Tired of walking into the same old offices with the same old design? If it’s gotten to the point where it’s bothering even you, you can bet it’s affecting your employees as well. Here are five simple yet effective ways to breathe new life into your professional station.
1. Let The Light In
If the only glow your employees receive comes from their computer screens, it’s time to open the windows and let the sunshine inside. Ditch the blinds and replace them with light, airy curtains instead, easily opened when the weather is nice. Encourage your people to enjoy the view during their breaks and downtime. You may also want to consider the type of artificial lighting you have in your building. Shabby lighting can suck the life out of you and your employees.
2. Tear Down the Cubicles
The very picture of office banality, cubicles are the bane of every worker stuck in the daily grind. It’s time to embrace a new age of communication and openness by eliminating cubicles and allowing your employees to exchange ideas without walls. Set up work spaces rather than cubicles. Not only will it encourage productivity and creative thinking, but the redesign will completely transform your work space, too. Let your team be a team and tear down those walls. As an added bonus, work spaces can actually save you space as well.
3. Add A Little Color
Every business could use some color, whether it’s from a fresh coat of paint or a brand new carpet in muted tones. If you don’t want to take the risk on something that permanent, consider adding paintings to the walls or comfy couches in your employees’ leisure areas. The hows aren’t as important as the whys: Colors have a psychological component that improves moods, increases efficiency, and perks up lifeless offices. Variety of colors can also be a great thing, if done right. You can add accent walls by painting one or two a different color than the others.
4. Upgrade The Kitchen
In terms of where the average worker spends most of their time, the kitchen comes second only to their desks. Remodeling this area will have a significant impact on morale, especially if you offer a better refrigerator or more high-powered coffee maker. Cleanliness is another issue: if you can pay your regular cleaning staff an additional fee to add the microwave to their daily scrub-downs, you’ll have the love and gratitude of everyone under your employment.
5. Install New Tile
Give your offices a complete makeover by replacing your floors, walls, or ceilings with tile. Porcelain tile will evoke starkness and modernity; mosaic tiles will add flair to hip work spaces; ceramic tiles will send your secretaries industriously clicking down the halls. Just make sure you buy high-quality materials from a reputable company, like Tile Mega Mart and others; this will keep maintenance and installation costs down.
6. Add Artwork
Paintings, ceramics, and sculptures can add that extra element of class to an office that makes it stand out from others. You don’t have to break the bank, necessarily, but adding a vase, print, or painting immediately changes the building’s atmosphere. Great art subjects for offices include images of nature, and other relaxing, peaceful scenes. You can also choose pieces that relate to whatever industry you are in.
7. Precise Landscaping
Even if your building’s interior is marvelous, a shabby landscaping can severely impact how customers judge your business. Make sure to add plenty of trees, shrubs, and flowers, and hire professional landscapers to maintain the property. Having the plant life does you no good if you don’t maintain them. Consider wood chips or woven landscaping tarps to minimize weed growth.
If you’re ready to remodel your offices and rejuvenate your employees, these are just a few ways of turning a major reconstruction into a few simple modifications. Add art, new paint, plants and trees, and rethink your work space and kitchen setups. Good luck!
