How to Redesign Office Space With Employees in Mind

office

As a business owner, you must put a a lot of effort into employee acquisition and retention. And you should know that work environment, company culture and office space play an important role in the overall job satisfaction of your hard-working staff. While your best guys won’t quit because it’s too far to walk to a water cooler, a dysfunctional office space may play a role in their decision to look for a better job.

Our Maryland office remodeling specialists at Northstar Commercial Construction have redesigned and remodeled multiple office spaces for both startups and seasoned businesses. Whether you’ve just moved to a new office and are looking to start fresh or have decided to give a face lift to your current space, here are a few things that will help both your current and potential employees enjoy their work environment even more.

Open Office

Ditching the cubicles seems to be the trend lately. An open office space is an office without physical barriers between people, which allows for better communication, collaboration and comradery. A cubicle-free office may also include a common area where people are welcome to gather for a brainstorming session, a project meeting or simply to hang out with a book on their lunch break. If you are remodeling an old warehouse into an office space, leaving it open will help you get the most use out of this vast facility.

Flexible Work Stations

Flexible work stations go along with an open office, but might not work for all industries. Allowing your employees to grab a laptop or a tablet and pick a spot where they want to do their work will give them more freedom, more comfort and may improve productivity. This could be a good idea for your creative department where a periodic change is necessary to spark imagination and inspire innovation.

De-stress Areas

There are stressful jobs in any company—if you have to deal with other people and work under deadlines, some degree of stress is inevitable. Devote a quite space where your employees can go to relax, collect their thoughts and quiet their minds. Sometimes, a five-minute break from the ringing phones, clunking keyboards and humming AC is all it takes to focus on the task at hand.

Sports & Entertainment

If you ever want to be on one of the “best Maryland companies to work for” lists, you have to let your employees have some fun in the office. Table tennis, pool or air-hockey are all fun games, as well as a way to exercise and get that blood flowing to the brain. Sitting at a desk for eight hours a day is one of the unhealthiest things you could do. And doing stretches or sit-ups in front of the entire office is a bit awkward. Give your employees reasons and means to get up and move around, and you will get more energetic and productive, not to mention grateful, employees.

Functional Kitchen

If you are not a tech giant or a real estate mogul, juice bars and gourmet food joints in your office are probably not an option. However, a decent kitchen is the least you could do for your employees. Make sure there is enough room for several people to use it at once, a large enough fridge to hold everyone’s lunch and a space to sit down and eat, whether by yourself or with a group of coworkers. A good kitchen makes lunch a social activity rather than a lonely, quiet desk-bound food consumption.

No matter which of these office remodeling ideas you decide to incorporate into your new office space, Northstar can complete the office renovations on time and on budget. We serve commercial clients in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia – view our project gallery to see the quality of work we perform.

The Northstar Difference

Since 2004, Northstar has the knowledge and experience to create a construction solution to meet your budget and requirements.  We look forward to providing your design and construction services in Maryland.

Northstar did a great job at a commercial building I own. He soundproofed a large 3 car commercial garage and took care of some draining issues, by installing a 15’ drain and diverting the water away from the building. His estimate was very fair and he completed the work on time. I would recommend him highly .
Fran A
Owner