Flexible Office Layout Best Design for Maximum Productivity

Before the pandemic, most businesses thought that having a flexible office layout was nothing more than a fancy idea. Most of them didn't even give a thought to it, and some didn't realize how much more fortune they could make if they followed a flexible workspace layout while designing their offices.

Ever since the lockdowns got imposed and people had to practice social distancing, the idea of having a flexible working office started gaining more popularity. Now, almost every successful business is adopting a flexible office design to boost productivity and to make their workspace more user-friendly. It is possible that a flexible working model might be a new idea for you. So, before discussing what aspects of your office layout you are required to evaluate to create a flexible office design, let’s first discuss the flexible working model briefly.

What is a Flexible Work Model?

To make it simple, a flexible work model is the one where you amalgamate different office layout and working hour slots to design a hybrid model, having a hybrid workforce which has various work-style related options at their disposal. Out of those options, they can choose the one that suits their behavior with respect to their work.

Remote working, staggered shifts, offices with several micro hubs, open offices, work hours where the nine-to-five work shift is blurred; all these work-related options are a part of the flexible work model. If you wish to follow the flexible work model at your workplace, you are required to evaluate certain sectors of your current workspace and make the required alterations to design a futuristic flexible workspace.

What Should You Consider When Designing Your Office for Flexible Work?

Once you know the details of a flexible work model, the next step comprises implementation. Now, the implementation part requires your attention towards certain aspects, as we mentioned earlier, that will help you shift to a flexible workspace layout quite swiftly.

Deformalize Your Office Space

The main plus point to having a flexible office design is that it aims to provide a relaxed working environment to your workers so that they can work in peace. The peace at the workplace is greatly associated with the arrangement of your office layout. Having specified workspace for every worker restricts them to their cabin or cubicle. A major drawback of such a traditional workspace layout can be a lack of communication between the employees.

You know how badly ill communication can impact your team and how much a little informal conversation between the employees helps them relate with each other better. You can think of planning an activity-based workspace, where you can think of arranging certain friendly activities to break the ice. One innovative way of using new locations to perform your tasks daily can be to use the office hoteling app.

Comfortable Office Furniture

Diversifying your office furniture can be one way of boosting your employees’ productivity. Not everyone likes sitting on a typical office chair, working for hours, and spending a typical day at the office. Such an environment can be too dull and boring for most of the employees, and hence they will start feeling uninterested in their work.

Nevertheless, if you diversify your office furniture by adding a comfortable sofa or adding relaxing chairs in the cafeteria and in your flexible office layout, you will be able to provide a more vibrant and engaging work experience to your employees.

A nice cafeteria can be a great place for office workers to meet informally yet share their ideas regarding any recent active projects in their departments. Such discussions often make your fun-time productive and make working at the office more fun.

Technology

When planning a flexible office layout, technology comes hand in hand. Having an efficient wireless internet connection and easily accessible charging ports are some of the basics you will need. You have to make office accessories like printers/scanners, photocopiers, and others accessible to a large group of employees so that they can get their job done at its earliest.

Third Places

It is not necessary that you will either need a soundproof private room or meeting rooms for group discussions in your flexible office layout; you should think of having more places to work in different ways to design a flexible workspace layout. Having social gathering spots can be a unique and innovative idea in this regard.

Privacy

Although you are practicing a flexible office design, privacy matters the most. Not every employee likes working in an open office where they have more employee-to-employee interaction, especially if they are introverts.

Some employees find chattering too distracting and cannot concentrate on their work when there are many employees around. So, they need some private corner where they can work peacefully. You can think of installing such cubicles and dividers that can be dismantled on demand for a flexible office layout and allow a worker to separate them from others when they feel like it. Hence, such a collaboration of private and public corners can help you have an ideal workplace balance.

Wrapping It Up

We shared those areas where you can think of doing some innovations and create the ideal flexible office layout to promote productivity. It is not possible that all employees have the same attitude towards work, nor is it like they all have a similar nature, so diversification of workspace and the office furniture can help create an all-rounder workspace that is loved by all sorts of employees.

To ensure that you implement the layout perfectly, you can divide your team into remote and office teams that can help you make your workspace less crowded and allow you to diversify it more. In this case, you will have to follow a hybrid remote work schedule to avoid any inconvenience. Overall, such a flexible working office will help you have a higher profit margin and boost your team’s productivity.