Increasing productivity through design

Research shows that a five per cent improvement in workplace design would provide an additional 14 minutes of productive work per day.

Research has shown that there is a direct link between office design and productivity. Both functional and aesthetic elements influence an employee's mindset. While functionality covers space planning, furniture design, storage space management, ergonomics, the movement area and proximity charts, the aesthetics part includes colour, texture, artwork, lighting and plants.

"Research shows that people generally work only 60 per cent of the working day. A five per cent improvement in workplace design would provide 14 minutes of productive work per day. What could people do with those additional 14 minutes? It could mean more time to review reports, catch up with overdue filing or indulge in strategic thinking. Replicate 14 minutes additional time across an entire organisation, and productivity could well be significantly improved," says Nick Burnett, Design Manager of CitySpace.

A study conducted by Hewlett-Packard and the Mind Lab has found that cramped conditions and antiquated equipment are detrimental to staff and their productivity. "Although technology has advanced and wireless communication has found its place in offices, we still find loads of wires on our desks, under our legs and over our heads. As we have new software and hardware, there is a need for work ware to be able to cope with this," says Nima Ranjbar, Sales and Marketing Manager of Bafco — The Office Furniture People.

According to Burnett, a functional office takes into account various elements such as the overall space planning, furniture size and shape, storage height and proximity and circulation space so that people can work comfortably and with increased efficiency.

Today most offices, big or small, still rely heavily on paper documents. As a result, printers, scanners, copiers and fax machines are still an essential part of any office. Multifunction devices are popular mainly because of their considerably lower prices compared to the combined prices of standalone components.

Also using multifunction devices means fewer machines, and lower maintenance costs. They increase efficiency of the workforce by reducing the need to go back and forth between machines. "While designing a functional office space we have to keep in mind that since these devices are constantly used by workers, they should be within reach and should be accessible without needing to adopt excessive postures. Such devices should be placed in such a way that they do not result in work-related injuries," says Ranjbar.

The paperless office, agrees Burnett, is not yet here despite the benefits of digital storage. "This means having to walk (not too great) a distance to the network printer. The location of the IT room and various printers needs careful research to find out who will use them and how often. Location, size and shape of shared IT facilities should also be designed with people in mind," he says.

According to Burnett, many offices have a dedicated equipment room set aside for such multifunctional devices. "They are also positioned to the central core of the building or the service core so that various groups or departments can access them easily. For instance in our office we have the main appliance area, which contains three colour printers, the photo copiers, the shredding machines, tucked in behind the library.

"However, in some offices the multifunctional devices are high security objects and are locked away in a separate room," he says. Considering that multifunctional devices are not always pleasant to look at, with their dull colours, Burnett says there is nothing much that one can do about it. "People do tend to realise that machinery like this is pretty much indispensable. So they just make a statement by leaving it in the open, but making sure that the cables are neatly tucked away," he says.