Make Your Employees Happier with a Comfortable Office

Make Your Employees Happier with a Comfortable Office

Modern office employees go to work expecting much more than a desk and a paycheck. They expect to be comfortable and feel valued at their job. In fact, many of the most successful new businesses owe part of their success to their fun and comfortable interior design. Millennial workers especially look to the office decor and setup when choosing whether to work for a particular Toronto company. For many, office culture beats out higher salary in terms of why they choose to work at a particular company. So what can you do to make sure the best employees choose you? Provide the right stylish, comfortable furniture to make your employees happier.

Healthier office design is desirable

Employees are more conscious than ever about their health, and that includes how their jobs affect their physical and mental wellbeing. Stress, lack of sunlight, and poor posture are all health concerns that can easily be addressed with the right furniture arrangements. Getting custom couches or designer furniture in bright or unexpected colours and patterns can cheer up employee’s moods compared to bland pieces with no personality. Instead, think about the characteristics you want clients and employees to associate with your brand, and choose furniture that brings those characteristics to life. As a bonus, patterned or colourful furniture is less likely to show dirt than light or neutral coloured pieces.

Getting custom furniture built to your specified dimensions can also make a huge difference in the amount of natural lighting your employees are exposed to. Multiple studies confirm that workers exposed to more natural light throughout the workday maintain happier moods and better health overall. You can still provide custom couches for casual meeting areas without a high back blocking the window. You just need good custom furniture makers to create a lower back or a backless couch for the area.

Also, providing spaces that are not devoted just to streamlined focus on tasks has been shown to actually increase productivity. How? Employees tend to get stressed when they are stuck at their desk all day long with nowhere to take a real break. Piling on that stress will make them less focused and slower to complete tasks. Instead, allow them the option to get up and do something else for a few minutes. Trust your workers to make appropriate adult decisions about when they need to be at the desk.

Your office needs group spaces

Most work that uses thinking and creativity requires a lot of group interaction and shared planning. That makes individual workspaces less efficient, and that means less room needs to be devoted to cubicles and other cut-off spaces, and more space needs to be provided for allowing employees meet up, interact, and accomplish tasks together. The good news is that creating larger group spaces can be done in your existing office space. Technology allows computers and other equipment to take up less room than ever. Also, less office space is needed for storing and sorting paper documents as most business have moved to digital documentation, and that means a redesign of the individual spaces and storage areas can clear up more space for custom made furniture that suits a group dynamic.

Employees want a say in the decision making process

In addition to needing space for employees to cooperate on tasks, millennial employees are more inclined to want more control over their work processes and products. You may want to consider this trend as you decide how to set up and design your office space. Utilizing furniture that facilitates communication is key. Email may seem quiet and fast, but the truth is that employees feel more loyal to your company when they feel like someone is actually taking the time to listen to them. An office that allows employees and managers to mingle and communicate ends up with happier and more engaged employees.

Break rooms, lounges, and kitchen areas are all good ideas for creating places for casual communication and idea exchange. It may seem like this would decrease productivity, but the opposite is true. Providing a place for casual exchange means employees and management feel more responsible to each other because they can actually get to know each other as people. They also start to see how other members of the team play a part in shared company goals. And you would be surprised how often those casual exchanges turn into an idea exchange regarding the team’s current set of tasks.

Start looking for custom couches and other custom made furniture to make your office space more inviting and more productive for millennials and all your employees.