Modern office design emphasizes communication and efficiency
The traditional use of office space could be coming to an end as progressive companies open up their layouts to meet business communication demands and the needs of their employees.
At one time, companies would construct their offices to suit their hierarchy, said Alita Webster, director of sales at Young Office.
The presidents and CEOs would hold the larger offices while middle management occupied the smaller workplaces, she said. During the 1960s, an open office format began to appear to maximize office communication and real estate utilization.
Webster said the use of office space is based on the communication needs of a company.
“We now look at how companies share information and how people work,” she said. “At one time, it was very cookie-cutter and people did the same things in the same places.”
Trends in modern office design are intended to improve efficiency while maximizing the combined efforts of a company’s staff. With people being closer together and easier to access, the new office provides a more productive method of sharing information, Webster said. Listening to others can open the door to additional conversation and allow the collective whole to become the solution to a problem.
“We have multiple generations in the office now, so being able to share knowledge in a variety of settings is possible in an opened office space,” she said.
In addition to improving staff-wide communication, the modern office includes aspects of well-being. At the end of the day, companies want their employees to leave healthier than when they came in that morning, Webster said.
Desks are adjustable so people have the option to sit or stand, she said. Adjustable stools that force the body to sit straight with adequate core support are also available.
Webster said the modern office reduces the number of walls by utilizing storage utilities such as filing cabinets and bookshelves to divide space.
Conference rooms can be informal with lowered desks and relaxed chairs, she said. Break rooms, once cut off from the rest of the office, are now integrated into the new layout to encourage interaction.
The modern workplace also incorporates embedded technology to improve the pace of communication. The rigid cookie-cutter layouts are being replaced with a new design created to improve the efficiency of a company’s workforce, and the open formats and embedded technology are aspects of this change, Webster said.
In order to maximize the efficiency throughout an organization, it is important to identify the business goals and objectives of a company, she said. By offering a larger palette of settings for people to meet and opening the format, a company can achieve high results.
Webster said the trends in office space have become evident in the Upstate over the last decade.
“People are now beginning to look at how they organize their space to better suit their business demands,” she said. “There are still companies and industries leaning on the traditional format, but we are seeing more companies evaluate their environment to improve their productivity.”
