Commercial interior design includes different considerations than traditional home design. In addition to how you design each office, you’ll also consider communal spaces, flow, and how you’ll tailor the design to each employee’s individual needs. In addition to designing a space that your employees feel comfortable and happy working in, there are tangible design decisions that you can make to boost overall productivity. Below, we’ll highlight some of our favorites.
1. Moderate Noise
Excess noise is distracting to most. Luckily, adding acoustic cloud panels will knock out noise throughout any room. Furthermore, they’re highly customizable and can be tailored to the vibe of your office. For private offices, the partition for offices should be glass to contribute to flow and teamwork while giving noise-canceling benefits and privacy.
2. Incorporate Color
Too many neutrals make the space feel bland and boring. Color choice is essential, as each color has proven psychological benefits. For example, bright reds and oranges make you feel more alert, blue is more relaxing, and green promotes growth and stability. This isn’t to say that you should be painting an entire wall one of these colors, but consistently incorporating accents can go a long way.
3. Organization & Storage
A cluttered office will lead to cluttered minds. With that being said, there’s a fine line between organized and hospital-sterile. There are tons of sleep and luxurious storage cabinets, drawer organizers, and filing cabinets that will make your space look more elite whilst serving a practical purpose.
4. Add Greenery
Adding live plants to space has proven psychological benefits - one study has found that incorporating indoor plants has the ability to reduce stress in workers by up to 50% by increasing their sense of wellbeing. Furthermore, the plants contribute positively to the air quality in the space.
5. Offer Standing Desks
Remaining seated for the entire duration of the workday is damaging to your eyes, body, and productivity. Standing desks allow workers to improve blood circulation throughout the day, leading to higher creativity and a boost in productivity. This offering also shows that you’re supportive of your employee’s health, leading to increased trust between the two parties.
6. Increase Flow
Putting employees in rows or separated spaces cuts communication and can be damaging to productivity. A sense of community will increase overall productivity and encourage teamwork that helps projects move along more quickly, and there are tons of modern office partitions that will give everyone their own space without cutting off the office into boxes. This can also be seen through increased attention to designing communal spaces where employees can gather and work together. Even an addition such as a coffee shop or ping pong table will encourage employees to stay at work longer while fostering relationships with other people in the office, leading to boosts in productivity.
Any of these switches will undoubtedly lead to an increase in productivity in your commercial building. These design swaps will make your employees feel supported by their employer, leading to increased trust, improved company culture, and a spike in productivity.
Matt Lee is the owner of the Innovative Building Materials blog and a content writer for the building materials industry. He is focused on helping fellow homeowners, contractors, and architects discover materials and methods of construction that save money, improve energy efficiency, and increase property value.
