If there is one thing that is constant in business, it’s the routine. There can be slight alterations to the days, such as emergency meetings or issues that need troubleshooting, but it’s basically the same every day. You and your employees come to work, perform your duties, and then leave.
There’s nothing wrong with routines, but they can become exhausting after a while. Routines leave no room for challenges, and when difficulties no longer stimulate the mind, they can dampen productivity. For instance, your employees can start taking more time to finish a certain task compared to when they first began doing it.
This change is not because they can’t do the task, but because they are losing the drive or the motivation to do it. And that’s a normal occurrence because the duties and functions become routine. But just because it’s normal, that doesn’t mean you can’t improve it.
Sometimes, the solutions can be right in front of you, but you fail to notice them because you’re focused on other things. Easy solutions such as revamping the workspace in your office, adding decorative pieces to give the space more life, or investing in employee-centric areas might just do the trick.
Build a Recharge Room
One of the main reasons for the decrease in employee productivity is that they have no room to breathe away from their desks. Imagine being in front of the computer for the better part of the day without breaks except for lunch and going to the restroom.
Many employers are starting to acknowledge the fact that employees need a few minutes away from their duties throughout the day to allow their minds to breathe. This is what recharge rooms are for. When your employees feel like their work is too overwhelming, they can go to this room to rest.
Working continuously without breaks can be more counterproductive than taking a few minutes every one or two hours to relax. This is because the brain gets a well-deserved rest from performing the duties without having to feel guilty for taking a break.
You can turn a spare or unused stock room in the office to turn into a recharge room where your employees can go throughout the day. It can be filled with bean bag chairs or a sofa where they can relax, board games to stimulate the mind away from devices, or ambient music to calm the brain.
Redesign Your Reception Area
When you often receive customers and guests in your office, having a comfortable reception area is key to creating a welcoming environment. It’s no longer enough to just have a coffee table and a sofa inside a bare room—you have to think about the comfort of your visitors as well.
Redesigning the reception area can become costly, especially if it’s not in your budgetary priorities. However, if you think of this as an investment that can result in a better customer experience, the additional expenditure can be worth it.
Few furniture upgrades such as comfier sofa sets or having a bookshelf filled with reading materials can be enough to make your reception more welcoming. But if you’re low on office space, you can opt to have shelving on your walls instead of as a standalone bookshelf in a corner.
You can use your existing mortgage for renovating instead of taking out another loan, should you need more funding for your office. The redesign doesn’t have to break your bank, but improving the customer experience will come at a price that you should be willing to pay.
Bring the Nature Indoors
Another reason why employee productivity can be affected is because of nature deficiency. Employees remain indoors in front of their computers for at least eight hours a day, which means that they aren’t being exposed to natural sunlight or the fresh air.
When people spend too much time without nature, it can affect their physical and mental state in the long run. But because there is no way your employees can perform their duties outside of the office, the challenge now lies in bringing nature indoors.
Fortunately, there are many indoor plants that you can place in strategic locations throughout the office to give it more life. The colors of the leaves can immediately brighten up any space, and the plants can help improve the air quality inside the office because it releases oxygen while absorbing carbon dioxide.
There’s not much that you can do to solve the problem of work becoming an exhausting routine, but you can do something to change the pace in little ways. By providing such avenues and changes inside the workspace, you are showing your employees and customers that you care about their well-being.
