Employee satisfaction and motivation are crucial for employers. Prioritizing employees’ needs, including incentives, workload, and workplace environment, directly impacts their performance. Therefore, designing office spaces with a focus on employee well-being is essential for fostering a positive work culture and achieving optimal results.
Find out all about the psychology of office design and how it affects employees’ satisfaction and productivity.
The Undeniable Potential of Psychology of Office Design
Working in a cubicle or the hub of distractions is something every employee hates. This may eventually result in lower productivity and higher turnover, which is unignorable for any organization that successfully aims to operate in the long run.
Psychological fact:
Your attitude towards work is primarily affected by your office workspace design.
Suppose the office design does not favor your employees’ working style and fails to bring the best out of them. In that case, you’ll see a considerable drop in productivity, work quality, and employee satisfaction. This concept is also backed by environmental psychology – the study of how individuals interact with their physical environment.
Environmental Psychology About Workspace Design
Here is what environmental psychology says about workspace design and the environment on employees.
1. Employee Happiness
Your workspace design should inspire your employees and promote positivity in them. One of the most significant factors that affect creativity and happiness is the restriction on where and how they work. Constricted workspaces, confining extroverts in cubicles and introverts in shared offices, can be a significant blow to their morale and enthusiasm. Thereby, it is substantial to make your employees feel comfortable in their workspaces.
2. Productivity
Ventilation, noise pollution, and lighting are factors that you probably already know affect employees’ productivity. But you might be missing out on some less-known aspects like color, layout, flexibility, and function.
For instance, bright colors, mostly orange and yellow, are considered core colors to spur imagination, creativity, and inspiration. Talking about noise, some individuals prefer quiet and peaceful spaces while others require shared spaces for better collaboration.
In this case, devising a general solution can be challenging. Thus, it is better to have a flexible workspace that allows you to cater to every individual’s working style.
3. Attract Good Employees
A good employee looks for a favorable environment that can help him grow and offer his best in return. Thus, the right office environment is essential to attract valuable employees.
Every workspace sports a specific type of vibe, which is visible from its environment and people. That vibe is what potential employees look for when they visit your office for an interview. They picture themselves working in your office and how it would make them feel.
Apart from the fixtures and furniture, they also see how happy or positive your employees about their job and workspace. Therefore, maintain an inspiring and productive workspace design for candidates to accept your employment offer easily.
4. Retain Talent
Companies these days are providing recreational rooms for employees to boost their interest and productivity. For instance, Google’s office has a rooftop garden, a swimming pool, a climbing wall, and several other amenities for its employees’ happiness and satisfaction. Likewise, Foursquare’s office has rooms with various themes to suit different employees’ interests and create a comfortable environment for them.
A lot of corporate offices are also seen placing digital signage for improving communication and boosting employee morale. They can be used to display the success of a project, employees’ performance, and a lot more, all of which improve employees’ motivation.
This is the effective execution of environmental psychology at work. Although, for some old-school employers, it may seem like paying employees to play, creating an enjoyable work environment attracts and retains talent, boost creativity, morale, and innovation – the ultimate ingredients for a company’s growth.
How to Create an Appealing Office Design
You do not necessarily need a pool or a gym to create an attractive workspace design. Instead, it can be done following some simple ways given below.
1. Digital Signage
Better communication and customary appreciation boost employee morale and motivation. One of the easiest and attractive ways to ensure that is through placing digital signage throughout the workspace. You can use them as a quick and easy means of communication that can timely deliver your messages without either of you having to move around. The collaborative environment it creates makes work more manageable than ever before.
Apart from that, you can use digital signage to show how much you care about your employees. Use it to send messages of appreciation for individuals or teams to motivate others—share photos, videos, and achievements to show how proud you are of your people.
You can use it to share progress with your team, set a countdown for a product launch, display your target, give out invitations, and a lot more.
2. Work-Life Balance
Millennials have started to flood the workforce. There’d be hardly any organization around the world without a millennial working in it.
Here is the thing; millennials are more demanding than older generations. One of their most significant demands is work-life balance – experience should equal paycheck. Moreover, millennials feel almost zero trouble changing their job if the workspace does not offer the required comfort.
You can reduce employee retention by giving them a flexible work environment and freedom in working conditions. This will make them feel valued, which will result in an enjoyable workspace.
3. Mindfulness
Furniture, fixtures, lighting, colors, common areas, etc., are some general features of every workspace. However, some offices are still more motivating and conducive to employ work style than others -the sole reason being mindfulness.
When designing your workspace, you have to be mindful of your furniture’s placement, the color of the walls, the heights of the tables, the amount of ventilation, and a dozen other factors. According to a study, natural light boosts productivity more than different types of lights. It also improves mood and enhances creativity. Thus, your office must have enough natural light for your employees.
Bottom line: Psychology of Office Design
The theory behind the psychology of workspace design shows us how to a healthy work environment that ensures talent retention in the long run. Organizations are significantly investing in employees’ comfort and happiness. The simplest way to do that is by maintaining a work-life balance, ensuring a mindful design, and incorporating digital signage.
You can learn more about NexSigns’ Digital Signage solution and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube to get the latest info on digital signage!
