Open Plan Offices

IT organizations have embraced open office plans to drive cost savings and flexibility and to increase collaboration and productivity. Open plan offices are prevalent across the working world as a result of their many benefits to both employer and employee. The design of an office has a huge impact on the wellbeing of employees and therefore productivity levels and so it’s important to get the design of the open plan office just right in order to maximise on this

Having an open plan office comes with many benefits. One of the biggest advantages is the cost effectiveness. Having an open plan office will give you the space you need and you will be able to expand your employee count without an increase in the cost of rent and the need to physically transfer office furniture elsewhere.

Collaboration  

Open plan offices foster team spirit and create a social space as opposed to a closed-off individual space. Frequent sharing of ideas is common as people just speak across the room rather than having to organise formal meetings. When teams are working together it is good to have everyone in the same room to get things done as productively as possible.

Communication 

Colleagues can simply turn to each other when they need to chat about something without having to schedule a meeting.

This applies to both business-related and non-business-related interactions and can improve the social atmosphere of an office – open plan offices are more sociable than their alternatives. This can improve happiness of employees as they feel more relaxed in their surroundings. This can also help people integrate into the team well which brings us to the next benefit of an open plan office.

Capacity to increase

For growing companies, having the capacity to accommodate more people is a factor when choosing an office space. An open plan space provides the best flexibility to accommodate extra capacity for when the company grows as desks can easily be reconfigured to create an optimum solution.

Happiness 

A happy team is a productive team. People feel more at ease when they understand their place in the business and the team. An open workspace can break down barriers which may be put up through use of walls to segment teams. Open plan allows everyone to intermingle, no matter how junior or senior their position.

Forward thinking space

Open plan offices provide you with a flexible space as a basis for your office design. Often included in a modern office design are break out spaces and different modes of working to suit the workforce. Recent research has demonstrated that traditional offices are not the most productive spaces. Office design is required to meet higher standards of ergonomics and the most recent developments in wellbeing research.