Every company or startup team should have the goal in mind of creating an office space that maximizes their employees' productivity and workflow.
This is where an agile workspace excels. But striking the right balance between creative freedom and focused work can be challenging. The good news is, there are several small things you can do to help smooth the conversion process and seamlessly shift your employees from a traditional office setting to something way more productive.
The last two decades featured the rise of the open office concept. Advocates of the open office coming from the tech sector claimed that the idea was to throw open all of the barriers to communication and collaboration.
While the original philosophy came from 1950s West Germany, the idea, once called the “bullpen” model had been common in American newspapers, police departments, and some other areas for some time.
The open office ideal, however, ran into problems. Simply tearing down walls did not improve collaboration as much as it increased annoyance and dropped productivity.
Recently, office designers have looked to take the goals and some of the ideas of the open office and improve them with a concept called the “agile workspace.” A good agile office design respects diversity among staff in terms of working practices. It incorporates a number of ideas to support staff and boost productivity.
In many corners of the business world, “agile” has become more a buzzword than a principle to live by. But when you strip the fads and jargon out, the concept is one that can help a business do be more efficient, achieve lower costs and higher employee & customer satisfaction.
According to the Agile Business Consortium, agility means much the same as it does in real life—to adapt quickly to change, to “respond rapidly and flexibly to customer demands,” to adapt to change effectively without a drop in quality, to be a leader in productive change, and to take the lead in competitive advantage.
A truly agile workspace, then, would be one that facilitates adaptability, collaboration, productivity, and leadership. Here are some ideas that can help you transform your workplace into a more agile one today.
Productivity in the office is a critical element for any business owner or manager. The more productive the employees are, the more successful the business will be overall.
However, employees face many challenges in the workplace that inhibit their workflow, thus hindering results. What are some of these challenges? Statistics tell us that only 30% of staff are actually engaged at their job.
This is quite a startling and discouraging number. While it’s likely true that many factors are at the root of this lack of engagement among employees, there is one factor that surely contributes to it, and that is that employees are distracted at their job.
When you can’t focus on doing your work, then the potential to lose interest is far too high.
Sometimes it feels like the office is your home away from home. Just as you don't choose your family, you usually don't have a say as to which coworkers are situated close to you. If one or more of these coworkers are loud and disruptive, not only could it detrimentally affect your productivity, it can create stress and tension between you and your fellow employees.
Here are a few approaches you can take to work toward a solution.
See if this loud, disruptive coworker is something that seems to only bother you. Some people are more sensitive to regular noise than others, and there's nothing wrong with that. You could try a pair of earplugs or decent quality noise canceling headphones, and maybe ask your work for a headset extension for your phone.
If you are allowed to listen to music while you work, remember to wear earbuds or headphones so your music doesn't disrupt other people. Also, remember to take them out of your ears before speaking so you don't end up inadvertently raising your voice when you talk. After all, fair is fair.
If you are about to take an important phone call or meeting at your desk, people are usually good about hushing a little if you politely ask those around you if they would mind keeping it down for a few moments (and explain why). Another option is to make a sign (here's where a sense of humor will help a lot ) which you can put in a visible space to signal that you need some quiet. Try something like, "Do Not Disturb - I'm disturbed enough and on an important call!"
Employees who are overly social may be costing your business more than you realize. But how exactly can you establish a link between lost productivity and excessively socializing employees?
According to CareerBuilder, there are a few big productivity killers that can be present in the workplace, based on a survey of more than 3000 employees and 2000 hiring managers.
Here are some of the most common ones:
Working for yourself can get lonely, especially if you work from home and have little contact with your co-workers or partners. However, renting an office can be a bit too expensive.
These are just a couple of reasons co-working spaces have become more popular. But creating the right look in a co-working space can be difficult, especially if you have little room or funding.
This article will discuss seven co-working space furniture ideas that help owners & entrepreneurs create the right environment for their needs.
We'll also discuss ideas that can help co-working space members increase productivity and encourage more communication between their team.
The open office concept may encourage more social interaction, but sometimes people need to work without distractions or noise around them. This is where noise-isolated phone booths provided by Zenbooth, can be useful.
The secret to boosting workplace productivity and employee well being isn’t always an incentive program. It’s not always having the trendiest employee gifts in your industry or setting up mindfulness Mondays and Pilates on Fridays.
A major key is offering a quiet pod where your employees can think, focus, and get work done without distraction. Having quiet pods in the office creates a haven for your workers to retreat to when they need peace and want to drown out office noise.
Today, more than ever, with so many businesses using an open plan workspace, giving your employees a place to step away from the distractions and the overwhelming collaborative environment in order to be alone is a simple yet effective way to empower them to do their job.
At the same time, it signals to them that their peace of mind matters to their employer – letting them know the company they work for cares about their health and happiness.
Without uninterrupted periods of work, accomplishing challenging tasks is next to impossible. Over half of high-performance employees believe their workplace is too distracting. Noise and peripheral movement have the ability to draw away attention, forcing employees to continually have to work towards regaining focus.
For too many years, the benefits of agile office design have been ignored. Instead, workplaces have been built on principles that do not support good employee productivity, happiness, or business success.
A floor full of identical, separated cubicles are a waste of space, discourage collaboration and a feeling of team camaraderie. They also contribute to employee burnout and low productivity overall.
In response to this negative trend, companies that were looking to shake things up turned to open office floor plans. Rather than cubicles, they had desks in rows where everyone could work and see their team members. In theory, this was an improvement, but in reality, it brought a host of difficulties.
Factors like loud spaces, no space for small meetings, no ability to step out and quickly recharge before returning to work, and no way to participate in conference calls or other telecommunication without disturbing the entire office lead to many of the same problems we see with rigidly designed cubicle spaces. Absenteeism, low productivity, and burnout can all plague open floor plan offices.
The open office concept exploded in popularity over the past thirty years. What started as a mainstay of a few industries, notably journalism, grew into a fad embraced by the tech industry. According to the dominant theory, young people loved open office concepts because it fostered creativity and innovation.
Few took time to study whether or not this held water before adopting the concept themselves, mainly because it meant much lower construction costs.
Now four out of five offices in the United States have some form of the open office concept. Unfortunately, studies show that in many cases open offices fail to deliver on the promised expansion of creativity and innovation. They even, in many cases, bring higher costs.
A solution does exist in the form of portable, cost effective, and sturdy indoor phone pods that provide sanctuary for staff. Here are seven great benefits that come from embracing the office pod as an important addition to the open office concept.
When the majority of workers in the U.S. say they feel distracted, they're quick to blame technology. In fact, according to the "Udemy in depth: 2018 Workplace Distraction Report", 69% of workers "struggle" to cope with interruptions at work.
But could the problem be more nuanced than that and can designated office quiet zones be the solution? It's not that workers are distracted by technology so much as they're using technology as a means to distract themselves from bigger priorities.
Udemy's survey finds that the main reasons for employee distraction include: "chatty coworkers (80%), office noise (70%)," as well as disruptions through "small talk and office gossip."
In other words, productivity is being fractured in open office workspace designs.
Trendy does not always translate into top results. One egregious modern example lies in the “bullpen” style open office concepts that swept American workspaces two decades ago. Buoyed by the seemingly advanced techniques of technology companies in California and elsewhere, many businesses convinced themselves that open office represented a future thinking and progressive organizational style.
It did not hurt that open office plans cost less money to construct and maintain.
Some advocates insist that open office provides the best possible space for collective effort and that young workers prefer it. Others argue that the open office style blocks concentration, reduces productivity, and even harms workers’ mental and physical health.
Nearly three out of every four American offices have low or no partitions separating employee work areas. Almost one-third rate visual distractions as a real problem that interferes with productive work.
If you've ever worked a desk job, you're well aware that after a week of staring at your computer, you can't wait for the excitement of a fun weekend.
Though you may love the work you do, are you always comfortable, energized, and feeling creative? Chances are you answered no to at least two of those questions.
We're all humans, and as much as we'd like to feel all of those things 100 percent of the time, it would be pretty difficult to do so. Being in the same environment and doing the same work day after day sometimes takes away from our productivity, creativity, and overall happiness.
When we see the same desk to our left, and the same coffee pot to our right, things tend to get boring and bland. Without the opportunity to have a new, fresh environment, you could lack inspiration.
That's where agile office layout principles come in. Let's examine some of the themes of agile offices, the benefits you'll see when you adopt the idea, and even some agile workspace design ideas.
The agile workspace is a simple solution to a noisy, uninspiring, or distracting, workplace. It provides options as far as where in the office you choose to work, and gives you the chance to have that group meeting without distracting your neighbor.
The working world has changed and the offices of days gone by simply don't cut it anymore. The newly conceived agile workspace has transformed the modern office beyond recognition. And the truth is, it had to happen. Offices have evolved over the last few decades and we simply don't work the same way anymore.
The typing pools and compact cubicle hell of the 1970s are soon to be fully replaced by agile workspace furniture and design principles.
It's now also time for the negatives of the open plan office to bite the dust too.
Open-plan has actually been with us since the 1950s, but it became the norm in the last two decades. It even got to the vaguely ridiculous point where managers were removing their doors with screwdrivers to show just how approachable they were after reading one too many leadership books.
Tech giants championed the open plan office and even Google went that route together with 70% of the country. Facebook took the extravagant and slightly farcical step of employing renowned architect Frank Gehry to design the largest open-plan office in the world at that point with room for 3000 engineers.
It's not just the nature of work that has changed. In today's global, increasingly digital-first economy, the needs of workers have also shifted.
Productivity is no longer about punching a time card or clocking in and out. It's about how powerfully, efficiently and effectively workers can use their 9 to 5 hours. In other words, working smarter, not necessarily harder.
Part of working smarter means working in an environment that supports the format of the work being done and the stage of the project the work is at.
The rise in co-working spaces doesn't only parallel the rise in remote workers and the changing nature of working hours. It also tells us that there is a preference for larger companies to rely on smaller, leaner teams, and groups who can demonstrate a deep expertise, working on a project-to-project basis.
Running a tight but steadily moving ship like this, then, requires an office that will be as responsive as the principles these cohorts are built on.
A productive workspace is not only a flexible one or a balanced one, with ample room for various sizes and functions. It's also an "agile" one: A workplace design that mimics the inquiry, creativity, testing, development, and design stages that are at the core of the work itself.
So how do you put innovative development principles meant for software to work in a physical space? Simple: by creating agile workspaces.
Zenbooth is celebrating NeoCon’s 50th anniversary in showcasing the best of commercial design by featuring the affordable and highly functional Executive Booth. The Executive Booth represents Zenbooth's answer to the modern office's most important dilemma: how to create private work spaces that combine quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.
The Executive Booth brings privacy, peace and productivity to the open office floor plan environment at a fraction of the cost of a traditional office build out. The Executive Booth delivers added versatility to any office environment as it is created to slide, shift and fit within the growing and ever changing open office floor plan. Users can hold face to face meetings, take phone calls and conduct remote conferences within the comfortable and private atmosphere of the Executive Booth.
For 50 years, NeoCon has provided a stage for the best of the best in commercial office design. Zenbooth proudly joins the distinguished tradition as an exhibitor and will display products, such as the beautifully designed and affordably priced Comfort Booth. The Comfort Booth is an open office floor plan solution and creates space for office workers to concentrate, conduct business phone calls, and escape common distractions.
The Comfort Booth provides an easy and inexpensive way for fast growing companies to give employees the privacy and noise resistant spaces that they need. Its style beautifully fits the modern office aesthetic and is designed with the customer’s peace and productivity in mind.
The rise of the open office has been a quest to devise the ideal environment that naturally fosters workplace collaboration and therefore accelerates results. A worthwhile and idealistic notion, but one that has encountered serious impediments to success and is now indicative of the need to approach workplace design in a more conscientious fashion.
Zenbooth is trying to support changing attitudes toward work, and that means promoting increased flexibility. This should infer supporting however you need to work in order to perform your best and deliver productive results.
Put simply, opening up the workspace and herding your entire team into the same room multiplies the potential for an overload of sensory stimulation. Sight lines lead the eye to every movement, while conversations cease to endow privacy.
The tradition of reserving gossip for the water cooler becomes irrelevant as everything is heard by willing (or unwilling) ears. Perhaps as an indication of the need for privacy and focus, colleagues don noise-canceling earphones and disappear into self-created bubbles of seclusion.
Silence descends upon the office, punctuated only by keystrokes and furtive glances. It’s difficult to tell whether this is an improvement on the prior state of affairs, or if something else entirely is required to obviate the deathly enforced stillness.
You know the feeling. You're busy at work, trying to focus, when a co-worker distracts you with a long-winded story--one of the many anecdotes you'll hear that day. You nod politely and smile, praying they stop talking so you can get back to work. But they don't take the hint.
How do you get a co-worker to quiet down without causing offense? Here's some advice for handling this delicate, all too common scenario.
Maybe your colleague gets anxious and talking distracts them, or perhaps they simply want to be liked by everyone. Chances are that talkative co-worker has no idea they're distracting you. Remember they're not trying to irritate you, and it will be easier mentally for you to deal with them.
It's so simple, but most of us are afraid to say we're too busy to talk. If you're on a deadline or concentrating on a complex task--just say so! You can then walk away or get on with your job assuming they've heard and understood you. Too often we assume we're going to hurt someone's feelings. You won't - there's no social law against communicating your feelings politely.
It's possible to be diplomatic and assertive at the same time. Don't be afraid to repeat the message if they keep talking--and if you like your co-worker, you can always arrange an alternative time to catch up, for example over lunch.
We have all been behind the noisiest person on a plane, bus, or long line and have sighed in relief when they left. Some of us have had the misfortune to have the person sit right next to us in an office, five days a week, 50 weeks a year.
The Zenbooth solution provides the welcome break from loud talkers in the office with its innovative office pods that deliver a private, quiet space to work.
Studies of employee satisfaction have shown that 58% of high-performance staff members feel that they need more quiet at work. Open offices have created significant costs from the loss of privacy, but building in some quiet space is a highly cost-effective investment.
Work is often stressful, and anything that can be done to lower it is welcome. Working in a highly charged atmosphere with constant simulation can be very draining. An undivided office creates many potential interruptions and distractions as employees are often so close that they are not able to switch off from the group environment and focus on their own work.
To get the best out of a team, a working environment must strike a balance between group work and individual focus. When staff members feel uncomfortable, they are less likely to be able to act naturally and perform to their optimum level.
Studies have shown that staff in open offices take up to 62 percent more sick days per year. Companies that don't prioritize staff well-being often suffer low staff morale, regularly resulting in increased staff turnover.
Working at a company with insensitive coworkers can be a daily nightmare, especially in an open office. There can feel like no place to hide from the constant interruptions and distractions. Concentration is vital in any job, which is why Zenbooth offers office pods that can be built into any work space to maximize privacy and quiet.
It feels good to exchange ideas with employees at your company and work closely together to achieve something. But there are many days when time apart can be hugely beneficial. Not all co-workers are considerate, and even the most sensitive employee can be a distraction without knowing it.
Unfortunately, in an office without adequate noise control, the least respectful person is the main voice that consistently penetrates your privacy. This is a common problem at offices, with studies highlighting that 54% of high-performance employees consider their workplace too distracting.
For co-workers who need to make or receive calls, it can become much harder to maintain the focus and privacy that is required to stay productive and on task.
Stress from unsatisfactory working conditions and poor performance go hand in hand. Happy employees put in more hours, are more efficient for those hours, stay with the company for longer and exceed expectations. In the wrong conditions, with an obnoxious, loud co-worker on staff, the office's discontentment causes people to leave, and that, in turn, creates a negative atmosphere.
Want one reason your company should consider quiet space pods for its workers? The average full-time employee works forty hours per week — meaning nearly a quarter of their existence is at the office. That's not much alone time compared to the amount medical professionals now suggest we need to focus and stay stress free.
But space pods can help with that, and people who are less stressed will appreciate their office atmosphere so much more.
According to the American Society of Interior Designers, employees who like their office environment are 31% more likely to be satisfied with their job.
A study by Metro Design also showed that an open office makeover would dramatically increase the productivity of nearly half of the employees surveyed.
Creating a pleasant and inspiring office environment that also addresses employees’ need for privacy is fundamental to their productivity and work performance.
Today’s open offices are designed to facilitate in-depth communication and collaboration, provide a suitable level of comfort, and foster team-building among employees — all three of utmost importance to a productive office space.
In fact, as of 2010 a staggering 70% of US offices utilized open workspaces. Yet, in practice, the open-office design concept is greatly hampering the workplace.
Here, we’re discussing the key downsides of open offices, and how companies can improve their employees’ productivity by incorporating office booths into their work place.
Unlike modern day work pods, typical offices of the past were designed to support long periods of sedentary tasks. Walk in, sit down, work throughout the day, then leave. Rinse and repeat.
Stricter company hierarchies were in place, and available technologies were appropriate for isolated workstations as opposed to web-connected networks of employees. So what happened?
Well, times changed. For one, by 2010 70% of offices were open planned or had little to no partitions. But that gave way to all kinds of workplace distractions. Work pods are now the third design stage of office productivity evolution.
Work Pods Are Priced Between $3995 and $18,999
The target for successful office design is to effectively support increasingly flexible behavior. And this means the flexibility afforded us by the evolving technologies we can use to work. Flexibility means the opportunity to meet, or to be alone, and to be transient. We can be increasingly effective workers while totally mobile, and most of today’s mobile workers actually spend less than 60% of their days in physical office spaces.
By now, most people who follow office management trends and studies understand that the open office concept has failed. However, offices that rely on cubicles that do not fully reduce or eliminate noise, have also proven in many cases to hurt both staff morale and overall productivity.
When companies start see how it hurts their bottom line, they'll look to make changes.
Staff seeking privacy would love to go back to the good old days of established offices. Unfortunately, companies that invested large sums into the open office do not want to invest even more on a complete reversal.
Luckily, Zenbooth offers multiple cost-effective office pods for businesses to restore private workspaces. These will reduce distractions and likely make your workforce more productive and even healthier.
A designer for the home furnishings company, Herman Miller, introduced what was originally sold as the "action office" in 1964. This came about in response to the "bullpen" style configurations popular in newsrooms, police stations, and other organizations of the time. The concept languished until the late 1960s, when a new tax law spurred their use.
At a busy company, an office quiet space for meetings and confidential phone calls can be hard to find. The sounds of other employees making calls, typing and consulting with one another can prevent you from focusing on intense tasks.
Indoor office pods or work booths provide private, quiet spaces that minimize distractions. You can have a meeting or make a confidential phone call without leaving the office or looking for a private area in a hallway or bathroom. You can also use it as a place to escape when you're feeling overwhelmed.
Office pods are available in sizes that can accommodate from one to four people. Maybe you need a quiet space where an individual employee can work without distraction.
Perhaps management needs a room for confidential meetings with employees or conferences with clients. Whether you are a small startup or an established corporation, a booth that is the right size for your business needs can make the workday more convenient and less stressful.
At first glance, an open office plan appears to promote collaboration and communication among employees. To conduct a meeting, you simply turn around and talk to the coworker next to you. However, you may have to leave the office to hold a meeting or make a phone call that involves sensitive information. The constant activity, interruptions and distractions of an open office plan can decrease productivity, increase stress and hurt employee morale.
Recently featured in the New York Times, we set out with a mission to improve chaotic working environments and make workers happier and healthier with the use of uniquely quiet office pods.
In the Times article, it described how Gizmodo Media Group, home to some of the largest publications online, started off buying a few Zenbooths and trying them out with their writers and editors. The feed back was “positively positive” across the board. Soon more Zenbooths were ordered.
We know that this demand comes from workers. But why are they so desperately in need of an isolated space to work?
Staff know that they can be more productive and reach their true potential with office pods. Indeed, studies have shown over and over again that noise is one of the most distracting, disruptive forces a person can experience when they desperately need to focus on intense tasks.
In some cases it can take up to 23 minutes for an employee to get back on track. Over 54% of high performance workers say their office is too distracting. Yet today roughly 70% of offices have zero or law partitions.
At Zenbooth, we don’t just promote office pods as a solution to workplace distractions. We actually use them. They’re great for video chats, phone calls, or just getting some alone time.
Zenbooth Co-Founder Jeff Lange was recently asked to appear on a local Colorado news show. He discussed the need for quiet places at work in great detail, as well as the inspiration behind our office pod designs and uses.
After over a century of research that has attempted to assess and improve office workers' lives, considerable challenges in the coworking / open office space setting persist.
As a result of "overthinking" the open plan off design, organizations from innovative tech start-ups to blue chip businesses have switched to the collaborative, co-working workspace concept. For most organizations, this has been a huge mistake.
The following are the top nine coworking space challenges which plague most office employees.
Workplace distractions are the most disruptive influences on workers. Between office chatter, the intermittent ringing of telephones, and the general cacophony heard in an office, the constant noise can sap the focus of even the most diligent employee. (This office noise can also negatively effect worker health.)
According to a report published in Medium, almost two-thirds of high-performing employees state that they need office quiet spaces. Of that number who feel that the workplace is loud, nearly all of them find office noise too distracting to work to their full potential.
Furthermore, 54% of average employees spend considerable work time just trying to focus. In fact, according to the results of a study conducted by Humboldt University, it takes 23 minutes for the average person to refocus after being distracted by noise. That's nearly a half an hour of productivity lost.
An open plan office design is favored by many employers, yet recent research shows that this layout could be hampering your workers' productivity, as well as their health.
If you've been searching for ways to boost your workers' morale in an effort to increase productivity, chances are you haven't considered making changes to your office layout. The office environment plays an important role in your employees' happiness. The office layout has a lot to do with it, but it's often overlooked.
In an open office plan, workers face many distractions. There is always something going on nearby. Even if they're not actively listening in on other conversations, the health effects of workplace noise alone are enough to make your employees miserable. It can be hard to concentrate on a project when there is so much else going on around you.
The office temperature is often the cause of disagreements. Some like it warm - some like it cool. There's no way to please everyone. Since you can't provide everyone with their own personal airspace, the temperature issue can be a tough one.
Bad moods are often brought about by working closely together in an open office plan. In turn, someone else's bad mood can affect the rest of the group when they have to hear about it or listen to it all day. When you're not able to focus or concentrate to get your job done, it can be stressful. There is no escaping this type of stress when you're surrounded by other people's chatter.
It is common knowledge that psychologically distracting and even physiologically damaging noise is ubiquitous in our world, perhaps no more so than in a stressful office environment.
Disturbingly though, most people are unaware of the concomitant, severe long-range effects of office noise and the potential severity of their impact.
Further, these effects not only impact the well-being of an office worker, both in the short- and long-term, but can utterly drain a company's productivity due to degraded employee focus, as well as produce or exacerbate ailments which spur the consumption of sick days.
Before we explore some of the specific health problems office noise can create, it is important to understand the source of the problem. Between the clatter of keyboard typing, the consistent chorus of ringing desk phones, and ongoing office chatter, there are plenty of factors which contribute to noise in an office space. But what makes this situation even worse is the design of an open office.
By “open” we mean a traditional office setting in which a series of workers along with their desks, computers, and other work equipment are housed inside of a wide room without any partitions to separate individual workers.
Some office managers and business owners have asked, "Are meeting pods just a catchy startup workplace design idea, or are they truly going to increase the bottom line?"
To answer that question, just look at the facts. Open plan office research has shown consistently that employees prefer privacy. It has also shown that it's more than just a preference in terms of their physical setting. It is in fact directly tied to how productive they are at doing tasks essential to their job.
Among the long list of open plan office design issues is that a single distraction can take up to 23 minutes for a worker to recover from.
That was reported by Berlin's Humboldt University. With colleagues everywhere in an open office, this could easily amount to an hour or two of missed time from completing assignments.
Excessive work place noise, which can actually have serious health effects, is seen by many open office workers as detrimental to their ability to succeed. 58% of high performance employees (the ones businesses obviously want to keep around for the long haul) find their office too distracting. 25-30% think that it's too loud.
