A diligent employee prefers a workspace that is best suited to his skills. It is estimated that a quarter of your waking hours is spent working and if you do a lot of sitting your health can be at risk. Good news since an active workspace is becoming popular these days and employers are making changes in providing a healthy working environment including facilities to its workers. Starting with a standing desk, good companies realize that too much sitting can now be a scene from the unhealthy past.
What is the ideal office design? First, remember that working a 9 to 5 job can be toxic when you lack the tools and the skills to manage your task in a satisfactory manner. This is the reason why reading self-help books and enrolling in online courses for your professional development is a must. If you can't do your job efficiently, you will constantly be stressed, and that is a serious concern.
Your workspace and how it is designed to manage the mission of the company will directly affect your performance and your satisfaction as an employee. Is your office space inviting healthy working practices or is a breeding ground for sickly working habits?
Your working space can be the spark needed to attain the goal of your company. Subtle yet informed changes in the workstation and office environment can help support and sustain the business plan. It can also lead to success in the community, surpass the expected sales, and make you (ultimately) the best employee.
How will you know that you are working for the best company? As an employee myself, there are three things that make a company the best to work for.
Health is Wealth Program
Facebook, Twitter, and people from Silicon Valley knew how a sedentary lifestyle can have adverse effects on the health of their employees. This is the reason there is inclusion and distribution of standing desks in their respective workspaces. When a company is starting to include health and wellness in your employee development program, that is a great indicator you are working in a great company. The company can provide areas for short breaks such as providing a water station, for coffee, and for little healthy snacks. Some even include a shower in the restroom for employees that regular exercise in the gym (bonus points if your company has a gym on-site!).
Collaborative Office Design
Is your working space flexible? Does your company provide areas for standing meetings and brainstorming and an area for solitude - when in-depth thinking is required to finish a task? Is there an option for sit to stand workstation? A flexible working environment can cater to the complex and diversified needs of the workers. This will ensure that all working needs are met to allow room for full cooperation and productivity from employees. This system makes it desirable for employees to work but when space is limited, a little change in office design can make a difference. You can start with going paperless and free up a lot of office space by getting rid of paperwork, files, and cabinets that you no longer need. There is software that can be downloaded or bought to assist with this. To manage paper waste, the company can also follow and implement reasonable actions to recycle and reuse. The space created from this organization hack can be used for collaboration, or for a personalized workstation.
Continuous Learning
Aside from taking care of your health, your company can also implement a regular employee development program. This will ensure that you are suited to that job assigned to you, especially when you are delegated to customer service. Customer relation is a vital part of the success of the business. It is then expected that your company will provide excellent customer service which includes meeting their needs as well as understanding how to attract and sustain your customer’s loyalty. The loyalty of customers can also mean additional earnings for the company.
Training the employees, updating their skills including technical or technology-related skills will help further the growth of the business. These training and seminars will be an avenue to determine how well improved or how far the company needs to move with the training. Assessment of these training and the skills developed or adapted by the workers will also give a hint on what method of business practices needs revision, omission, and implementation.
Training should not be limited to workers (the support group) it should also extend to those in managerial positions such as the supervisors, unit heads, team leaders, and managers. They must also be taught about proper attitude and ethics in handling subordinates and colleagues. Sometimes their attitude can be a hindrance to the success of the business. Some do not have intrapersonal and interpersonal skills that their type of management can jeopardize the growth of the business. When proper training is provided to all workers regardless of their position in the company, expect the best employees to stay and create the best company as well.
