The fact that an employee-friendly office can increase productivity, creativity and satisfaction and thus greatly reduce sick leave is nothing new. But what should the perfect office look like? Opinions often differ on this, but there are a few general points for perfection. In the various types of office in our three Hamburg CS Business Center locations, everything is designed in such a way that our tenants find the greatest possible feel-good factor. In this blog post, I will tell you my experiences of what makes the perfect office.
Employees who sit at a window seat with natural sunlight and a beautiful view are most satisfied. Unlike our business center with its great location and view, unfortunately not every office can offer this luxury. Natural sunlight provides the necessary mood-lightening, more concentration and a sufficient supply of vitamin D. Window seats should be equipped with an anti-glare roller blind so that employees can decide for themselves how much daylight they want to allow. In order to ensure a sufficiently bright office even on cloudy days, powerful ceiling and table lighting should be available.
Whoever comes into an office is mentally already in work mode, more motivated and can start right away, which is a decisive factor for good concentration and high productivity. Home office workers have many sources of distraction such as family, TV or unfinished chores. A perfect office is therefore a place where people work exclusively. In addition, unlike in the home office, the workday and the stress associated with it falls away as soon as you leave the office. A great compromise is, for example, a combination of a home office and a part-time office in a business centre, which you use for two or three days to do the work with the highest level of concentration.
Open-plan offices without real partitions are a nightmare for employees and are further away from the perfect office than any other type of office. Smaller team offices with visual barriers between work islands, on the other hand, are ideal for creative work and inspire teamwork. But individual offices are also needed for concentrated work. So by offering your employees a combination of team office, on-demand individual offices, small meeting room, kitchenette and temporary home office, you maximise not only the effective use of space, but also productivity and satisfaction. With this mix of teamwork, retreats and space for concentrated individual work, as in our Business Center, you offer a large part of what makes a perfect office.
Phone calls, echoes and a noise level that makes it difficult to concentrate prevent pleasant and effective work. As beautiful as wooden floorboards are, a carpet covering insulates sound and absorbs noise. Likewise, murals and cupboards help to absorb sound in the room. In larger team offices, covered partitions between the work islands help to reduce noise. Where there is a lot of phone calls, acoustic panels on the ceiling and walls also provide great noise protection. For particularly noise-sensitive employees, noise-canceling headphones are a useful gadget for perfect offices.
Most employers want tidy, minimalist workplaces for their employees so that they can be staffed in rotation if necessary. Employees, on the other hand, want a personal touch at their workplace. Finding the balance here is not easy, but it is feasible. A handful of personal items on the desk can increase the feel-good factor and thus the motivation of the employees at your workplace. With changing staffing, lockers or personal mobile containers are a great way to give everyone a portable and quickly assembled and disassembled individual design option. Plenty of storage space in the form of cupboards or sideboards not only provides excellent sound insulation, but also creates space to manoeuvre and breathe.
Cable clutter not only looks daunting, but is also a dangerous tripping hazard. Keep order by laying cables under the flooring and cable ducts. To avoid staff frustration, the Internet should be powerful and stable throughout the office. In addition, employees should be able to access the Internet using both WLAN and LAN cables.
The office tea kitchen is not only the place to stock up on coffee, tea and lunch, but also a meeting place for short breaks, which non-smokers in particular appreciate. It has been shown that small coffee breaks increase productivity, work morale and the flow of information between employees. Likewise, the office kitchen as a place for a lunch together can promote team spirit and social interaction between your employees.
The perfect office is not only optimally designed and furnished from the inside, but is also in the ideal location.
The office should be easily accessible for employees by public transport. Employees who have to change trains several times on the way to the office and have a very long journey to get there will be stressed even before they start work. This has a negative effect on the atmosphere in the office as well as on productivity. In addition, parking facilities for cars & bicycles should also be created so that employees are not restricted to just one way of getting to the office.
A perfect office always has a central location, not only because of the optimal transport connections, but also because of the design options for the lunch break, such as a large selection of take-out restaurants, supermarkets and bakeries for lunch together in the office, as well as opportunities to leave the office for lunch in a restaurant or café. A relaxing walk to get your thoughts in order is also essential, which is why a cold industrial area will not achieve the satisfaction factor that an office in an attractive environment can offer.
The perfect office par excellence does not exist, but if you implement some of my suggestions and involve your employees in the design, you can redesign your offices accordingly. Alternatively, you can of course use the perfect offices of our CS Business Center in the Hamburg locations with their central locations and customize them with a few simple steps. I would be happy to show you our individual and team offices in HafenCity, Rotherbaum and Stadthöfe to help you find your perfect temporary office.
I wish you much success and stay healthy!
With kind regards
Your Christian Schmidt
