nook or Gaming Area for Breaks
Occasional breaks are necessary to ensure a steady flow of productivity. Provide a cozy nook where your employees can unwind, a gaming area where they can socialize and relax, or a cafe area where they can consume their favorite beverages. These are just some office areas that make an employee feel relaxed and not overwhelmed by their workload. Set a time limit on how much time they should spend during their breaks to ensure continuous productivity. If you don’t have these yet, you can ask for suggestions from your employees on what they prefer.
5. Encourage Employees to Personalize Their Workspace
Another thing that drives employees to work is an inspiration. Please encourage them by adding their favorite photos on the desk or adding a plant on their desk to stay motivated. But while you enable workspace personalization, see to it that their workspace does not become cluttered. It will create more problems than inspire them. It must still be conducive to productivity.
6. Use Ergonomic Office Equipment
Another important thing that affects the employees’ productivity is their comfort. Use ergonomic office equipment to ensure that they are comfortable in their workspace. Ergonomic office equipment prioritizes comfort and posture among the employees to ensure that they are happy throughout the day. If their posture and comfort are overlooked, then they won’t be getting a lot of work done during the day. These types of equipment may be more expensive, but they are worth it for your employees.
The last thing you want to do is turn the workspace into a place for robots—lifeless. You can insert some life into it by following the tips previously mentioned. The employees devote their time to the company, and the least you can do is make the workspace enjoyable. By making them happy, they are more likely to give more to the company. So if there’s something that you know benefits them, you shouldn’t hesitate to give it to them—as long as the budget allows.
You might sometimes question why productivity is nowhere you want it to be, and you should look at the employees first. Whether they are going through something, experiencing burnout, etc., you should help alleviate their problems by making the workspace fun for them at least. Aside from this, it would help if you opened your office for them if they want to talk it out. A happy employee is a content company.