As the pandemic has brought changes at about work levels, it is imperative that the return-to-work environments has to be accompanied by motivation and leadership from the company that are up to the task. In this sense, maintaining a modern office that creates an inspiring environment and a balanced office design can be key elements that keep up the constant enthusiasm of the employees in order to accomplish the objectives established. Human talent is a very precious commodity. Keeping workers motivated will not only improve their productivity, but will increase their commitment to the company.

To have an attractive office design, a very important element is the space distribution. It is essential that everyone has their own space for individual work. If part of the staff works at home, it is also compulsory to provide them with tools so that they can work at ease.

In addition, in order to facilitate an unforced exchange of ideas and spontaneous information, it’s a good idea to hold spaces for casual encounters. This kind of spaces should relax, be cozy and informal at the same time, with sofas and home ideas. Last but not least, it is also worth highlighting the spaces for teamwork. It would be interesting to separate them from meeting rooms or formal meetings with clients to avoid employees feeling attached. A semicircular design with relocatable furniture would be ideal.

Are you a good leader?

Have you thought about proposing courses or training for your workers? Henry Ford already said it at the beginning of the 20th century: “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” Constant training as a review of your job is essential for your professional and personal development.

Employees often seek professional growth. Something that we often overlook is valuing their work. Have the workers reached the objectives, finished a project, proposed a good idea? Let them know. Beyond treating them with respect, make them feel valued to contribute to the aforementioned motivation. Beyond that, the salary should be something reviewable and progressive, linked to the productivity of the worker himself.

Flexibility

As with the idea of ​​space, the schedule is also somewhat that should be customizable. Home and work conciliation is basic. Apart from that, if you trust in the organizational capacity of the employees, why don’t you try giving them the possibility to adapt to the schedule according to their needs? Coordination of schedules, especially when arranging team or client meetings, is essential. You can be more permissive.

And it’s not all about work! Taking your mind off work and growing the bonds between the team is paramount. You can organize activities that break the routine and avoid the idea of ​​creating an only-work environment. How about a paddle tennis tournament? Are we going to a restaurant on Friday? Bet on teambuilding!

To promote the well-being of the work team of an office, the distribution of the spaces, the decoration and the lighting are important. But the organization of the work tables also helps to have a certain order when carrying out the tasks and also – why not – to give a good image of our company. We must be tolerant with the way that each one wants to organize their table but at the same time demanding to guarantee a minimum order, and to achieve this there are a series of table accessories that will help us.

Although less and less stationery is used, especially paper, the truth is that it is still a predominant resource and therefore we must provide a good organization. The desktop trays or drawers can help us to classify the papers according to the point of the administrative process in which they are, such as projects in progress, correspondence pending to open or meeting notes. The stationery material can be kept in a drawer together with notebooks and personal items, or we can have it in a desktop organizer, everything will depend on the periodicity with which we use it. It is advisable to have on hand what we use the most and the rest we can have in a drawer, especially on tables that do not have much space.

Pencil holders are elements that are closely linked to office tables. It is not necessary to always have them full of pens of all colors and markers of different thicknesses. But we must have those that we have to have more at hand. For the rest, such as office supplies, we can use the drawer classifiers. And importantly, no matter how much tray and drawers we have, we must be aware that it is useless to accumulate all the papers that we do not need and therefore, a nearby bin will be a good ally to be able to keep only what interests us to work, while that the papers that we no longer need in our day to day can be placed in filing cabinets.

Finally, and although it seems an old-fashioned object, we cannot forget the desktop calendar. No matter how much mobile phone and agenda in the cloud we use, there will always be that moment when while we are talking on the phone or with another member of the team we will have to quickly check a launch date or project end date. Yes, the calendar is also an accessory that cannot be missing from our office table.

The presence of music doesn’t surprise in some commercial establishments. In fact, it isn’t weird to enter into a clothes shop or a perfumery and walk through their shelves following the rhythm of the hits that come from the background music, that in most cases is in a high volume. In all these situations, music is a part of the experience chosen for the brand to be lived by the consumers. Even if in the entertainment and the shopping industry is a usual thing to do, it isn’t as well seen or accepted in an office. Waiting rooms apart, it isn’t frequent in an office that the sound of keyboards and conversations gets mixed with the environmental music. With all that, it has been proved that music contributes to the wellbeing of the worker and, therefore, it has a positive effect on productivity.

A British bank proved that when its employees were listening to cheerful music, the efficiency increased in a 12%, while a report made in Canada revealed that during the weeks that workers listened to music, they were a 20% faster. This relation between music and their emotional estate is not something casual. The melodic sounds help us to segregate dopamine, a neurotransmitter generated in the brain which gives us a pleasant feeling, that is translated in a better mood and self-esteem. Now we can totally understand the music sounding in lots of shops as a factor that benefits our inclination to buy something.

The office isn’t an exception. We just need to be conscious about the zones and moments we don’t want to have music and the ones we want to have it, that, definitely, must be environmental and doesn’t invite to dance. Each and every moment needs its own song. If what we want to do is to enliven the work atmosphere, boosting productivity and getting a good work environment, the best thing to do is to have a good environmental music and with a low volume. This will be valid for all the spaces of the office except those areas where an absolute concentration is needed. In those spaces where people aren’t dealing with customers face-to-face, we can authorize the usage of headphones if they don’t interfere with work. Listening to music helps to block inputs that can damage concentration, because the person gets focused on the music and doesn’t pay attention to other distractions.

Finally, we need to remember that not everyone reacts the same way while listening to music, and that not everyone gets a positive effect from it in terms of productivity. In addition, it seems that age has some influence in the performance of the worker that listens to music. In this case, younger employees are the ones boosting their performance and also the ones that listen to music during more time.