Beyond the organization of work and the hierarchy within the company, numerous studies have highlighted the importance of the organization of the workspace. Office optimization would have a direct effect on employee performance. This increased efficiency can be explained by a more inspiring working environment. If you wish to take part in a process of improving the working environment of your employees, several possibilities are available to you, between flex office, smart office, open space or even teleworking.
The flex office: make room for flexibility
The transition from theory to practice is not always easy: you have to deal with the constraints of your premises, between lack of space and configuration of the premises. Depending on the size of the premises you occupy as part of your professional activity, your offices may not be adapted to optimal working conditions, and therefore indirectly impact the results of your activity.
Fortunately, there is a solution: flex office. This term of Anglo-Saxon origin designates a flexible work environment: the organization offers total freedom and flexibility to the employee in the layout and choice of their work space.
With the flex office, forget about the place and the assigned office: the employee chooses on a daily basis the place that suits him best according to his tasks for the day, depending, for example, on whether he needs to concentrate on a specific task or focus on collaborative work. Your employees can then choose to settle down in peace and quiet in a office room isolated office, or organize a work session in a meeting room or informally in the cafeteria area.
If flex office is becoming more and more popular, it is because employee performance is really improved. By breaking the monotony of an identical workspace, it allows employees to express themselves freely and find a new breath of inspiration. In addition, studies highlight the collective interest of flex office: perpetual movement allows employees to meet and therefore work better together.
The flex office, however, has a major disadvantage: such a work organization cannot be improvised and requires thinking about the space in advance. Behind flexibility, each space must be clearly demarcated so that your workspace does not become a cacophony.
The smart office, for intelligent premises
The smart office is the exact opposite of the traditional organization of the workspace. Mobility and user experience are in the spotlight: it is no longer the employee who adapts to their workplace but the opposite, the workspace which must adapt to the employee which occupies it through the integration of technological solutions.
By integrating technological solutions into your approach to optimizing your workspaces, you allow your employees to work in the most pleasant working environment possible. With the smart office, air quality, brightness and even thermal comfort are becoming major concerns that have been neglected for too long, even though they directly impact employee productivity.
Open space: putting exchanges at the heart of the work environment
Among modern workspace organizations, open space no longer needs to be introduced. However, it is sometimes presented wrongly, and suffers from a sometimes caricatured image. From a technical point of view, an open space designates a single platform, on which several offices are installed and separated by partitions. The primary advantage is obviously the saving of space since all employees work in a single location.
However, saving space should not be the only approach that motivates the establishment of an open space. It indeed promotes a fusion between employees and the development of a spirit of collaboration at work. The integration process and mutual assistance between colleagues are facilitated by the visual proximity of employees.
Be careful, however, since the strength of open space is also its main weakness: this working environment is not suitable for all sectors of activity. Open space does not allow confidentiality to be maintained and can have a negative impact on employee concentration.
Teleworking: tailor-made organization for your employees
Although teleworking has already existed for several years now with the advent of digital technology, this practice has become profoundly democratized with the Covid-19 crisis. This work organization consists of working on a regular and voluntary basis outside the company's premises. The employee can then choose to work from their residence or from a coworking space.
From a business point of view, this practice has the advantage of freeing up space. The space thus freed up for employees wishing to work from the company's premises can thus be reorganized to offer collaborative work spaces or other relaxation areas.
Teleworking can only be effective if it includes the use of collaborative tools allowing employees working remotely to stay in touch with their colleagues and with office news.
Conclusion
By optimizing your office space, you can hope to gain productivity by choosing the organization best suited to your sector of activity, the size of your company and your current premises.
