How your office space can improve collaborative working: Improving collaboration is high on the agenda of many organizations these days, regardless of whether you're adopting a traditional, hybrid, or fully remote working model. But did you know that your office space can impact collaborative working? In fact, you can even use your office space to improve it.
In this blog we will look at collaborative working and how office space and design can help improve and embrace collaborative working techniques.
Are you interested in new offices for rent in Cairate (VA), Italy?Request an appointment now: come and visit, without any obligation on your part, your new office!It only takes a few minutes...
OfficeNow Smart Working Offices, located between Milan Malpensa airport (MXP) and the Swiss border, is the complex of Furnished Offices born from our desire to enhance the importance of your time when you work. You only pay for the time you need.
OfficeNow Business Center, a pochi chilometri dal centro di Milano, è il nuovo centro di Uffici Arredati che nasce dalla nostra passione per il design e la creatività . Un luogo poliedrico e conviviale, sede di eventi e riunioni, è la location perfetta per chi cerca la tranquillità e la comodità in tutte le sue declinazioni professionali.
What is collaborative working?
You may be reading this article thinking, what does collaborative working mean? And that's before you even start thinking about how you can improve it in your organization.
In simple terms, collaborative working is the practice of working closely together to achieve a common goal, a defined outcome, or increased productivity. It could be two people, a team of people or even an entire workforce.
Why is collaborative working important?
Collaborative working is important in all organizations, for many different reasons, but primarily to bring employees together to achieve a common goal. With more businesses operating remotely and from multiple locations with dispersed teams, it has become more important than ever to ensure teams collaborate effectively and work together.
How your office space can improve collaborative working: Benefits of Collaborative Working
We've already mentioned that collaborative work is important for bringing teams together and helping people work towards a shared outcome. Here are a few more reasons why collaborative work is beneficial in today's workplace.
Opportunities for sharing expertise
If you have a diverse workforce with a range of different skills, it can sometimes mean that you are limited to one person's knowledge and skills to complete a specific task. However, by encouraging collaboration between teams and individuals, you can provide an environment for knowledge sharing and the opportunity for your staff to learn from each other's experiences.
Troubleshooting
Making it easier for employees to collaborate can help them solve problems much more efficiently. Knowing who to ask for help with a specific project ensures that employees feel supported and comfortable working with others. In turn, this allows you to complete projects faster with greater productivity.
Improved Efficiency
Just as collaboration helps solve problems, it can also help improve efficiency in the workplace, especially on large or complex projects. With collaborative work environments, employees can easily work together to divide and conquer a project rather than spending more time working on it alone, helping to drive efficiency and complete tasks more quickly.
Connecting people and departments
If specific people or departments rarely connect with other teams, you may benefit from embracing a more collaborative work environment. By encouraging collaboration between teams, you can connect departments and develop mixed-skill teams that work together on key projects, allowing employees to work with people outside of their normal jobs while achieving a common goal.
This also helps them develop relationships with new people who may become part of their social circle, increasing positive emotions and leading to better morality in the workplace.
How Office Space Impacts Collaborative Work
Regardless of whether your employees work from a private office owned by the company, fromA flexible office space or remotely, the office space and environment can have a big impact on collaborative working. It's important to think about the design and layout of your office to ensure it's set up for collaborative working.
For example, if your employees work in isolated cubicles, your workplace is unlikely to generate a collaborative work environment. On the other hand, large open spaces or hot desks where employees can see each other and quickly approach someone's desk are much more likely to have a culture of collaboration.
Are you interested in new offices for rent in Cairate (VA), Italy?Request an appointment now: come and visit, without any obligation on your part, your new office!It only takes a few minutes...
OfficeNow Smart Working Offices, located between Milan Malpensa airport (MXP) and the Swiss border, is the complex of Furnished Offices born from our desire to enhance the importance of your time when you work. You only pay for the time you need.
OfficeNow Business Center, just a few kilometers from the center of Milan, is the new Furnished Office Center that was born from our passion for design and creativity. A multifaceted and convivial place, home to events and meetings, it is the perfect location for those looking for tranquility and comfort in all its professional forms.
Improve collaboration with your office space
There are several ways to improve collaboration in your office space, whether you're transforming your current location or looking for office space for rent built for collaboration. Here are some of our best tips:
Simplify collaboration
The first thing you can do to create a more collaborative work environment is to facilitate collaboration between employees. Remove walls that create natural barriers and provide open spaces that foster collaboration. Making people more visible helps employees feel more comfortable getting closer to the people they need without them putting in too much effort.
If your company has opted for oneOffice space Furnished, you'll typically find that many of these are open-plan, making it easier for employees to collaborate and communicate.
Se non disponi di un ufficio completamente open space, prova a utilizzare altri spazi e crea aree specifiche per la collaborazione. Puoi utilizzare le sale riunioni o creare aree di “brainstorming” per il lavoro di gruppo, ma assicurati che lo spazio sia abbastanza grande quando in uso!
Decorate to inspire
Office decoration can also have an impact on collaboration and whether your employees feel that their workspace nurtures inspiration and creativity. You should make sure there's plenty of natural light in your main collaboration spaces to make people feel more alert and productive.
Color is also important when decorating your office, with different colors designed to promote different feelings and moods. For example,The color green it is associated with nature and feelings of balance, motivation and growth, making it a great choice for your office if you aim to promote creativity and collaboration. You can decorate or even add plants to the office to bring some greenery into the space.
You could also turn to companies with great examples of collaborative working and look at how their environment has been designed to encourage close working. Innovative tech companies like Google and Twitter are renowned for their bright, whimsical workspaces that are designed to inspire collaboration and creativity.
Provide space for privacy
While an open floor plan is critical for collaboration in most cases, it's also important to provide areas where people can work quietly. The lack of privacy in the office can sometimes discourage collaboration if people feel they don't have a space to focus without distractions.