Our Guide To Connecting Colleagues Through Workplace Design

UCL
41 minutes ago
3 min read

Despite spending 8 hours a day in the same office, there are no guarantees that your employees will form positive and productive relationships. Most workplaces don’t facilitate interpersonal connections beyond a quick chat at the coffee machine, but having a team that works well together is crucial to your business’s long-term success, so change that today with these workplace design tips to facilitate relationships.

1. Shared Workspaces

The key to encouraging interactions across a team is to provide plenty of opportunities for employees to work together. Whilst the most obvious solution - an open plan layout - has become the new norm for employee-focused office design, removing physical barriers does not guarantee a breakdown of conversational ones.

Creating a collaborative workplace requires much more than simply opening up the space, as increased noise levels, constant interruptions, and a lack of privacy can all hinder productivity. Instead, fixtures such as partition walls are an excellent way to facilitate shared working, as they provide private yet open settings for free-form group interactions. From small meeting rooms for finalising projects, to large breakout spaces for brainstorming sessions, collaborative spaces unite colleagues together away from their desks.

2. Meeting Areas

An in-person team meeting, either at the start or end of the week, brings everyone together to share ideas, clarify goals, and align expectations. This face-to-face communication is crucial for teams that hope to operate at the highest level, but due to space constraints, many businesses either hold their all-hands remotely or not at all.

If this is the case for your business, then it’s time to take a look at your office layout to identify where you can free up the space for a multi-purpose meeting area. For example, if too much space in your office is being taken up by spacious (but separate) office rooms, then opt for collaborative zones configured around a town hall area with tiered seating, good acoustics, and AV technology.

These town hall spaces are fast replacing crowded conference rooms as the definitive way to bring teams together in person, so host your next company gathering in an area that has been specially designed for meetings, presentations, and social events.

3. Social Spaces

Meeting rooms, washrooms, and the office kitchen should not be the only places where employees can have informal discussions throughout the work day. Similarly, there should also be a place for them to socialise on the premises, without needing to organise an after-hours trip to a nearby establishment.

When done well, office social spaces offer employees the opportunity to connect with colleagues in a more informal setting. These spaces also offer a refreshing change of scenery during the working day and provide employees with yet another place to work in during an afternoon slump - especially if they need to openly communicate with their colleagues regarding a shared project or pressing problem.

Comfortable seating, flexible layouts, and moving partition walls all allow the space to be rearranged as needed, so opt for modular seating and fixtures that accommodate different team activities; from icebreakers to Christmas parties!

4. Remote Capabilities

Flexible, remote, and hybrid working models are just as popular as in-person roles, and your workplace design should unite and engage all employees, including those who don’t work within the office itself.

Utilise the available AV technologies to facilitate open communication and collaboration between remote and in-office team members:

Virtual Workplaces: To allow remote workers to actively contribute to projects.
Video Conferencing: Meeting rooms with integrated video conferencing setups.
Private Booths: for confidential 1-1 video meetings.

And welcome them back to your office on a regular basis with invitations to in-person team events.

5. Quiet Areas

No matter how well your employees get on with each other, we all need a little peace and quiet sometimes, especially when we’re up against the clock.

This can be hard to find in a busy office, so accommodate the working needs of your team with quiet areas for deep focus and concentration. These zones can include private pods and sound-controlled cubicles, or simply be designated areas with a “no talking” policy. As long as they block out the constant humdrum of the office and allow employees to fully focus on the task at hand then the choice is yours.

They not only provide a setting for intensive focus and confidential conversations, but also a place to decompress after a stressful morning. Employees may spend a few days at a time working in these areas, or just a single afternoon, but the key is to create inviting spaces that allow employees to work without interruption and then rejoin their colleagues once they are ready for continued interactions.