Categories
work environment

5 Office Amenities Your Employees Will Thank You For

office amenities

Are you a business owner looking to increase employee satisfaction and productivity rates? If so, it might be time to spruce up your office and incorporate a few new amenities your employees need. Today, we will share 5 essential office amenities your employees will love and that you should consider for your upcoming office remodel. Keep reading to learn more!

1. Comfortable Furniture

Keep your team happy and healthy during a long workday by ensuring your office contains a full kitchen well stocked with essentials and employee favorites. Be sure to keep coffee, bottled water, healthy snacks, and other employee requests on hand for your team to access. This is one of the best ways to satisfy everyone in the office!

2. Well Equipped Kitchen

Keep your team happy and healthy during a long workday by ensuring your office contains a full kitchen well stocked with essentials and employee favorites. Be sure to keep coffee, bottled water, healthy snacks, and other employee requests on hand for your team to access. This is one of the best ways to satisfy everyone in the office!

3. Fitness Equipment

Employees who have access to a gym at work report experiencing higher satisfaction, productivity, and motivation rates than those who do not. Encourage your team members to exercise without hassle by building a gym or recreational area where employees can enjoy access to fitness equipment before or after work. This is not only a great way to keep your employees satisfied but also a great way to encourage team bonding and boost morale around the office.

4. Quiet Spaces

Offering a variety of spaces for employees to work is the key to maximizing your business’s success. While some employees prefer to work near other team members where collaboration is encouraged, others might perform better when working in a silent environment. One of the most crucial office amenities in any modern workplace is a quiet room or space where employees can work when they need peace and quiet.

5. Commercial Water Filter System

Most offices have a water cooler for employees to access freely today, but one of the best office amenities in modern workspaces is a state-of-the-art commercial water filter system. Encouraging employees to stay hydrated throughout the day can enhance their physical and mental health, leading to numerous benefits both in and out of the office.

Looking to add some helpful office amenities to your workspace? Whether you’re looking to begin construction on a new room, such as a gym or quiet space, or completely renovate your office interior to include these new elements, the office design experts at Key Interiors are here to help. With decades of experience designing, building, and furnishing commercial offices, we can turn your dream office into reality, complete with all the amenities needed to keep your employees satisfied. 

Contact us today to learn more about our services or to get a quote on the cost of an upcoming project. 

Categories
breakroom design office design practices office redesign Office Renovation

How an Office Couch Can Improve Workplace Happiness

Today’s best workplaces provide more than space for people to work. They create an experience, with modern office design elements being used to improve the psychological — and sometimes even the physical — well-being of the people inside. Research indicates that the smallest design detail can make a big difference in employee engagement, efficiency and productivity and can attract (or repel) clients and future partners alike. Furniture, in particular, has been shown to directly affect office functionality in a way that often impacts its bottomline. For instance, take a look at how a single piece of furniture, the office couch, can bolster employee happiness and, ultimately, improve a company’s ROI:

An Office Couch Encourages Togetherness

A couch probably isn’t the first piece of furniture that comes to mind when thinking about how to furnish an office space (unless you’re in the counseling business). However, having a couch in a room establishes the expectation that people will be gathering there and, therefore, need a place to sit. A couch encourages community, physically bringing together individuals so that they can more easily communicate with one another and hopefully build meaningful relationships. And meaningful relationships, according to an ongoing Harvard study, are the key to happiness.

An Office Couch Encourages Productivity

In addition to encouraging healthy personal relationships, an office couch makes it easy for colleagues to have conversations with one another, especially when there are few personal offices and/or conference rooms in which to meet. Even when a dedicated meeting space is available, oftentimes meeting on a couch is a less formal option than sitting around a large table or behind a desk, making it easier for workers to avoid perceived hierarchies and instead focus on collaboration and teamwork. The benefit: less stress, improved productivity and better outcomes.

 

An Office Couch Provides Comfort

Finally, working at a desk all day can be a drag, for the body, as well as the mind. The right type of office couch allows employees the option of moving from their chair to a more comfortable spot. Indeed, not only does an office couch motivate them to get up and walk, breaking up the monotony of the day, it can provide the physical support that their bodies need to relax (even if it’s just for a few moments). Approximately 59% of people in one study (summarized here) said that taking “breaks [during the workday] would improve their work happiness, and 43% said it would boost their personal happiness.” That’s a significant number of people who could benefit from adding an office couch to their work environment!

Want to Learn More?

Adding an office couch to the workplace can improve the mood of employees, thus facilitating a boost in performance that burgeons a company’s bottom line. But an office couch isn’t the only design element able to benefit a business’s growth. To learn more about optimizing office design so that your company makes the most of the resources available to it, please contact our team at Key Interiors. For over 70 years we have been providing our clients with innovative design options that translate into profitable business solutions.

Categories
covid compliant design

How to Keep Your Commercial Construction Project COVID Compliant

As we’ve noted numerous times before, improving the nature of an office space can have a big positive impact on employee morale and productivity. And given the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic, many business leaders have made the decision to alter their workspace for the foreseeable future. If you’re considering a new commercial construction project to improve your office design, you may be wondering how to manage such an undertaking. After all, it’s crucial that any office redesign project you start remains COVID-compliant throughout. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to ensure your team, business partners, and customers remain safe and healthy during a commercial construction project. Here are several key tips to keep in mind: 

Partner with the Right Construction Company

As one might imagine, hiring a capable and responsible construction company will go a long way toward ensuring your commercial construction project runs smoothly. Make sure that you partner with a company that adheres to COVID-19 safety best practices and standards. In addition, construction companies should designate separate entrances and exits just  for their employees and provide them with separate facilities for regular use. The less contact between different groups of people, the better. 

Follow COVID Protocols

Ideally, you should try to ensure that your team members don’t have to come into contact with professionals from other work environments. Identify certain choke points –– like hallways or elevators –– and instruct employees to maintain a safe social-distance around these areas. In addition, following basic COVID-19 hygiene protocols can help keep your team safe. Wearing masks, washing hands, and sanitizing work areas frequently can cut down on the risk of transmission. Ideally, construction crews should work in sealed, isolated areas away from your employees, but it’s best to be prepared for any possible exposure. Note that construction crews should follow these COVID best practices as well –– in addition to other measures such as alternating work-day shifts.

Build Your Plan Now

Do not try to start a commercial construction project and implement COVID protocols as you go. Instead, before you partner with a construction company or start your project, be sure to develop a plan that encapsulates all of the standards referenced above. What’s more, depending on the size or length of your project, you may elect to institute even more rigorous measures. In any case, getting this covid compliant design plan down early will allow you to communicate your expectations to your business partners and to your own staff. 

Key Fact: Keep in mind that construction projects actually work better now with reduced office staff on site. This also allows for professionals to work in their own personal spaces without experiencing any disruption or distraction associated with commercial construction projects. 

Contact Us

Key Interiors can help your company successfully improve your office design and ensure your next commercial construction project remains COVID compliant. We’ll help you create a COVID-compliance design plan, implement measures like separate facilities and isolated work areas, and enable your team to perform at their best during construction. Contact us here to learn more or to get started today.

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