Collaborative workspaces bring employees together, allowing everyone to work together, focus on group tasks, and feel more productive as they collectively work toward a goal. However, the positive benefits of using collaborative workspaces only flourish when they’re used correctly. If you don’t create a space that fosters productivity and collaboration, your spaces could quickly turn into a distraction, rather than an advantage.
A study by the University of Irvine, California, revealed that it can take around 23 minutes to recover after a distraction. In a space where several people are working at once, it can be easy for a quick comment here and there to turn into a system of disruptions that keep your employees from getting work done.
In this article, we’ll dive into how to create collaborative workspaces that boost productivity. As an important work metric to track, this will help everyone get more done while in the office, complete tasks quicker, and stay on track for longer periods of time. Let’s dive right in.
Why Are Collaborative Workspaces Essential in the Office?
No matter what job title you hold or the role you perform in a business, it’s highly likely that a large portion of your role involves communicating and working with others. In certain industries, the level of collaboration needed is much higher. For example, in the marketing and sales industry, you’ll often spend long periods of time with others when working on a project that involves your whole team.
However, even when taken across the board, collaborative work accounts for around 45% of all time that top-performing employees spend in the office. Beyond just being essential to facilitate this type of work, collaborative workspaces also help contribute space for an additional 10% of time at work, which is spent socializing and befriending others.
Collaborative workspaces are vital because they help to facilitate connections while also providing an invaluable space for working in a team.
How Do Collaborative Workspaces Improve Productivity?
Collaborative workspaces help to bring people together, facilitating group projects, a communal style of working, and a sense of camaraderie. By having people at arms reach, employees can readily ask questions, discuss ideas, and move through product development and research stages much more rapidly than normal.
There are a number of benefits to collaborative workspaces that help to boost productivity:
- Rapid Idea Development – By being able to rapidly discuss ideas, your teams can form more concrete plans and ideas at the drop of a hat. Instead of having to call meetings to discuss things, a manager can rapidly talk to multiple people in a collaborative space. Not only does this cut back on pointless or dragged-out meetings, but will help streamline your team’s workflow and increase productivity during the working day.
- Sense of Community – One of the factors that has the largest impact on employee happiness is how connected people feel to their coworkers. In a collaborative workspace with everyone constantly in contact with others, it’s much easier to build connections, have conversations that inspire friendships, and feel more connected to others on a team. With this, your employees will be happier, which is shown to lead to higher rates of productivity in the workforce.
- Coworking – Collaborative workspaces are more likely to inspire people to work harder. When you enter into these spaces and see other people working on their projects, the sense that everyone else is working will inspire employees to crack on with their work.
Another impactful benefit of working in a collaborative workspace is that you’re able to increase product quality and product development by 34% and 30%, respectively. Beyond just making employees happier, deepening connections, and improving productivity, you’ll also notice a huge difference with your products.
Businesses that prioritize collaboration see a 41% increase in customer satisfaction ratings, with your collaborative work speaking for itself.
Strategies to Boost Workplace Productivity
Workplace productivity seems like an intensely complex thing to manage. However, the reality is that a few core elements have the biggest impact on how your employees experience their time at work. The first of these is the environment they work in, and the second is the style of work that’s available to them.
With that in mind, here are two effective ways that you can boost workplace productivity by using the space you have available to you:
- Zone Your Workspace – Providing different work zones where your employees can freely migrate to and from will ensure they always have somewhere that matches how they want to work. In a collaborative workspace, they’re able to share in conversion while chipping away at their work. Alternatively, in a private workspace pod, they can get some deep work done free from distractions.
- Create Green Spaces – Green spaces can have a radical impact on workspace productivity. By creating a space where employees feel connected to nature, whether that means an actual green space in your office or filling your space with lots of plants, you’ll increase productivity and workplace happiness.
While this is only the beginning, this will create the foundation that you and your employees need to work well in collaborative spaces. By then listening to your employees and making changes where needed, you’ll be on your way to creating a highly productive workspace.
Final Thoughts
Whether your business works hybrid or is in the office all week long, the spaces you offer your employees will have a profound impact on their work. Considering the huge amount of time that your workers spend in the office throughout their careers, the space you create will greatly influence their employee productivity, relationships with coworkers, and happiness at work.
Collaborative workspaces can greatly increase productivity, helping to create a space where your employees feel supported, social, and able to get more work done in the office. Over time, you’ll start to notice an incredible impact on your workforce, with happier and more engaged employees converting into productivity machines.
An investment in your employees and their wellbeing is always an investment in the success of your business.