Making Work Feel More Like Home May Improve Staff Productivity

People spend roughly 40 hours a week at work. Those, 8 hours-a-day, are one-third of your entire day. Alongside your home, the office is the place where you spend the most of your time. What does this mean? It means that your office should be a place where you feel very comfortable, a place where relaxation and work should intertwine.

Having the job you want, a great team but, a horrible workplace will cut all your enthusiasm and tempo. On the other side, a great workplace can improve your productivity by up to 60%.

Diana Jones, Team Lead in a big IT&C company has seen a steady decrease in its team’s productivity so she decided to take actions because deadlines were very tight and they couldn’t afford to be missed.

“One day, I decided to move the entire team into a small house, a walking distance away from our office.” Diana explains: “I did this because I wanted something new for my team. We’ve worked the entire weekend and every member of the team left his mark on the design of the new office.”

Here are a few things Diana added to her team’s new office.

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Fully Fitted Kitchen

When you work for hours and hours it’s very important to eat well, to have the same level of energy and vigilance. Having no kitchen, at all, or having one that is poorly equipped will reduce the variety of your food and its quality.

Diana knew that a good kitchen would have a positive impact on her employees, “We decided to go for a fully fitted kitchen because, as far as I’m concerned, if I don’t have all the needed tools, it doesn’t feel like home. I don’t get the home feeling I want to. Sometimes I relax by cooking for the entire team and this detaches me from the day-to-day work issues.”

Music

This is a must for you to get into that working trance. There are certain types of music that will boost your productivity.

“The old office didn’t have this option. We used to listen to music using our headphones.” And whilst this kept the office quiet, Diana realised they were causing problems. “Apart from the lack of communication, after awhile, they start getting annoying and you don’t work as better as you could.

Now, we have a Music Box, that’s how we call the place where you choose the music you want to listen. Basically, it’s a PC connected to the internet and, using remote control programs, such as TeamViewer, we create a list of the songs we’d like to listen. This music is then played in the entire office.”

Gaming Room

Long and frequent breaks are not the key to success! The employees need places to relax, cut the edge off and relax.

“We added lots of gaming consoles, Xbox, PlayStation, you name it. Apart from that, we also have lots of board games because these can improve team communication and collaboration. Now, our Wednesday evening is dedicated to gaming and team bonding. We play online games, board games, chess, and any other game we like.”

Power Nap Places

According to Assignment Masters’ Writer, Andrew Williams, “The lack of sleep makes quite a big dent in American companies’ budget. Is estimated that they lose roughly $63 billion due to low productivity.” Now, this is something every business owner or team leader should be fully aware of, this equates to $2,280 in salary per person and the time lost due to sickness can have wider repercussions across the business.

Diana continues: “We decided to have these places because you might feel like you are very tired thus, your productivity goes south. Instead of wasting the rest of the day, you just go there, have a power nap and you’ll be up and running in no time at all.”

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Extended Tech Infrastructure

“Well, this is something I decided to do because I work from different places all the time. Sometimes, I just feel like staying in bed and sending some emails, other times I feel like being outside, playing with my dog, and reviewing my teammates’ code lines. This is the main reason why we’ve extended the tech infrastructure.”

The best thing about this extension, of the tech infrastructure, is that you are not tied to one place. You can work from wherever you like, within the office. Desk, kitchen, garden, porch, garage, you name it. This is why every entrepreneur should focus on his team’s infrastructure and should try to aim at increasing their flexibility.

Conclusion

Having an office space you consider “home” is a very important thing. An office like this, apart from the boost in enthusiasm, can improve your productivity tenfold. What Diana did for her team is something each and every one of us should take as an example. You don’t have to spend a great deal of money changing your office, simply incorporating some of the ideas that your employees have into your current set-up will help them feel listened to and valued, which is a great first step in kickstarting productivity.

About The Author

Jade Parker had been a marketing specialist for almost six years. She has her own small business and enjoys sharing her ideas with young entrepreneurs. Writing helps her to structure her thoughts, think creatively, and follow the latest trends.