When it comes to office furniture, does the one-style-fits-all-needs approach make sense, or should you be looking for something more from an office furniture company that will enhance your company’s productivity, cultural alignment, and employee collaboration?
Using a common style approach to equip an office with a basic supply of tables, chairs, and other requirements from an office furniture company has its advantages. It requires less time and creativity to assemble, accomplishing just the goal of outfitting an office. It also produces a look of uniformity, which may reflect a company’s corporate culture.
If you take a careful look when you visit other offices, you will begin to notice that many look similar, because they all have the same style of focus: commonality.
Does a Common Approach Fit the Needs of Departments and Teams?
All’s well and good if that approach fits a purpose. But what if it doesn’t? What happens when we open the door on all that sameness, and let some creativity and individualism shine through? Consider these points:
- Employees and teams have different needs and goals. Aligning these goal and personalities with purposeful office equipment can have a positive impact on productivity and employee engagement.
- Does the same office experience for a sales team meet the needs of a technical support team, or another department? If not, consider the resulting impact on performance.
- Equipping an office with personalized furniture designed to meet individual needs but also encourages teamwork, collaboration and demonstrates an aura of growth and success.
A Flexible Approach Enhances Creativity and Productivity
So, what might a flexible workplace look like?
- Working together on a project: Creating a collaborative environment allows a team to share space and ideas, and work closely to come up with solutions. This could include workstations where employees work in close proximity, and where office furniture is structured to facilitate teamwork. Consider the Elective Elements by Steelcase line for instance, where the workstations can be customized to a variety of open plan settings.
- Employee engagement areas: Forget about traditional desks and chairs, how about a couch in a common work area where employees can engage over coffee? Campfire Lounges by Turnstone invites employees to socialize in an open, comforting setting with their endless configuration choices.
- An individual workspace: So the team is engaged and coming up with some great ideas. What happens when someone needs a break from the team environment for some individual focus, or alone time? SnapCab Pods by Steelcase are stand-alone office pods that allow for independent concentration when you need the privacy to complete your work.
Again, it doesn’t need to be one-solution-fits-all approach. It’s about creating a multi-layered work environment designed to achieve results.
Provide a Work Environment That Sparks Collaboration
Ultimately, how do employers create a collaborative approach to an office environment, or a corporate culture that appreciates and promotes creativity and working together towards a shared vision? Steps can include recognizing individual work approaches and adapting the office around the different work styles, actively taking steps to encourage collaboration, and rewarding innovation.
Your corporate environment needs to work exclusively to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of you and your staff by aligning your place with your people and technology. POI can help you to connect your workplace, from floor to ceiling.
Contact us today for the collaborative edge your business needs and deserves.