The days of the dull 1950s-style office complete with seemingly endless rows of desks and chairs are numbered. Companies are now turning to more dynamic and visually appealing office designs, and one major trend involves incorporating breakout rooms into workspaces. These designated areas can play a major role in boosting employee engagement – and here’s how.
Increase concentration
One of the big benefits of breakout zones is the fact that they can help people to concentrate. A major gripe of workers in open plan offices is excessive noise. With multiple conversations taking place simultaneously in these spaces, it can be difficult to keep sound levels under control. By giving personnel a separate area where they can hold informal meetings and discussions, you can help to ensure the other parts of your office stay peaceful. You don’t even have to cordon breakout areas off completely in order to achieve this effect. There are a range of innovative furnishings that can enable you to keep volume levels under control even in open plan office layouts. For example, take a look at the breakout seating options available on sites like https://www.calibre-furniture.co.uk/. For impressive noise reduction, you can opt for benches complete with acoustic surrounds that are ideal for small meetings.
By reducing distractions in your office, you can help to ensure that your staff members are able to get on with their tasks without being put off their stride.
Promote collaboration
Breakout areas can promote collaboration between colleagues too. All too often in large offices that lack informal meeting spaces, people are put off discussing their ideas for fear of causing too much disruption. At the same time, booking official meeting rooms can seem over the top for a quick chat. By making sure your employees have a place they can go to at a moment’s notice to have impromptu discussions with their co-workers, you can eliminate any feelings of awkwardness and free people up to collaborate more effectively with their colleagues. In turn, this can do wonders for creativity and productivity within your firm.
Boost morale
Then there’s the effect that breakout zones can have on worker morale to consider. By creating a more dynamic space where people have the freedom to enjoy peace and quiet or chat to their colleagues in specially designed zones, you can help to boost the mood of your employees. They should find their days to be more pleasant and more productive, and in turn this could mean they feel more strongly connected to your company.
Given the advantages of breakout rooms in terms of productivity, collaboration, morale and more generally employee engagement, it’s not hard to see why so many firms are incorporating these areas into their offices.
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