With unemployment being at its lowest since July 1974, offices now need to be places where people want to work. It’s no longer enough to do the bare minimum to attract high quality candidates, employees are now seeking comfort and job satisfaction more than ever when choosing where they want to work.
Relocating to a new workplace is the perfect opportunity to reinvent your office environment, so you can attract or retain employee talent, whilst creating a space where employees can thrive with one another.
So, what design trends will we see this year?
- Open Plan Industrial Style Interiors
- Collaborative Environments
- Custom Created Furnishings
- Bring in Nature
- Café Style Seating Areas
- Lots of Variety
Open Plan Industrial Style Interiors
Open plan offices will continue in their popularity as they promote more possibilities for collaboration and communication between different employees regardless of their job position.
Industrial style office interiors blend effortlessly with an open plan concept to create modern, eye-catching surroundings that staff will enjoy working in and ultimately thrive. This may include iconic design elements such as exposed bricks and pipes, wood and metal as well as larger industrial ceiling pendant lights and air conditioning units.
Acoustic challenges are commonly faced due to ceiling tiles that absorb sound being removed. Considering this, a furniture design trend that we believe matches the industrial lighting design is to have suspended acoustic panels (as shown below) to improve the quality of the acoustic environment, and to provide a standout bright colour to contrast the grey scale of the industrial look.
Collaborative Environments
Why is collaboration important?
Collaboration improves the way your team works together, and problem solves. This leads to more innovation, efficient processes, increased success, and improved communication.
So, the question is, how do you create collaborative spaces?
Collaborative spaces have traditionally been in larger meeting rooms. Very rarely does the meeting room get used to its full capacity and often there can be interruptions by people trying to use the same space. In recent years many companies have looked to push for multiple areas where smaller meetings can be held. These can either be in an open plan or enclosed area.
Enclosed Area: Booths
An example of an enclosed collaborative space would be adding booths to your office. This helps groups of employees separate from what can be a noisy office environment to focus on a specific task without distractions.
Designed to encourage lively participation, bleachers are perfect for informal meetings where someone presents to a group whilst allowing others to come to the front and share their ideas with the group. The informal environment allows people to come out of their comfort shells and share their views more openly.
Something else…
Many companies are downsizing offices due to hybrid working and are therefore looking to take on a smaller office space that is utilised to its best ability. This being said, many bleachers come with a built-in storage solution and incorporate a vertical design rather than horizontal meaning large meetings can be held more space efficiently.
Custom-Created Furnishings:
If we want our offices to stand out against the crowd then buying run of the mill furniture doesn’t have to be the only option. Our offices are becoming increasingly refined to suit our industries and personalisation of the office environment is growing. Custom created furnishings are specially formulated to work with your employees, not against them, and to benefit them in ways that may never even cross their mind as they’re trying to maintain peak productivity levels.
Bring In Nature:
With the growing popularity of more colourful and vibrant interiors, artificial office plants have become a must have when designing an office.
Many studies have found that spending time around plants and flowers can improve concentration levels, productivity, and overall mood. This applies to artificial plants as much as real ones.
Whether you love sleek, minimalist designs or prefer busy maximalism, plants can serve to emphasise this style from an interior design perspective as they can fit in with all colours and designs of the surrounding environment. This makes them a very small and easy way to boost the design aspect of your office.
Café-Style Seating
With hybrid working, many remote workers have chosen to work out of coffee shops because the atmosphere encourages productivity, creativity, and innovation. A similar atmosphere can be recreated in a hybrid office.
Café-style seating (e.g., soft seating, bar stools, stylish wooden chairs etc.) coupled with a self-serve coffee bar — is a great way to create just the right ambiance to inspire workers who thrive in a casual, bustling environment.
Lastly, Variety Is Key:
Something we have found in many organisations, is there is a lack in variety of spaces. What’s meant by this is very few companies have a good balance of focused, semi-collaborative, collaborative, and relaxing spaces that we believe creates a great office design.
Fact: Employees on average lose 20% of their working day due to distractions in the surrounding environment.
So having areas that are distraction-free, both acoustically, and visually, is essential. But equally, having areas for where employees can brainstorm and problem solve is vital to build a successful workforce.
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