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How to design a workspace that improves productivity

Increasing business productivity is a multifaceted process. Workplace productivity isnt about getting from point A to point B in the fastest amount of time, said Jamie Fertsch, director and co-founder of Xdesk. [Its about] getting the job done in the most efficient manner possible while still maintaining a level of happiness and well-being.

Creating a more efficient, productive and innovative office requires attention to several aspects of setup and design:

• Individual desk setup
• Overall workspace design
• Elements that affect employee well-being
• Company culture

Here are three steps for designing a productivity-enhancing workplace:

1. Start with individual desks and immediate surroundings.

Desks and offices are the first things to consider when youre designing a workspace. Your personal workspace is one of the most overlooked factors that affect productivity, Fertsch said. Whether its rummaging through your drawers to locate an important document or having too many knickknacks, a clean and efficient desk setup is key to [workplace] success.

Here are some tips for sprucing up individual workspaces:

• Eliminate clutter and mess. Organizing your workspace can boost productivity. Make a daily effort to maintain a clutter-free, organized office and desk. Ensure that common spaces stay clean and tidy.
• Provide organizational items. If you have employees, stock the office with the materials they need to get and stay organized. Those materials may include desks with drawers and shelves, folders, file cabinets, and organizing trays.
• Stow personal gadgets. Smartphones, tablets and other tech devices can be time-wasting resource burns that encourage social media use and other distractions. Stow them away during peak productivity hours, or put devices into focus mode. If you have an office with many employees, create gadget-free time during meetings and group projects to help workers become used to disconnecting from their devices.

2. Design the overall office layout for movement.

When youre designing a workspace for multiple employees, its essential to consider how they interact with the whole space. Evaluate where everything is located and how item placement affects how employees move through their day.

Careful resource placement doesnt mean everything should be so convenient that employees never have to move from their desks. In fact, your workspace design should encourage employees to move around throughout the day to simultaneously reduce stress and boost productivity.

For example, put the copy machine in a separate space or have a central water cooler. A separate kitchen or break room can also give employees a reason to get up and a place to take a break without worrying about who will see them not working.

3. Include some areas for uninterrupted focus.

If you have an open office plan, your employees may need places to focus and finish work without interruptions. If your setup has cubicles or desks near each other, designate private offices or meeting spaces that employees can sign up to use when they must work without distractions.

How workspace design affects productivity

Designing your office setup isnt just about where you place the furniture. It also includes the elements that live sometimes literally within that design. These elements can significantly impact your employees physical and mental wellness and happiness at the office, all of which directly affect their work.

Consider the following tips for an optimal workspace design:

1. Incorporate natural light into your workspace.

Its long been known that lighting affects productivity and mood. In particular, the amount of natural light in your office can significantly impact health and productivity. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, effective lighting can decrease depression and improve energy, mood and alertness.

Additionally, an often-cited study by the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that a lack of natural light exposure in office environments can prompt abnormal sleep activity, creating a tired and sluggish workforce.

2. Include plants in your workspace.

When youre designing your office space, consider how small design elements can affect mood, health and general attitudes about work.

For example, keeping plants in the office or on employees desks can be beneficial. Research on behalf of the Flower Council of Holland found that 70 percent of respondents said plants improve the atmosphere at home and in the office, and 31 percent said plants help them concentrate while working. Additionally, a University of Exeter study found that people whose office environment included live plants scored 15 percent higher on creativity than those who worked with no plants.

Benefits of a flexible workspace design

A flexible workspace design incorporates many of the productivity-boosting design tips weve explored. Unlike traditional offices, flexible workspaces arent organized around assigned desks or closed-door offices.

In contrast, flexible workspaces use nontraditional designs to create multipurpose spaces that anyone can use. These may be workstations with desks, meeting spaces, open conference tables, comfortable chairs, private nooks or other spaces where workers can sit (or stand) and do their job.

Flexible offices provide the following benefits:

• Flexible offices meet employees current needs. Flexible offices allow employees to find the workstation they need, instead of being tied to a specific desk.
• Flexible offices boost employee interaction. Flexible offices encourage employee collaboration, movement and communication, thereby increasing productivity.
• Flexible offices cut costs. Flexible offices increase efficiency by allowing businesses to occupy space with a smaller floor plan or provide space to telecommuting employees who are in the office occasionally.
• Flexible offices are scalable. Flexible offices allow customization for changing needs as a company grows.
• Flexible offices attract talent. Todays job seekers, especially millennials and Gen Z, appreciate flexible work arrangements.
• Flexible offices improve employee engagement. When employees get to choose the workspace they use daily, they tend to be happier and more motivated at work.

How workspace design and company culture are linked

A good workspace isnt just about design. It also involves a strong company culture, which can influence employees well-being, investment and productivity more than any single element of an office setup.

There will always be objective goals set in a workplace, Fertsch said. But productivity can also be personal, which is why its important to foster an office culture where employees want to give it their 100 percent at all times.

Your company culture includes the values and behaviors that inform your work and priorities, as well as your expectations, goals, ethics and mission. Leadership teams communicate the company culture to employees by modeling expected work behaviors and attitudes.

Here are some questions to ask when youre looking to match your company culture goals to your workspace design:

• Do you encourage teamwork and collaboration? If so, you should have plenty of large spaces for groups to work.
• Do your employees need to shut out distractions and focus on complex projects? If so, provide plenty of offices with doors that can be closed.
• Do you expect employees to keep things strictly business at work, instead of socializing? In that case, you may want everyone to have individual offices.
• Do you have strong environmental standards, even if they make things more expensive? If this is the case, your design elements should reflect your sustainable business model. For example, keep plants in the office and make recycling or composting easy and accessible.

As you create your physical office, consider designing an employee-centric company culture that prioritizes employee engagement and wellness. Make conscious decisions about your values and priorities, and ensure that your physical space reflects them.

Jennifer Dublino contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

How to improve workspace productivity

Consider the following six ways to boost productivity by improving your workspace.

1. Establish a strong culture, then look at your office layout.

Your office design and layout are crucial. However, cultivating an atmosphere of workplace productivity is the first step. Heres what you should focus on:

• Define your company mission: The first step to creating a workplace that fosters productivity is generating excitement about your company mission. The best way to get your team on board with your goals is to let them know theyre integral to the organizations success.
• Define your company culture: After generating excitement about your company mission, you must foster a strong company culture. Company culture is the foundation of your business, and it influences office efficiency significantly. The organizations values and vision must be established before you focus on an office layout or implementing new technology.
• Set behavioral expectations: After clearly defining your company culture, you must set expectations for ethical behavior and excellent communication. Efficiency starts with cultural alignment, which is reflected in the overall company mindset and how it communicates.

After setting the correct mindset in your organization, you should examine your physical space. Theres no one right type of productive office space. Various businesses require unique office designs and layouts. First, your office space must be comfortable and set up to limit workplace distractions.

If the workplace is uncomfortable or full of distractions, it can make for an unhappy workplace. And when something makes you unhappy, you are simply not as productive or engaged as you could be, cautioned Kenny Trinh, founder and CEO of Prospr Ventures. For example, an open office layout is good for employee interaction but prone to noise and visual distractions that can make it difficult to focus on their work.

You may want to research or experiment with various office design types, including the following:

• Open offices
• Private offices
• Combination spaces with community areas and private offices
• Co-working spaces with meeting rooms and private areas

Consider your business, team members and industry before deciding on the best office layout for productivity. Do you need free-flowing, effective employee communication and collaboration? Are private spaces necessary for client phone calls? Theres no perfect or best office layout. However, as long as you meet your employees needs, youre on your way.

2. Create opportunities for movement in your workspace.

No matter what type of physical office layout you decide on, creating ample space for movement can help your team focus and be more productive.

The best way that I stay focused during a long day of work is to acknowledge when Ive hit a productivity wall and to take lots of short, quick breaks to gain a new perspective on what Im working on, shared Jamie Fertsch, director and co-founder of Xdesk, a United States-based company that creates customized, ergonomic desks out of environmentally friendly materials.

Fertschs company makes stand-to-sit desks that encourage changing positions and moving throughout the workday. However, there are many ways to build opportunities for movement into your workspace. For example, encouraging employee breaks and creating opportunities for movement can boost productivity. You could place the copy machine in a separate space so employees can get a change of scenery when they need to make copies. Alternatively, have a central water cooler to create a reason for your team to stand and move.

Productivity is not directly correlated with time spent on a task, Fertsch explained. Its important to make sure that youre recalibrating and refueling once in a while.

[Consider] a workspace that doesnt confine employees to one spot and gives them the option to work remotely, sit outside, etc., advised Sean Hayes, chief technology officer of Sensaria.

3. Incorporate plants and greenery in your office environment.

An assortment of plants isnt just about creating attractive social media photos. Plants and greenery can significantly enhance an office environment.

I like to make my space feel a little more alive, Fertsch explained. According to Fertsch, while houseplants are not a traditional method of creating a productive workspace, that doesnt mean their impact is imaginary.

Ron Radu, co-founder of Lon & George, agrees, saying that plants can create an environment conducive to increased productivity.

Having lots of plants around the workspace helps produce cleaner air and it motivates employees to be more energetic and creative, Radu explained. Scientific studies have proven the positives of more greenery for offices. From reducing stress to increasing productivity and creativity, plants have oodles of pros.

4. Give tech gadgets a home.

Smartphones, tablets and other gadgets can help you stay organized and efficient. However, they can also be huge distractions that create clutter. In particular, smartphone-addicted employees can lose valuable work time without even realizing it.

For Fertsch, the best way to avoid the temptation of wasting time on mobile devices is to find a home for gadgets and leave them there.

These days, we all have so many screens competing for our attention, so create a home for your smartphone, smartwatch and other potentially distracting gadgets, Fertsch advised. Keep them in a dedicated place while you do your work so you wont be sidelined by a constant stream of notifications.

A good place to stash your electronics is in a drawer. Out of sight, out of mind.

5. Keep your workspace clean.

If youre sitting in a messy area thinking about how cluttered your area is and how you should clean it, youre probably not getting much work done.

Take a few minutes every day to tidy up your workspace, Fertsch recommended. You can do this by throwing out unnecessary items and maintaining whatever organization system suits your style, so those extra distractions and clutter dont bog.

In addition to cleaning or organizing your workspace daily, Fertsch advises professionals to organize their to-do list for the next day at the end of every workday, so they can hit the ground running in the morning. This helps me reflect on what I accomplished for the day and how I can move forward to produce great work tomorrow, Fertsch added.

Ron Lieback, founder and CEO of ContentMender, recommended treating your work desk like a blank document on which youre about to create important work.

A blank document actually allows your mind to focus more, Lieback explained. Now, picture that document filled with random words and numbers all cluttered onto the paper and you have to write in between this. Your mind will play tricks on you and focus will be impossible. The same goes for an unorganized office.

6. Personalize your office space.

Personalizing your space in moderation, of course can increase your emotional connection to your work. However, its important to display personal items sparingly so they dont become clutter.

While items that you dont frequently use shouldnt take up valuable desk real estate, I still like to tailor my space to appeal to my visual side, Fertsch shared. For example, in addition to a productivity-boosting plant, Fertsch keeps a personal desktop calendar, which helps her stay on track throughout the workweek.

Fertsch also recommends choosing personal items that inspire you to be productive. I like to keep a framed photo of my kids on my desk. Theyre the ones that really keep me motivated throughout the day.