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The premises your business can occupy come in all shapes and sizes – from historic buildings to modern glass skyscrapers and everything in between.It’s a fact that the environment that we work in definitely influences our behavior, productivity, mental and physical wellbeing and your mood, so good office design is something which needs to be carefully considered. You pay a lot in leasing costs, so it’s important to ensure that the space suits your needs and enhances your capabilities. Each square foot needs to work hard to deliver what you need. So what factors do you really need to consider when it comes to designing an office space which delivers?

Fostering Concentration

You and your team need to be able to focus in order to get the job done, but this need is also balanced with other requirements – such as space to be creative, work as a team or to relax in between tasks. It can be a hard call to get all these elements working in harmony, so looking at some office interior solutions which enable these different working modes can help. Whether it’s including sound proof pods where people can take confidential or noisy calls, or providing modular seating which can be reconfigured easily to suit different working groups and meetings, there are ways to design a space which is flexible enough to suit all your needs. It has been shown in a study that up to 28% of each employee’s working day can be lost to needless interruptions, so using good design can help to minimize this and get everyone back on track.

Enabling Communication

Just as important is ensuring that your ways of working are supported by your office environment. So if you go in for scrums, pretzel meetings and sprint reviews, you’re going to need the right space to accommodate that. Designated areas for discussion can include helpful things such as videoconferencing stations, interactive whiteboards and tables and seating which can be moved around to accommodate different group sizes.

Recharging And Relaxation

It may seem counter-productive to consider this amongst wanting people to maintain productivity, but enabling appropriate relaxation and screen breaks is actually the best way to keep your company on track. When people have a separate area where they can properly relax, they are able to decompress and refocus their minds on the next task at hand, and overall they will perform far better. So think about providing a breakout room with space to eat, rest and discuss away from desks. Including some real plants also helps to mentally promote a state of comfort by making people feel close to nature, and also filters the air in a natural way. You should also consider providing some little touches such as a lending library or complimentary fresh fruit  – anything which is geared towards the health and wellbeing of your employees is worth some consideration. If people are happier and healthier then your employee retention rates increase and there are less sick days, so it benefits everyone.