Top 5 Employee Office Design Priorities

What employees want or need from an office space often differs from what employers think their employees want. When it comes to running a business, retaining staff and keeping office workers happy is important, and contrary to popular belief, it’s not always pool tables and bean bag chairs that do the trick!

More often than not it’s the simple things that count, and it quite literally comes down to comfort. In this blog we look at the top 5 things employees want from their working environment, from natural lighting to functional spaces, and how office partition walls come into play.

1. Comfy chairs

Top of the list is suitable seating. With so much more time spent sat down at desks, it’s no wonder a comfortable chair is a priority when it comes to employee comfort. Ergonomic chairs help improve comfort, posture and productivity. Simply by investing in good office seating is an investment into the health and wellbeing of the workforce.

2. Natural light

Electric lighting, in particular fluorescent lighting often used in office spaces and warehouses, is well known to cause eye strain, blurred vision and headaches. Although overhead fluorescent lighting is sometimes unavoidable, ensuring your employees get natural light will benefit their health and well-being. Natural lighting also helps to bring the outdoors in, and windows provide views of the outside world which helps a workers productivity.

Adding new windows or skylights in an office can be a costly and timely exercise and not always feasible. However, if you have a larger office space and don’t wish to block off natural light with solid walls or solid partition walls, glass wall partitions could be an option. Create separate areas such as offices, meeting rooms or chillout spaces with professional glass room dividers.

3. Air quality

Good ventilation and fresh air is also important when it comes to working environments. It may seem trivial but many office spaces have poor air quality which impacts respiration. Bad air quality can also lead to drowsiness and sore throats and eyes.

Simply opening windows and keeping doors open where possible can have a positive impact on employee health and happiness. And why not consider installing bespoke glass office partitions, to create the illusion of separate working spaces without having to close doors and shut off the rest of the office?

4. Personalisation

Wherever possible, employees like to be able to control aspects of their working environment. Whether that be temperature, lighting or music; personalisation is key. No one likes to be too cold or too hot, so being able to set the temperature level in the room they are working in makes a huge difference to employee happiness.

Things like lighting and music are also important factors. By allowing music to be played and giving your workers a say on radio stations or playlists boosts moral. Personalising lighting by controlling the amount of natural light flooding in or limiting overhead lighting is also becoming the latest quirk in office spaces. With our glass office partitions we offer removable tinted smart glass that can be used when required for privacy as well as to reduce lighting.

5. Noise

A noisy office can be incredibly distracting for workers. To ensure employers get the best out of their staff, balancing noise levels and ensuring employees can work efficiently should be a top priority. Glass office partitions can be used to reduce sound transmission, and our acoustic soundproof partition walls are specifically designed to minimise noise for a distraction-free working environment.

At Applied Workplace we build completely bespoke demountable glass office partition systems with glass doors that help to create separate rooms in both office spaces and warehouses. From simple designs to curved glass partitions or stylish Crittall style office partitions, we have been installing glass office partitions for over 20 years.

Contact us today by calling 01202 577 776 to speak to our friendly team or fill in our online partitional wall price calculator for an instant quote.