Whilst moving offices or undertaking a full refurbishment is a great step forward for your business, you only get the opportunity once every few years.
In the meantime, it is essential that your office remains a vibrant work environment in order to motivate staff, attract new talent an grow your business.
There are a number of simple things you can do in your office to ensure it is a great place to work without blowing your capital expenditure budget on an office fit out.
We have outlined a few here:
1. Introduce a more flexible work timetable
The days of working 9 to 5 are, for most of us, over.
Today, we recognise the importance of achieving goals and targets in a work day, and in theory, as long as these are met, there is no need to stay at work.
It’s also important to recognise the proverbial ‘work-life balance’, which may enable some staff members to start at 4.00 am and finish at noon, while others may prefer to start at noon and finish at 8.00 pm (extremes I know, but it should be a consideration).
Because at the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter when the staff come or go if they are achieving their goals.
2. Provide a free lunch once a week
This is a very simple exercise – provide a communal staff lunch once a week.
A staff lunch enables staff to feel valued, it allows greater interaction between staff, and above all it provides your staff with a ‘value added’ benefit that is not necessarily reflected in their wage.
3. Exercise at work
Exercise is seen as essential to humans performing at their best output. Why not allow for it and encourage it at work?
This could be done through either having fitness equipment on your site, or through having a competition amongst your staff for how many kilometres walked per week, or how many steps per day.
4. Have a game competition
Table tennis, air hockey, darts – a bit of lighthearted activity at morning tea and lunch time to promote a sense of community is a great way to keep staff engaged.
Hold a monthly competition to keep up staff enthusiasm, and tie participation in the competition to achievement of a work goal. There’s nothing like a bit of friendly competition to keep the staff motivated!
5. Instigate a culture of learning and sharing
Encourage your staff to develop and learn deeply about their area of expertise in general and how it applies to your business in particular.
And don’t just finish there – hold a weekly forum where the staff members can share their newly acquired knowledge!
The best way to learn something is to teach it to others, so not only will your staff grow together, they will become absolute experts in their respective fields.
6. Set aside a small budget for minor aesthetic changes every year
A change is as good as a holiday.
So making small changes around your office every few months to create a novelty for your staff is important.
And allow your staff to choose how it is spent.
This could include painting a quiet room a particular colour, or buying a new comfortable sofa.
When it comes to painting or other very minor works, it could be a great opportunity for some of your staff to get in there together and create something themselves.
7. Share around minor responsibilities
Include as many people as possible in the minor administration tasks to ensure they feel part of the team.
It could be as simple as being the staff member responsible for switching the lights off.
If you wanted to get very technical, you could come up with a list of responsibilities and have elections for each portfolio every month.
A few portfolios could include the Tidy Desk Minister, Table Tennis Minister, Energy Minister, Waste Minister…the list goes on.
Over to you…
With this in mind, you are now in a great position to ensure your office is a great place to work.
Implement a few of these inexpensive ideas and reap the benefits of an engaged workforce, becoming an employer of choice and expanding your business.
For assistance with implementing a strategy, book a free strategy session with one of our consultants.
In the constantly evolving world of workplace design, there’s been a significant shift towards creating spaces that not only inspire but also foster the elusive state of “flow.” This concept, once primarily associated with artists and athletes, is now recognised as the pinnacle of productivity and well-being in the contemporary office environment.
The human mind excels in identifying patterns, always searching for organisation and meaning in our surroundings. This natural inclination is the reason we see faces in the clouds or recognise common forms amidst nature’s irregularities — our brains are programmed to impose structure on disorder.
This intriguing feature of human observation is central to the study of Gestalt psychology, which investigates the way we perceive and arrange the visual information around us.
In the quest to create more meaningful and productive work environments, the concept of psychogeography offers a fresh perspective, urging designers and organisations to consider the psychological underpinnings of office spaces.
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