When someone mentions an open plan office they’re talking about a workplace that’s taking advantage of office furniture that’s located in an open space instead of having it closed off by cubicles or offices. In these spaces, you’ll see long rows of desks without any divisions as well as areas where employees can get together. They may even have lounges with couches for when employees want to work someplace other than at their desk or areas where recreation and entertainment can occur (e.g ping-pong tables, media rooms, craft areas, libraries). The point is to encourage employees to connect with one another and also to foster their creativity.
Advantages of an Open Plan Office
Today, open-plan offices are growing in popularity. While there are many reasons for this, one of the main reasons is that the office furniture inside of them offers more opportunities to form close-knit teams that can come together to solve complex issues for their company. Many businesses not only like this but they also like the monetary savings they receive by not having to pay for expensive office furniture. Of course, there are many other advantages here as well.
Monetary Savings
One of the biggest advantages of having an open-plan office is the monetary savings a business will enjoy. According to the online marketplace vendor Capterra, it only costs $24,000 to set up 50 standing desks but it’ll cost a company more than twice the cost ($60,000) to set up the same number of cubicles. Undoubtedly you’ll also be able to fit more people into a smaller space here as well – yet another way businesses can save a lot of money.
Create a More Transparent Office Culture
When you set up office furniture in an open plan office you’ll see that the interactions between your employees become much more transparent. This is because everyone can hear what’s going on around them. Since there’s less room for secretiveness there’s more of a sense of equity and unity there, especially when their managers also share this space. This will also result in more trust between your employees and their managers since everyone seems to be at the same level.
Disadvantages of Open Plan Offices
There is some controversy about placing your office furniture into such a plan. In fact, there are some recent studies that have discovered some significant disadvantages to doing so. The fact of the matter is there will never be a “perfect” setup for your office. The way you set up your office space will depend largely upon your organization’s needs. However, you should take a moment to consider some of the disadvantages as well.
Communication May Suffer
One of the main reasons these office plans became so popular was that they promised companies that their employees would be more collaborative, creative, and better able to communicate. Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality. In fact, in a study that was conducted by the Harvard Business Review, it was discovered that face-to-face interactions declined by as much as 70% while electronic interactions increased.
No Privacy but Many Distractions
Since employees don’t have any privacy in these open spaces they face more distractions. In fact, some studies have discovered that employees lose as much as 86 minutes per day to such distractions. This is because a quiet conversation can be a distraction to as many as 20 employees.
The Bottom Line
Now that you understand why an open-plan office space is so advantageous to both your employees and your business, you may want to consider using such a layout yourself. For help installing office furniture in this area, contact Quality Installers today.
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