Facility Engineering Impacts Productivity Through Corporate Interiors
Hire a facility engineering firm to create the best office design, developing a more productive work environment.
Is the idea that employees will be more productive if they are comfortable and inspired in their workplace believable? Sure it is! Everyone craves some kind of a stimulating workplace. The productivity formula is relatively simple: recruit quality employees, sustain a high level of employee satisfaction… and productivity will improve. A great deal of research supports this and points to the role that facility engineering and corporate interior design plays.
Workers repeatedly cite design-related factors when explaining their reasons for choosing a job or staying with a certain company and managers recognize that employee satisfaction and productivity rise in aesthetically appealing workplaces.
A strategic approach to office layout—one in which interiors experts integrate design goals and business objectives—can facilitate reengineering of work processes, encourage teamwork, flatten hierarchies and lead to healthy cultural change within a company. Organizations can minimize or eliminate obstacles to productivity by refining interior design in accordance with evolving company objectives. To facilitate such improvements in efficiency, businesses should regularly reanalyze office design in relation to business practices.
Corporate facility engineering does present a unique and specific set of engineering challenges. For example, one company’s preference may be another company’s rule to avoid, as well as one person’s experiences may be in direct contrast to another’s experiences with the same installation. Even still, many companies are surprised to learn that productivity is actually a defining factor in employee satisfaction, and interior design can influence efficiency levels in a number of significant ways. Here are just a few things to consider:
Sound
The overwhelming trend in commercial office space has moved toward more open, collaborative areas for employees, with fewer partitioned work spaces. But according to research, the open-office plan that has become so wildly popular has its fair share of drawbacks. Productivity ends up suffering when employees struggle to concentrate in noisy spaces with minimal privacy. A study by the American Society of Interior Designers showed that as many as 70 percent of workers believe they can work more efficiently if the workspace is quieter.
Eco-conscious mindset
In business, developing an eco-conscious mindset goes well beyond recycling. Green corporate practices mean more productive employees, according to a study published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, employees at companies that have adopted sustainable policies are 16% more productive than those working at organizations that do not engage in these practices. The continual pressure of environmental leaders is forcing more and more companies to become eco-friendly. Therefore, companies in every industry are reevaluating their operations in order to become more ecologically conscious while remaining competitive and demonstrating that they can satisfy environmental concerns while promoting efficiency and innovation.
Synergy
One important factor often overlooked by most employers in regards to productivity is the lighting. A study conducted by the American Society of Interior Design indicated that 68 percent of employees complain about the lighting situation in their offices. Harsh and dim lighting are detrimental to the productivity of employees, and, by opting instead for more natural lighting, you stand to not only save energy but also increase productivity among your business’s employees.
Every employer should carefully review their physical space to ensure maximum financial return for their business; employees are much more likely to stay at a job when they like the environment where they work. At KMB, a leading facility engineering firm, our philosophy is first to understand, then provide appropriate solutions and designs, not born out of our personal preferences, but incorporating experience from previous successful projects, that align with our clients desires. We share the opinions and takes from both positive and negative outcomes, but provide options and even recommendations, with no ego attached to our ideas.