You’ll find several roads to consider for boosting productivity at your business, with many companies focusing on upgrading software and equipment in the office. Making changes as simple as painting the walls a different color can improve your office aesthetic. You don’t need to overhaul everything you’ve built to create an engaging and comfortable workspace.
Whether you’ve moved into a new corporate office space or want to spruce up your current location, knowing your options for a new office aesthetic is critical. It’s the first step toward creating a safe and productive space for your employees to thrive.
Luckily, you’ve found this helpful guide to the tips you can use to improve your office aesthetic. Continue reading to make beneficial changes to your office’s layout and interior design today!
1. Create Activity-Based Spaces
The traditional office layout designates desks and areas for each employee. Desks and chairs should be in proper spaces, hemming your employees into specific office regions during the typical workday. The restricted movement damages productivity and creative thinking in your office.
An office with an activity-based layout provides multiple spaces where employees can work. The best spaces for this idea are expansive and open. Allowing employees to use their devices to connect to the business’s network and resume work operations is also beneficial.
It’s an excellent idea to try if most of your employees use laptops and tablets to complete work tasks. Use that flexibility to provide a unique, restraint-free work environment where your employees can grow and thrive.
2. Add Greenery to the Office Aesthetic
Greenery provides several benefits for your employees when working at the office. An office with small trees and plants will benefit your employees by reducing stress. The stress reduction your plants provide will increase focus and productivity for individuals working in your corporate office.
It’s also an excellent way to eliminate the oppressive grayness of many office spaces. The plants will add a green splash to each office corner.
Another benefit of adding plants to your office aesthetic is oxygen production. Many plants will work as a natural air purifier to ensure your employees have excellent air quality.
Trees provide several benefits for your office aesthetic and employees. Humans feel more relaxed when seeing and being around trees. The brain associates trees with agriculture and peaceful weather, and you can add trees to create the ideal workspace.
3. Get Artistic
Art provides hope, inspiration, and happiness to those who look at it. It’s a splash of color added to a world of gray. If you’re committed to boosting your office aesthetic, look for stunning pieces of art you can place around the office to add color.
Reporting to a gray cubicle every day is no one’s highlight of the day. It’s an oppressive space that wears you down and prevents you from experiencing happiness and high energy levels. Avoid designing a mundane office by placing paintings, prints, and sculptures around your office.
It’s an investment that won’t turn a dead-end job into someone’s dream career but will add enough life and color to make your workspace enjoyable. You’ll lighten the mood during each workday and inspire creativity in your employees.
4. Allow Natural Sunlight
The best workspaces have large windows to allow plenty of natural sunlight to enter. It’s an overlooked aspect of working in an office, but time spent indoors results in a lack of Vitamin D. Low Vitamin D levels result in less energy and increased feelings of depression.
You can overcome this challenge by changing your office’s interior design to allow natural light to spread. Eliminate unnecessary obstacles and barriers blocking sunlight from reaching your workspace’s inner parts.
Exposure to natural sunlight will boost energy levels and help your employees sleep better when returning home after a day at the office. It’s also a way to reduce your dependence on artificial lighting to illuminate your workspace. You’ll save money and help the environment while boosting productivity.
5. Optimize Your Artificial Lighting
It’s worthwhile to upgrade your workspace’s lighting for the areas where natural sunlight doesn’t reach. Artificial lighting is also crucial to provide light to your employees during evenings and nights at the office. It’s a factor that alters the mood and productivity of your employees, and it’s a worthy upgrade if you can fit it into your budget.
You can also hamper production by using the incorrect lightbulbs and placing lights in the wrong areas of your workspace. Avoid using bright fluorescent lights for your workspace. Many people report increased fatigue, headaches, and other issues from these lights.
Dim lighting has the opposite effect on your employees. It can result in fatigue and a lack of motivation. It’s best to find a happy medium between the two options to create soft and comfortable lighting.
6. Upgrade Your Office Equipment
Upgraded office equipment is a significant step toward boosting comfort for your employees during their time in the workplace. Developing new ideas to grow the brand is challenging when you can’t find a comfortable way to sit in your office chair.
If you’re looking for effective ways to change your office aesthetic, office furniture is one of the first places to start. It’s an overlooked part of your office’s design, with many businesses using old and outdated desks and chairs. Low-quality chairs result in poor posture and neck and back problems for your employees.
Shop for ergonomic chairs and desks when upgrading your workspace. Keyboards and mouses are another thing to upgrade to enhance the work experience for your employees. Ask your employees about their preferences, and discover if any want standing desks to avoid sitting too long at the office.
Ergonomic office furniture increases productivity and reduces the risk of repetitive stress injuries. You’ll encourage your employees to use better posture when sitting or standing. The best part is that ergonomic office furniture adds to your office aesthetic and costs the same as standard office furniture.
7. Prioritize Space Management
Space management is a hot topic for business owners and managers looking for any way to get more from their employees. Entire books have been dedicated to the subject. It’s an investment in your office aesthetic that provides several employee benefits.
You can start by going through your workspace and designating things as clutter or essentials for your business operations. Eliminating clutter helps by opening more spaces to help employees breathe and feel less cagey.
It’s a small change, but you’ll be impressed by the change in mood and productivity resulting from more open space. Study your office and apply its space management principles to use customization to benefit your brand’s employees.
8. Avoid Using Printers
Some business functions require printers to produce documents and reports. Most instances allow for paperless sharing and collaboration in modern offices. Not only are printers large and bulky, but they’re often loud and annoying when operating.
Printing an excessive number of pages is distracting to the other employees around you. Encourage your employees to use the office printer on an as-needed basis. You’ll create a productive and comfortable environment where everyone can focus on the task.
It’s also a waste of paper, which harms the environment and takes more money from your business’s budget. Work with your employees to devise a plan to limit printer and paper use. It’s a step toward improving the office aesthetic and encouraging a peaceful work environment.
9. Create a Walking Space
Walking is an excellent way to move the body and blood during the workday. Hours spent sitting or standing at a desk will cause your body to tighten up and experience tension and stress. A walking area will designate a space where employees can take a break and be active before returning to their chosen work area.
It’s also one of the best ways to get the creative juices flowing. If you hit a rut with your innovative thinking, having a space to walk and take a break will help you return to the project feeling rejuvenated and ready to roll.
Most workspaces need to provide an area for employees to walk. The result is staying stagnant with movement and ideas or pacing up and down the aisle like a mentally unstable individual. Pacing will distract other employees and limit progress on tasks and projects.
If you lack the space to create a designated walking area, consider using a small room to place treadmills and other walking machines. Your employees will have a space where they can go to get moving and come up with new ideas to grow the company. Treadmills with standing desk additions are the best of both worlds.
10. Build a Brainstorming Center
Many office spaces have a conference room for hosting meetings between employees and departments, but few have a brainstorming center. Brainstorming sessions and meetings are critical to the future of your company. It’s these areas where new ideas are shared, and collaboration begins.
You can spark innovation and inspiration in your employees when you have a space to write down goals and share action plans to reach them. Find and build a space where your employees can gather and share ideas openly and freely.
A large whiteboard and projector are excellent equipment to add to the space. Your employees can communicate their thoughts and ideas through presentations in the brainstorming center.
Find a spot that is close to the workspaces your employees prefer using. You want the migration process to use the least time possible to avoid delays and distractions to other employees.
The proximity makes planning and calling a surprise meeting or brainstorming session a walk in the park. It won’t throw a wrench into anyone’s plans, and your employees will assemble to determine the next big move for your brand.
11. Eliminate Clutter
Clutter is an unnecessary part of a workspace, though many managers and business owners allow it to collect and grow. The logic behind a stocked and full office boosting production makes sense on paper, but in practical situations, it will distract your employees and create feelings of claustrophobia.
The same principle applies to fancy furniture sprinkled throughout the office. Many businesses tend to overload the office with items and pieces of equipment that aren’t needed. These items could look pleasant, but they create a crowded and stressful work environment for your employees.
Ensure your office’s decor and equipment aren’t creating traffic jams and lack walkways. You’ll improve workflows by creating large open spaces to walk and work.
Walk the office and remove any items that aren’t needed for your brand’s growth. Liquidate items that have value to supplement your business’s cash flow or donate them to individuals in need.
12. Limit the Distractions
Distracting your employees is the number one way to quell productivity and stall creative thoughts. As mentioned with the printer, several things will detract from your employees’ focus during a day at the office. Loud noises and too many TVs in the office will attract eyes and ears.
It may result in some employees feeling overstimulated or seeking a different area in the workspace to sit and focus. These additions to your office aesthetic will look beautiful and impressive to visitors, but they will make the office a source of stress for the employees who spend hours there daily.
If you install TVs for your activity-based office aesthetic, consider leaving them on a static image when not in use. Use a brainstorming map or checklist to boost output while limiting distractions. It’s the best way to provide employees entertainment to decompress when on break without creating a distracting environment.
Take Steps to Boost Your Office Aesthetic Today
Changing your office aesthetic is a step into the modern business environment, and it’s an excellent way to show employees they’re valued, seen, and heard. Incorporate plants and trees in your interior design to limit stress and provide clean air. Upgrade office furniture to enhance comfort and good posture, and choose an office color that promotes productivity and positive energy.
Taking your business to new heights begins with finding ways to get the best from your employees. Explore our Offices content for more tips and tricks for your office design today!