In 30 seconds:
- The conversation around our workspace has developed in the time since the Coronavirus pandemic forced many employers to temporarily close their offices.
- Now, companies are considering different ways they can ensure their workplaces are uplifting environments…
- …Because knowing how to create a healthy workplace environment is key to fostering happy employees.
Even with the dawn of hybrid working in the wake of the Covid pandemic, the majority of us still spend a considerable portion of our week ensconced in company culture – and the workplace environment is a key factor in how we engage with this.
The way a company makes its employees feel in its physical spaces is therefore hugely impactful, both on the life of individual workers, and the work itself.
A high-functioning workplace environment means a lot more than beanbags and pool tables. Instead, it should be a space that fosters easy communication, nurtures your people and culture, and optimises your work day. Making sure that your workspace is geared towards this success should be a priority for every business.
So, what should businesses be focusing on in their workplace environments in 2022?
What is the workplace environment - and why is it important?
The phrase “working environment” relates to both the physical space of your offices, and also the atmosphere surrounding your workplace.
If you’re operating in a toxic work environment, it can have huge implications for your mental and physical health, let alone your job satisfaction.
But a healthy workplace improves not only workers’ comfort, but their well-being and productivity.
Businesses that support their employees through their environment are rewarded with better results. A positive work environment empowers employees to bring their best selves and do their best work.
Clearly, we need to be making sure health and safety policies are being followed, but that’s the start. We need to be creating a great physical and psychological space that can bring about better behaviours and experiences, too.
After almost 2 years of working from home thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, we’re already seeing how being back in the office is allowing for experiences that just didn’t take place at home. Now that many companies are moving towards a hybrid model of working part-time in offices and part-time at home, it’s especially important that we consider what it is about the office that helps our work, and make sure we’re getting the most out of it.
Creating that ideal “user journey” for the office is what’s going to make people look forward to coming in – and it will foster a far happier and more successful workforce.
What makes for a healthy workplace environment?
At its heart, a healthy environment is one that is welcoming and warm. Every team member should be able to expect to be safe and comfortable at work.
A healthy workplace environment is one that supports employee engagement and employee satisfaction, fosters a positive workplace culture and emulates a company’s core values, and results in boosted employee morale and motivation, as well as better employee retention – and the best employees.
If you’re trying to create a great workplace environment, you need to focus on maintaining a positive energy around the office. It’s important that staff members feel valued and seen; that their hard work is noticed and they feel supported. But there are other initiatives and practical aspects to take into consideration, too.
Things like checking the temperature of the office, allowing natural light, curating welcoming and well-functioning decor and considering the layout so you don’t stifle work processes are all equally important to creating a physical workplace environment that encourages a positive company culture.
Workplace environment factors such as these can optimise how we function, and can really improve employees’ moods, which in turn impacts the way work is done!
How we foster a positive workplace environment
There are lots of ways to bring positive energy into the office. At Fanbytes, we’re always keen to make sure the ‘vibe of the office’ is just right. You should hear laughter and chatter from your employees – that’s the sign of workplace environment success.
How do we do it? There are several key factors to consider. These workplace environment examples will help to demystify what makes a positive workplace environment for everyone.
1. Create a comfortable work environment
A recent exhibit at the V&A made a significant impact on me – and many others – by demonstrating what lays ahead for office workers if we continue to force ourselves to function in uncomfortable environments. Let me introduce you to the life-sized model, Emma, who illustrates the physical impact of poor office working conditions on our bodies:
It’s vital that companies consider how the physical workplace environment supports people’s health. How best can we optimise that “user experience” to make sure that everyone is comfortable, with ergonomic seating and so on? So often, people can forget that job satisfaction relies on physical comfort alongside other, more intangible considerations.
Consider how much natural light you receive in your workplace. Is it enough? As humans, we’re guided by daylight, and being shut away in the dark robs us of our chance to “photosynthesise” – or at least for our body clock to know what’s going on. Losing this can make us grouchy and unhappy at work. It can impact your sleep, too – meaning your productivity drops.
One reason we enjoy working from home is because we feel comfortable there, so how can we bring that to the office space? Allowing for individuality is really important. There’s a reason people love to keep photos and trinkets on their desks.
Even if you have a hot-desking system, having elements of personality around just makes people feel happier. At Fanbytes, we have our caricatures on the wall, which is a fun way of embracing our individuality!
2. Develop a strong workplace ‘vibe’
I mentioned earlier the Fanbytes ‘positive office vibe’, and that’s down to the workplace culture that we develop – and, like the ‘workplace environment’ itself, it’s never set in stone, so we need to make sure we’re always doing what we can to make it great.
I don’t think many businesses consider simple things like saying “good morning”. I make a point of saying hello or goodbye to as many people as I possibly can when I’m in the office. You may as well be at home if you’re not going to say hello. This is something people in leadership positions should consider, especially if they’re hiring lots of young people. Employees copy what they see – so embody your company values and normalise friendly behaviour wherever and whenever you can.
Hearing people laughing and chatting is important: it means people enjoy coming in. It fosters creativity and teamwork, as people feel more encouraged to share ideas with each other and spark better ones. It’s also great for general bonding and workplace cohesion as people feel more comfortable around each other.
On a similar note, one of the other valuable things about being in the office is the possibility of spontaneous moments: conversations that you wouldn’t have while working from home and scheduling specific Zoom calls for your interactions. It means work is less likely to get siloed, but it also is great for our mental health and team building, as we can feel more free to ‘be ourselves’, rather than only talking about work.
This communication is something leaders should encourage through the physical workspace, too. Fanbytes has a hot-desking system, so that every employee sits with different people each time they come in. We mix this with having set team days in the office, so that we have the opportunity to collaborate in-person with our team, but also get to know other employees from different areas of the business.
3. Conduct regular check-ins
More and more, workers are empowered to ask for what they want from their employers. Gen Z in particular are more comfortable when being vocal about what they expect from their workplaces, and they have interesting things to say. As an employer of choice for Gen Z, we want to foster this to make sure our office is serving a great experience for our teams.
For employees, regular check-ins with your manager are well known to be vital for helping you to grow, find your purpose and feel part of a functioning team, as well as tackling issues like burnout. But the channels of communication can and should go both ways. Discussions on workplace goings-on should never be off the table, and opening yourself up to receive positive – and negative! – feedback means human resources can evaluate and improve the work environment all the time.
Fanbyes hosts employee engagement surveys, and we also offer monthly “ask us anything” sessions with the People & Culture team, which is dedicated time set aside for employees to (you’ve guessed it) ask us anything. This is one of the ways we are able to democratise conversations and decision-making around the business, and provide extra clarity to anyone who needs it.
Having this kind of openness means we’re able to create a relaxed atmosphere around our office, where people feel heard – and we can take on board suggestions to improve the workplace environment even further.
4. Prioritise connection
I’ve spoken about fostering openness and spontaneity. But a huge factor of building a space where people are encouraged to collaborate and communicate is connection. There’s no point in having a hot-desking setup if the layout of the office itself means people still feel cut off when they need to work as a team. This is why the majority of the Fanbytes office is also open plan.
But connection in the workplace environment goes further than this. People need to be able to communicate easily in order to find the workplace to be a comfortable space – but studies also show that many people enjoy sitting in sheltered locations, such as having your back to the wall. It caters to the caveman instinct to keep secure. You should therefore ensure that the physical set-up of your workplace caters to this trait, too.
One key way to strike this balance is to make sure that no one has their back to the majority of the room. No one wants to miss out on the action, after all: they’re either going to keep spinning around to look at what’s going on – and therefore not really working – or they’re going to feel left out of things.
Rather than making people feel closed off, taking the desire for shelter into consideration in this way can actually help create more connection. It minimises the temptation to huddle to your screen in response to feeling ‘exposed’; by making employees feel comfortable in their space, we can make sure they feel more encouraged to talk and connect with the rest of the room.
Connection in the workspace can also mean that the physical space feels connected to the kind of work you need to do. This is why Fanbytes also has different sized meeting rooms and breakout areas, so that the space can support our activities. This is vital if you want your employees to be able to feel comfortable in an environment that allows them to work easily together, and still thrive individually.
5. Consider the entire “user journey”
It’s easy to think of the ‘workplace environment’ as the room (or rooms) in which you do your work, and consider the user experience in these spaces to be the single priority. But I would encourage leaders to take a more holistic view of the workplace when contemplating ways they can improve the environment for employees.
Consider the entire “user journey” of the office. One great example is access: how are your employees entering the building? Choosing between a lift that has to stop at many other floors before reaching the office, or climbing multiple flights of stairs in large office blocks, can be a nuisance – especially after a rubbish train journey: employees are starting the day feeling dishevelled, or worse still, they’re unable to access the floor at all.
What does the next part of the journey look like? How do employees enter the office – do they enter via a sociable space, or are they slinking into a dark corner, unnoticed? At Fanbytes we have two choices; employees can join the main room and claim a desk in the open-plan area first, or they can enter via the kitchen and grab a coffee on their way in.
I’ve mentioned above the need for confidential spaces. But something that’s important not to overlook is bathrooms. Your main workspace may be great, but if the bathroom is horrible, people will dread spending long stretches in the office. The bathroom isn’t just there to meet our bodily needs: many people use it as a quick break to reframe their thoughts or have a moment to rest. It’s important that the bathroom location facilitates this, so people feel comfortable using them.
This is something that also gets forgotten when we talk about the workplace environment: the way it allows for rest. Going to get a cup of tea is a classic example of how office workers will take quick breaks to help them refocus on tasks and rejuvenate themselves. The layout and features of the space should support this. Our kitchen and break-out areas are examples of this at Fanbytes, but we’re often on the lookout for more ways to help. We recently stocked up our library of inspirational reads, but I also think it’s a good idea to consider more creative ways to relax. Lego, anyone?
6. Respect personal environments
These days, you could argue that the workplace environment extends to the space in which employees conduct remote work, too. However, I’ve been careful to mainly focus on the in-office environment in this article, as it’s important that leaders are respectful of their employees’ personal spaces. We must strike the right balance between making employees feel connected regardless of location, but not physically inserting your company into employees’ home lives.
Companies can and should consider the support they provide for remote and hybrid workers, to make sure they are set up to work well from their home environment. It’s not unusual for companies to provide laptops. But what are companies’ responsibilities in 2022? One idea could be looking at company policies for supporting electricity or internet provider bills.
On this subject, however, it’s important to note that companies should resist stipulating a particular at-home setup for remote workers. This is impractical and short-sighted: you’ll put off great employees, who will choose to work for a company that does not overly influence their home lives.
Of course, workplace communication takes place when working from home, too. It’s vital that we use the right tools for this: software like Slack allows employees to stay in touch easily, and features such as the delay-send function can mean that private time is still protected. Meanwhile, web solutions such as Notion are a great way to keep employees organised and store all the company information in an easy-to-navigate space.
Nurturing our human interactions is so important. A healthy environment at work allows for a better work-life balance. Employees shouldn’t have to feel constantly available, because they should be able to interact sufficiently while at work. That’s one of the benefits of a strong workplace culture.
Lessons for leaders
Cultivating a positive environment in the workplace is a mixture of your employee interactions and physical setup. It’s easy to focus too much on one over the other – but they play into one another more than you might think.
We focus a lot on the user journey when considering customer interactions with our company or products, so there’s never any argument that a flowing, easy journey there should be a priority for businesses to develop. So why not extend that thinking to our offices, and the experiences of our workers?
We know that Gen Z are more upfront about what they expect of the businesses they support as customers, and our first-hand experience (alongside plenty of studies) show that they have high expectations of their employers, too. To attract the best young talent to your business, it’s more important than ever to cater to their needs.
The truth is, offices have gotten away with not being inspiring, for far too long. Part of that has to do with lack of visibility: until recently, the office was a fact of working life that was not up for debate, so we didn’t discuss it as much. But now the workspace is in the spotlight, it’s up to us to use this sudden scrutiny to improve our work lives.
I suspect the reason many children dream of being a doctor, fireman, or ballet dancer is because they can see them at work. Until now, for young people coming into an office environment for the first time, it has been harder to judge whether what they encounter is good, bad or the norm. There’s no benchmark. But I see this changing. Gen Z are a “generation of researchers” after all: I foresee a reality where this powerful group can assess the workplace environment and make value judgments about the company from it. Is this somewhere they’d like to work? If the answer is no, you’ll miss out.
Workplaces are always evolving: you couldn’t imagine working in an ‘80s cubicle anymore, and so much of what we understand as factors of a good working environment are relatively new concepts. The pandemic has brought a paradigm shift in the way we view our office environments, but by listening to our employees about what helps them to thrive, and not being afraid to implement changes, we can ensure that our workplace remains a healthy and positive space to be in.
Want to know more? Explore the links below to learn more about Fanbytes, our culture, and our unique offerings:
