Benefits Of Open Offices – Open Offices: The REAL Drawbacks & Benefits
Today we’re going to be sharing the benefits of open offices with you, so you can decide if they’re the right fit for your business.
Open offices are the new workplace standard, accounting for 70% of our offices. However, in recent years, there has been rising backlash against the open office. In our two-part series, Open Offices: The REAL Drawbacks & Benefits, we’re investigating the truth behind all the hype surrounding open plan office to help you see the real benefits and drawbacks.
Benefits Of Open Offices
Office Culture
One of the largest, most noticeable benefits of open offices is the improved office culture. In an office where employees are segregated and quiet, there is a much colder atmosphere than one where everyone is open and friendly. This can lead to employees feeling bored, disinterested and disconnected from their coworkers – and therefore the wider company culture.
While one of the largest drawbacks of an open office can be the noise, the opposite is just as harmful. In fact, a quiet office can be just as harmful to productivity as a loud one. The opportunity for silent working can help employees focus on certain tasks, but working in silence constantly is counterproductive.
The solution to this, as we mentioned in the first instalment of this post, is flexibility. Instead of introducing a segregated and quiet workplace, just giving employees the option to work quietly can massively help their productivity. One of the popular ways that offices are installing this solution is office pods and meeting booths.
One of the variety of meeting booths and office pods we have to offer.
Here at Quills Office Solutions, we provide a wide range of meeting booths and pods in a variety of sizes and designs perfect for any office.
Collaboration
Expanding on the first post, employees can collaborate more easily. Without doors and walls separating them, employees naturally have a lot more access to each other. This allows them to build relationships with one another and share ideas.
There are clear benefits of this – coworkers can ask for advice, assistance or feedback from fellow workers or senior employees without needing to set meetings or knock on doors. Employees can bounce ideas off each other and the increased collaboration can result in innovation within your business.
Removes workplace hierarchy and makes bosses more approachable
Another benefit of the open office is removing the traditional hierarchy in the workplace and making employees of all seniority levels accessible. Removing these barriers enables bosses to have a better feel of the office and employees to feel like they can approach and interact with their bosses more.
Improved inter-departmental relationships
In traditional offices, different departments are kept very much separate – sometimes to the degree of being on different levels of the office building. With open offices, employees from different departments have the opportunity to interact and familiarise themselves with each other.
Not only does this improve inter-departmental relationships, it also helps employees to familiarise themselves all aspects of the business and develop an wider understanding of how everything slots together.
Cheaper for businesses
One of the largest benefits of the open plan office is for the business; open offices are often far less expensive than their counterparts. When building and furnishing an open plan office, typically businesses have less need for utilities and office equipment. This is largely in part to shared resources; in an open office, you’ll only need one printer, for example.
Easy to change the office layout
The open office is more flexible than its traditional counterpart. If an office layout isn’t working, it’s relatively easy to redesign it. In an office that’s segregated, however, re-designing the layout would mean knocking down walls and doors.
Allows bosses to monitor employees working habits better
As an employer, one of the benefits of the open office is the ability to see what your employees are doing. This allows you to ensure people aren’t slacking off or wasting working time. On top of this, the knowledge that employees are on display can encourage them to work harder and employees prone to slacking off are less likely to.
Negatives Of Open Offices
While there are a variety of benefits to open offices, there are also a significant amount of drawbacks. To ensure you can minimise any negatives and optimise your office’s effectiveness, we recommend you take a read of our post about The Negatives Of Open Offices.
The Solution
While there are definite drawbacks to the open office, they are still proven to be far superior to office cubicles. Plus, most offices cannot afford to build individual offices for all their employees.
So what’s the solution?
Most offices are moving towards a flexible workplace. This means that there’s a mix of the open office and dedicated spaces for working privately. Flexible offices allow you all the benefits of the open office, while allowing people to work privately. Employees needing privacy and freedom from distraction have space.
How can you make your office flexible? With the addition of private spaces. Office pods and meeting booths in particular are becoming more popular in the workplace.
One of the office pods we can install for your office.
Here at Quills Office Solutions, we provide a wide range of meeting booths and pods perfect for adding some privacy to your open office. If you would like to in learn more, feel free to take a look at our interior website or send us an enquiry.
Call: 0845 078 0324 Email: sales@quillsuk.co.uk Live chat: www.quillsuk.co.uk
