At this stage in the game, we all know that office phone booths help to radically increase workspace productivity. From providing a private space for deep work to helping employees to escape distractions, they can do it all. That said, some businesses utilise their office phone booths to a greater extent than others.
In this article, we’ll tackle some common questions around office phone booth optimisation. We’ll discuss how to:
- Integrate office phone booths
- Strategically place phone booths
- Use pods for different functions
- Measure the impact of an office phone booth
We’ll also address logistics questions like how many office phone booths a typical office needs. Let’s dive right into it.
Can office phone booths be customised or integrated with existing office designs?
At MEAVO, we provide an extreme level of customisation for our partners. Whether you’re looking for your office phone booths to match your brand colors or fit in with your office aesthetic, we do it all. Our custom-built phone booths will easily integrate with your current office designs, helping the booths to get a running start in your new productive workspace.
Creating an aesthetic location for employees to work can help increase their enjoyment in the workplace. After all, no one wants to work in a barren space!
The vast majority of office phone booths come ready for you to install them directly. Some companies assemble them, while others include instructions. Depending on the company you work with, you’ll have a very different experience.
How to strategically place office booths for maximum efficiency
The best place to locate your office phone booths for maximum efficiency will depend on the current setup of your office.
For example, if you have an open office, then your employees will likely want to escape from the noise into these spaces. Hosting them toward the middle of your office where everyone can access them will help you tremendously here. Being visually close also helps remind employees that the phone booths are there if they need them. If they see that a booth isn’t occupied, they can quickly move to work there if they need to start some deep work.
Alternatively, if you have an enclosed or desk-structure office, then placing your phone booths in the corner will be a much more effective approach. Placing them away from the desks will allow your employees to stretch their legs before arriving in the pod. What’s more, the change of scenery can help boost employee wellbeing and lead to higher levels of productivity.
Equally, you can use A/B testing with your office phone booths. You can host them in different locations for a month or two at a time to see how your employees react. When you combine this approach with an effective system for measuring the impact of office phone booths, you’ll be able to optimise your office to a greater extent.
Measuring the impact in your office productivity
There are two ways of measuring the impact of office phone booths on your office. The first is to look at quantitative data, pulling up productivity metrics from before and after you integrated office pods into your workspace. If there is a noticeable difference in output, you should be able to draw a link between productivity and the dates after incorporating the new infrastructure into your office space.
The second way, and one that often gets lots more data, is to conduct surveys with your employees. Discussing their experiences can lend a whole new level of insight to your investigation. Ask questions about how long they spend in one per day, if they feel more productive, if the infrastructure helps them, if they feel more focused, and onwards.
You can either take this qualitative data at face value, or use Natural Language Processing to conduct further analysis. A blend of quantitative and qualitative approaches will give you insight into the impact of office phone booths on your office productivity.
How many office phone booths should be available in a typical office space?
Every office is different, with a distinct number of employees and a range of services, facilities, and workspace dynamics to offer. Due to the huge variance that you can find between two workplace cultures, there isn’t one hard rule as to how many office phone booths you should have available.
Most of the time, you want to have a surplus of office phone booths, meaning that no employee ever has to walk away without having the ability to access one. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should have a 1:1 ratio between employees and office phone booths. On the contrary, these aren’t meant to completely replace your office.
Not all of your employees will work from an office phone booth for the whole day. Typically, each employee will only spend around 1-2 hours in an office pod during their 8-hour day. Considering that U.S. employees are only productive for less than three hours a day, this isn’t surprising.
With that in mind, we recommend you have one phone booth available for every 3-5 employees. Where you fall in that spectrum will depend on your current workplace culture. If you’re totally at a loss, conduct some office surveys to see how much time employees see themselves spending in one day. From there, you’ll be able to better estimate how many you need.
Final Thoughts
Office phone booths are here to stay. As a vital part of workplace infrastructure, these useful little pods bring a whole lot of richness to an office space. By using our nifty guide, the questions in this article will guide you to making smart choices with your new office pods.
As your team learns how they best use office pods, how they enjoy engaging with them, and where the best locations for them are, your office culture will evolve with them. After a few months, you’ll be wondering how you ever got through your to-do list without them.