What are the various evolving trends in office spaces?
With evolving work environments, offices are paying more attention to interiors to develop ecosystems that result in optimum productivity of each employee. Contrary to the times when cubicles were a must, companies are changing and becoming more flexible and are wanting to create a social and collaborative office. Some of the trends in office space design are:
Integration of smart furniture: Multifunctional furniture is in vogue. For instance, an open work desk that can double-up as a conference table for small team meets as well as for individual work is a great addition to the office.
Casual spaces to work: As millennial form a majority in office, workspaces are designed to give a feeling of inclusivity and encouragement. Most organisation are ditching stereotypical pattern of cubicles and adopting the concept of smart and social office – a place where collaboration is easy and use of social media are considered as catalysts of productivity.
Geometric and abstract designs: The use of a single monotonous and monochrome colour in the office was atypical of the ’90s. Offices are adopting abstract designs and geometric patterns that help in increasing the productivity of the employees and have a positive impact on the employees’ health.
How has technology affected the treatment of seating arrangements?
With the advent of technology, the workplace has become a sort of a hybrid nest where one can connect with others for work and collaborate using the digital medium. The need for technology is such, that in a recent survey, it was found that 77% of decision makers are using technologies, and 82 % of businesses that use collaboration tools want to use even more in the future.
The transforming nature of work, and a younger workforce, are altering workplaces, from pure ‘work hubs’ into ‘social hubs’. Workplaces now have transformed into spaces that provide a healthy-work life balance which also gives an opportunity to socialize with their colleagues during and after work. The growing affordability and use of technological work tools like laptops, iPads, tablets, etc, has supported this change in work cultures and styles. With the ubiquitous presence of social media—employees spend an average of 32% of their working hours on various social media. Majority of companies today have developed policies around acceptable usage of such platforms and are starting to leverage social media to enhance workplace productivity. In fact, the use of networking tools in the workplace has been found to increase productivity by 20% to 30% for global software development teams. This has led to a different space requirement as the conventional office environment doesn’t encourage the millennial crowd to collaborate better.
What is your USP?
Ergonomics has always been an integral part of Godrej Interio since the sole purpose of all products that are designed and manufactured is to provide comfort and enhance the overall experience of our customers.
The Workspace & Ergonomics Research Cell at Godrej Interio comprising of workspace professionals, occupational therapist and Ergonomist works with several corporates and government organizations across India to understand changes in work patterns and office spaces of today. We have published lot of research papers on Workspace and Wellness front. With the help of these research findings we design products that are suitable for the modern offices.
Further, regular follow up is done through product performance test certifications and manufacturing process certifications to ensure all aspects of Ergonomics are covered in each product offering.
What are some common errors in workspace design?
From cubicles to open co-working spaces, offices are finally changing and are getting the much-needed makeover, but during the process, some things are overlooked. Some of the commonly observed errors are:
Ergonomics: Ergonomics should be an integral part of design furniture. There is often a mismatch between the product and the user. If a feature-heavy product is purchased without considering the user anthropometric data it may result in pain and musculoskeletal disorders.
Integration of furniture and work tasks: Non-integration of furniture and work tasks can result in employee’s discomfort and fatigue. Chairs with multi-feature adjustability should be offered to employees depending upon the activities they participate in and the tasks they involve themselves in. Adjustability features we usually suggest are: back recline, seat height adjustment, and armrest adjustments. These adjustment features in seating would enable employees to adopt the correct posture and relax while being seated.
Design as an afterthought: Another mistake is keeping the design as an afterthought – boring is something that is often associated with office and to make sure that doesn’t happen, enough thought should be put into the furniture and design. Every company is in the quest of enhancing collaboration, and to do that there must be enough space for meetings and celebrations.
Today, people are aware of the right posture for different tasks and the types of furniture that best suits their health needs. Ergonomic seating for the office seating is a way for individuals to know that when they take a break and decide to relax, they avoid fatigue, muscle strain, and cramps. People want to provide the best health benefits to their body, and this is usually reinforced at their workplace by their employers. Employees are offered ample health facilities such ergonomic chairs, back supports, gyms in the office, this is one aspect of what we call a ‘Social Office’, the other two being collaboration and easy access to social media.