You probably spend as much time in your office as you do at home, which is why it’s very important that you and your colleagues and/or subordinates feel completely comfortable there. Bland or impractical interior design can make the workday needlessly more exhausting, sap the energy of the team, and negatively affect productivity.
Fortunately, you can fix this with a moderate investment if you use the money wisely and ‘borrow’ some ideas that were proven to work in offices of similar size. To help you with this important task, we list some renovation and refurbishment possibilities that everyone will be thrilled to see.
Add More Natural Light with Skylight Windows
Artificial light is heavy on the eyes and it eats up electricity, which pushes the upkeep costs higher. Relying on natural sunlight as much as possible is a much better alternative, but you might have to get creative to achieve this. Your windows may not be enough, so you should consider installing a skylight on the roof if the basic office layout allows it. That way, sun can shine down on your office vertically during daytime and get far more natural light in than would be possible through wall-mounted windows alone. Of course, this can only be done on the top floor of a building.
Get Rid of Dusty Carpets and Upholstery
Let’s face it – carpets are so 80s and they are obsolete both aesthetically and in a practical sense. They tend to collect particles of dust that are hard to remove and require deep cleaning every couple of months. There are many floor solutions that can effectively replace carpets and eliminate the downsides associated with them. The same applies to old-fashioned furniture with upholstery (i.e. sofas or armchairs), which can be substituted with items made of materials that are less demanding for cleaning and maintenance, but equally comfortable and long lasting. These changes will also have a beneficial impact on the health of your workforce, reducing absenteeism and medical insurance costs.
Put Up a Green Wall to Improve Air Quality
There are multiple advantages of having plants inside your office, ranging from more natural look and feel to higher oxygen concentration in the air. Instead of placing pots all around the building, you can put up a green wall and use it to divide the space into multiple sections. A vertical solution of this kind lets you save space while allowing for a lot of greenery, and it’s getting increasingly popular in larger offices. These days it’s not hard to find green wall solutions with integrated irrigation and fertilisation, so once you install the structure you don’t really have to do much to keep it in perfect condition. As an added bonus, a green wall looks very sleek and positions your company as a progressive-thinking, eco-friendly place to work.
Buy New Ergonomic Chairs for Deskbound Workers
Spending all day hunched over a computer is certainly not healthy, and can lead to serious injury over a long period. Some employees can’t avoid sitting at a desk for long hours daily, but at least they can have ergonomic chairs that support the body and keep it in a natural position. If you contact a local Glasgow office design company with such a request, you will have an excellent choice of models. It’s not about getting the most expensive or the most stylish chairs – it’s really about investing in your workers and ensuring they are capable of withstanding the rigors of office work.
Create Soundproof Conference Rooms
Noise can be a serious issue in shared workspaces, making it difficult for everyone to focus on their tasks and perform at a high level. In particular, meetings can sometimes get very loud and distract team members who are not participating in them. To solve this issue, you should designate specific rooms for meetings and use sound isolation to muffle the sound of the discussion. Again, this is not a very expensive adjustment and it can be implemented with minimum disruption to your normal work process, while the impact of the refurbishment can be felt across the company. People inside the room can stop worrying about being too loud, while those on the outside won’t have to listen to discussions they are not intended to hear.
Install Occupancy Sensors to Save Energy
Smart technology is becoming essential for efficient business management, and companies in all lines of work are moving towards its adoption. One way to benefit from it is by turning off the lights and heating in parts of the building where no employees are currently residing. By automating occupancy detection and tying it to the electricity switches, your office can become more sustainable both ecologically and financially. On top of that, the employees can stop worrying about killing the lights of shutting doors when they leave an area, so they have more time and mental energy to do more important things. In other words, smart buildings make life easier for both employers and workers while also protecting the planet – a definition of a win-win situation.