Within any company, a good organization of the workspaces makes it possible to optimize the performances of the employees. When the workspaces are not well managed, they can spend hours searching for key documents, lose concentration, tire more quickly and experience stress or anxiety.
Since these different elements are not likely to promote employee productivity, companies must ensure that they properly manage their workspaces. However, the workspace management within an organization is not a task to be taken lightly.
It can be quite difficult to achieve, especially in companies with a large number of employees. To successfully manage your organization’s workspaces, it’s important to know how to go about it.
Analyze the current use of company workspaces
In relation to the number of people authorized, it is then necessary to find out whether there are more or less people actually on the premises. Once this data is known, try to equitably share the available places between all employees. To this end, the use of a workspace management software solution such as SHARVY is highly recommended.
It is also very important to observe how the different areas laid out in your working environment are occupied by your employees. The idea is to find out if they use more collaboration rooms, individual offices or areas provided for relaxation.
By way of illustration, if employees prefer to work on sofas instead of enjoying a suitable table, it is important to ask them why. This type of space may be more suitable for your employees than individual offices with a simple desk and chair.
Take into account the specific needs of employees
How you use your framework doesn’t just depend on your industry. It also depends on the type of environment that promotes the productivity of your employees.
As part of the management of your workspaces, be sure to know the needs of your team members. For this, you will necessarily have to collect their opinions.
Begin this process by letting them know you want to make your work environment more productive and enjoyable for them. Once this is done, proceed to collection of reviews.
In fact, it is possible to collect the opinions of the members of your work team in different ways. In order to know their real needs, you can ask them directly what they think of the current use of workspaces and what they think is lacking. Alternatively, you can simply send them online questionnaires.
Regardless of the collection method you choose, be sure to question your employees about the type or form of workspace they prefer. For more details, do not hesitate to ask them the level of intimacy that suits them for better concentration and the tools they need.
By proceeding in this way, you will be able to identify more easily the real expectations of the members of your team and to have an idea of the adjustments to be made in the working environment. For example, if your employees prefer to work in peace and quiet, provide isolated work environments for them.
Otherwise, opt for the development of spaces conducive to joint work. In this way, you show your team members that you care about their well-being.
Delineate workspaces within the organization
Once you have clearly identified the needs of your employees, move on to reformatting workspaces. The main objective of this step is to optimize your workspaces so that they are practical, functional and above all pleasant for the members of your team.
To do this, make sure you first create and define the different spaces corresponding to the needs of the employees. These include:
- individual spaces;
- shared spaces;
- meeting spaces;
- and relaxation areas.
These different spaces are to be fitted out according to the real needs of the employees and the company.
Individual spaces
THE individual spaces or offices are intended for employees who feel better in this type of setting. To improve the productivity of your employees, it is advisable to equip these environments with a certain number of basic equipment. These include lighting, office and storage furniture as well as access to a quality internet connection.
Shared spaces
The appearance of new working methods has led companies to adapt by integrating new standards in order to make their working environments more flexible and user-friendly.
This mutation results for example in theoffice layout in an open space and without partitions (shared or collective workspace). Easy to set up, shared or collective workspaces require less equipment and facilitate interactions between employees.
Meeting and relaxation areas
For the meeting spaces, their layout will depend on criteria such as the total area of the setting, the maximum number of people to accommodate and the personal space of the employees. Meeting spaces must be equipped with quality meeting furniture and suitable work tools.
As to relaxation areas, they allow employees to rest, to take a break after a moment of stress, to discuss and to forge links between them. So arrange them as well as possible.
For example, you can equip these spaces with suitable furniture (sofas, coffee tables) and provide your teams with hot or refreshing drinks. You can also there set up a fun corner to allow employees to discuss and develop team spirit.
Ensure the accessibility of the various equipment located in the work areas
The idea is to make available to each Work zone quality tools andestablish clear rules for their use. This equipment must be well maintained and regularly updated. Thus, employees will be able to work more efficiently and be more productive.
Furthermore, it may be interesting toadd remote work tools in your work environment for temporary disability situations or periods of working from home. To allow your employees to communicate with employees of a foreign company, consider installing videoconferencing tools.
Finally, don’t forget to have technical assistance to ensure the proper functioning of the various tools made available to your team. So set up a small IT support team. It will also be responsible for responding to employees’ concerns and training them.
Assign seats to employees in workspaces
The allocation of a precise place to each employee is essential in the sense that it makes it possible toavoid morning conflicts that arise when an employee unknowingly occupies a colleague’s space. If for some reason you don’t want to do this, put in place a practical way to avoid disputes related to the occupation of workstations.
For example, you can opt for seat reservations by creating a reservation platform accessible to all employees. If you opt for this solution, establish booking rules clear.
Pay attention to communication between employees
Pour avoid disputes between employees who will live together in your workspaces, encourage them to interact with each other. For this, it is essential to fit out within your spaces a common relaxation room as well as meeting rooms. These spaces are conducive to exchanges between employees and facilitate cohabitation between them. However, it is not enough to provide meeting spaces for employees. It’s necessary encourage them to share on their knowledge and to get to know each other better so that they can bond and develop good working relationships.
Set up rules for the maintenance of workspaces
The cleanliness of work areas is a point not to be overlooked within any company. In general, the cleanliness of the premises of a company is ensured by a team of professional cleaners.
However, do not hesitate to raise awareness and empower your employees so that they too contribute to the cleanliness of the working environment. To do this, define a number of effective maintenance protocols. You can for example recommend that employees systematically throw away food packaging or prohibit them within the framework of work.
Note also that Sharvy has just published a white paper on the subject, to download the white paper in question, click on this link https://www.sharvy.com/project/8-regles-dor-pour-reussir-votre-transition-vers-le-flex-office-livre-blanc/
