Office Design

Satisfying employee needs is not a trivial concern. Office design influences the attitudes and actions of employees in ways that have important financial consequences for the organization.

Is your office design dull and awkward? Do thoughts of going into work diminish your entrepreneurial spirit? It may be time to consider the relationship between your office design and your productivity. A few simple ideas can go far in boosting your business's efficiency.

Open-minded versus open-plan

For many businesses, the concept of 'office design' means buying some desks, filing cabinets and chairs and squeezing them into their available space. They consider who should sit next to who, provide general lighting and heating/cooling, and that's it. The boss gets a bigger brighter office, probably with his own coffee machine and the reception is made to look pretty because that is what visitors see as they enter the organisation's premises.

But let's not forget why offices exist: to enable employees to work for organizational goals. Employers must ensure that any work environment is well designed and conducive to employee comfort and satisfaction in order to maximize performance in pursuit of those goals. A recent Microsoft Hardware Poll found out that 90% of employees stated their office space design had a direct effect on productivity. Not only can a badly designed office be more disorganised, it can also hurt your health. Injuries related to computer work range from stiff necks and back problems to other more severe conditions.

There is no excuse. You cannot quote financial reasons for a shoddy office space. Furnishings are a small part of the cost of running an organization. The capital and operating costs for buildings account for approximately 8%, while human resources represent approximately 82%. Office design choices are inexpensive and the costs of sound investments in design can be recouped quickly in the form of enhanced occupant satisfaction and performance, and employee retention.

Ergonomics rules

Ergonomics is the study of how a workplace and the equipment used can best be designed for comfort, safety, efficiency, and productivity. Two pieces of office equipment are crucial, says Ellen Kolber, a New York-based ergonomics consultant: first, a firmly cushioned chair on rollers in which everything can be adjusted: seat height and tilt, back angle, and arm rests. "A chair should help you maintain good alignment," she says. Equally important, is an adjustable keyboard tray.

In an office, 80 to 90 percent of all work is done from a seated position. Yet our bodies weren't created to sit for long periods of time and not all body types and posteriors judge comfort the same. Seats should allows workers to constantly move. Feet should be flat on the floor or on a footrest to ensure the back of your knees are slightly higher than your chair seat. The seat height should put thighs parallel to the floor, so the knees are level with or slightly below the hips.

Get the light right

A properly organised office space requires lighting suitable to each task. For optimum lighting, your office needs three types of light: ambient or overhead, natural light from windows, and task light that falls directly on the work surfaces. Only together do these three sources of light chase away shadows, prevent eyestrain and create a productive atmosphere.

Low voltage halogen fixtures aim light exactly where it's wanted and they save energy. Halogen lamps with swivel arms clamp onto furniture or sit on desktops. Track lights with adjustable halogen fixtures also let you spotlight specific areas. If employees spend considerable time on a computer, dim the florescent lights and have a softer background light.

We need to experience nature for the best in psychological and physiological functioning. Natural light is essential for everyone's wellbeing, but it presents the problem of glare. So place computer monitors at a 90-degree angle to a window to reduce glare on the monitor screen. Translucent window blinds or curtains can control glare without disrupting employees' view. Spending long hours in an unnatural environment can be hazardous to anyone's health. Consider nature photos and add real plants to have fresh oxygen in your workspace.

At arm's reach

A better office space design is about making the little things a little bit better. The less movement and twisting the better your productivity will be. Your common office tools should be easily accessible and all regularly used files should be at an arm's reach on your desk. Anyone who talks on the phone while typing needs a headset.

The keyboard must be below the work surface and tilted slightly downward, so the wrists are in a natural, straight position. The elbows should be angled at 90-degrees or greater. The top of the computer screen should tilt to be at eye level when you stare straight ahead. The distance of your eyes to the computer monitor can place additional strain on your eyes and add more fatigue. Most ergonomic experts recommend the screen be at least 24 inches from your eyes.

Your computer monitor continuously repaints the entire image of your screen called a refresh rate, measured in seconds. The faster rates up to a certain point reduce the flickering of the image. A refresh rate set to low can cause eye strain and headaches. Experts recommend a 75 Hz or higher refresh rate.

An open-plan office

Modern workstation design, most especially the dreaded Cube, has often failed to accommodate occupants' needs. Open-plan offices are the subject of many occupant complaints, such as loss of visual privacy, distraction from nearby noise and conversation, and the lack of status markers.

Job functions and work styles vary widely and can result in different furnishing requirements. Some people work best with plenty of horizontal desk space on which to place their files; others prefer to stack files vertically on shelves.

Just as they want their tools and equipment to be close by, employees also like their offices to be located close to others in the same work group. To arrive at a suitable arrangement, planners need to know how groups relate to and interact with one another, and how work flows from one group to another.

Handing over control

Employee participation in office design decisions will allow control and contribute to satisfaction. Allowing staff to customize their environment is an effective way to accommodate the variability in needs and functions. Controls for lighting and ventilation can be put in place to allow occupants to tailor these major environmental conditions to their liking. Giving them this measure of control improves their mood, enhances their creativity and intellectual performance, and leads them to solve interpersonal problems co-operatively. Moreover, if the conditions are so bad as to be stressful, the availability of controls can reduce the ill effects.

Workstation size and boundaries

More than half of professionals' time is spent at the computer and in quiet work requiring concentration, which requires that they not be distracted by unconnected conversations.

Complaints about the size and boundaries of workstations may reflect conflicts between individual needs and management theories. For example, the desire to improve communication leads most organizations in Malta to have no panels or screens around desks. Consider whether this design strategy promotes relevant communication or simply increases unwanted noise and distractions. As the number of people per office rises, environmental satisfaction tends to fall. More people means more possible social interactions, more sources of distraction and less privacy. Avoid designs that place many people in an unbounded area unless the work requires a completely open layout for constant information sharing. Also avoid layouts that require people to pass through an unrelated work group's office space on the way to their own.

Larger workstations assure more privacy and greater environmental satisfaction. There is a middle range of workstation size, between 2.4 m and 3.6 m on a side for which more people are satisfied than dissatisfied. Very large areas result in longer travel distances to shared resources such as printers, and might contribute to feelings of social isolation.

People prefer to be enclosed rather than exposed. A panel around the desk at a height of 1.37m provides visual privacy to the extent that a seated person can't be seen by a seated person next to them, although higher panels are needed to establish good acoustical privacy.

Office with larger space can follow the example of Cisco in the US. Their offices and cubicles were vacant 35% of the time due to heavy use of mobile technology. Now employees set up work areas wherever they are needed in the building, and Cisco says it has raised satisfaction while boosting density. 140 employees are able to work comfortably where 88 would work in a traditional workspace. Hewlett-Packard has introduced a similar scheme, and expects to cut $230 million out of annual occupancy expenses by mid 2007.

Show them you care

In office design, every little thing does count. An important element of business marketing is the branding and image of your company. Successful branding requires you to look and "feel" the brand. An investment in well-built, attractive furniture will pay off in increased comfort and satisfaction. Employees' satisfaction is also increased when designs match their expectations for their positions. Last but not least, regular maintenance and cleaning are important because they influence aesthetic impressions of the space and show regard for employee well-being.

Article prepared by Commercial Services Bureau (CSB) Ltd.

Since 1987, CSB Ltd. has been servicing the local and international business community with its range of employment/recruitment related services. It has helped thousands of employees improve their job conditions and careers, and employers obtain the ideal staff for their organisations.