How an office refurbishment can improve employee concentration

Whilst open plan office design is great to boost collaboration within the workplace, it can potentially produce an environment in which it can be difficult to concentrate. Whether you're sat on the end of a row of desks with chatter all around, the ringing phones or the television screen showing the same news stories EVERY.TEN.MINUTES, focus can be difficult to find when you need it the most.

So what is the office refurbishment solution to finding the balance between collaborative and private working environments? How can you have a space that promotes both the chatter and the need for thoughtful contemplation?

Creating a balanced office refurbishment

The innovation of the open plan office layout was intended to liberate workers from the monotonous cubicle existence, improving an employee's working life. In recent years, however, the opposite seems to be true as more people are having to get to work early and leave late to ensure that they're able to do what they need to do.

One of the major advantages of sitting next to your co-workers is that it (is supposed to) encourage amicability; the 'we're all in this together' work mentality that allows them to build-up relationships that translates into them producing more vibrant work. That's the idea, anyway.

In reality, it works conversely; research conducted by The Guardian has indicated that co-workers in exclusively open plan offices are more likely to become irritable and uncooperative. Shared work spaces provide increases in 'employee social liabilities'; distractions,distrust and negativity. Not really the kind of atmosphere you would want to produce.

What's the office design solution to a distracting office?

With such issues being nothing new, office designers have been working to find the ideal balance between collaboration and concentration. This has led to office refurbishment becoming more fluid, as many companies are embracing 'hot desking' that allows employees to pick when and where they work, or creating private rooms or comfortable 'focus zones' to aid their concentration.

All of this can be harnessed in a method known as 'agile office design'.

What is agile office design?

At its core, agile office design intends to create a working environment that is efficient, effective and responsive for all working styles. It's a concept that's based on the principle that 'work is an activity that is shaped by our actions' rather than'shaped by the environments that we find ourselves in'.

By creating a workplace design that is suited to the working styles of the employees, the freedom and flexibility afforded to them will allow them to control the environments in which they work; where they work, how they work and with whom they work. With this, it's less likely that distractions will have a major impact on a person's work; they can slip away from the chatty open office to work in a private room or in the comfort of a breakout area.

Harness the benefits of an office refurb

If you're interested in undergoing an office refurbishment to place more flexibility and agility within your working environment, then the dedicated office design experts here at Oaktree Interiors are on hand to help.

Having been creating bespoke work environments for the last three decades, we have established a leading office design business based on the drive to constantly keep pace with the latest trends and innovations.

This is why we can offer you a dedicated client-focused service that is designed to understand everything that you and your employees need, what your business wants to achieve and how you want to appear to your clients.

Please feel free to take a look around our website to familiarise yourself with our service; our pages contain various examples of our design work in high-resolution imagery and informative text descriptions. Do check out our case studies page, especially; much of our previous work is chronicled inhere, and can be filtered by industry and office size.

Oaktree Interiors: Bespoke, flexible office design

If you would like to learn more about how we can help you to improve your working environment with a bespoke office refurbishment, we would be pleased to hear from you. Give us a call on 0345 21 86955 or send any e-mail enquiries to hello@oaktreeoffice.com and we'll be in touch as soon as we can.

How An Office Refurbishment Can Improve Employee Concentration

Creating a balanced office refurbishment

What's the office design solution to a distracting office?

What is agile office design?

Harness the benefits of an office refurb

Oaktree Interiors: Bespoke, flexible office design

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