Today 84% of the world’s population is found in emerging economies like India and China. The opportunities in these markets are limitless, but there are many challenges. One of these challenges is creating a progressive workplace that will ensure employee engagement and boost creativity.
Below are the three ways in which this challenge is being met.
As work today is both physically and mentally demanding, the work environment should be designed to help people deal with the stress this causes. Workers need a place free of distractions to focus on a task, have a quiet conversation or some personal downtime.
Hence, adding some privacy elements into the space can help humanise the density. Allowing people to customise their workspace with a pin board for pictures of friends and family can humanise even a very crowded space.
Additionally, providing options for employees to change postures throughout the day — such as lounging, sitting and standing — is critical for physical and cognitive wellbeing which in turn helps employees stay focused and engaged. Further, fresh air and natural light are refreshing, and it’s been proven that working outdoors or near natural light improves creativity, productivity and enhances wellbeing.
Multipurpose spaces
Multipurpose spaces where different modes of work can be carried out, are seen to promote productivity and employee engagement. To give examples of multipurpose spaces, a benching work environment can be designed to support both individual and collaborative work.
Allowing managers and the staff to share spaces will allow one-on-one mentoring, quick learning and agile decision-making.
Further, an extra, open space at the end of a workbench can also provide a natural area for informal conversation or one-on-one collaboration.
Flexible workspaces
Modular structures made from components that can be easily reconfigured, make it easy to change spaces to accommodate evolving business needs. For example, benching solutions that allow you to add or subtract elements without moving the base bench units enable quick changes. Work surface extensions and privacy screens can all be added to support changes in team size or to shift the focus from individual to collaborative work.
(Praveen Rawal is managing director at Steelcase India)
