Many of us spend a third of us in the office – and this is only if you are lucky to work with a normalized schedule. There are those who literally “live” in the office. Therefore, how the working space is organized, inevitably affects the health and well -being of employees.
The topic of inclusiveness (from English. Inclusion-the creation of conditions in which people with various features and preferences will be able to take the same participation in work processes), as well as health and well-being, is discussed in the HR communities for a long time. Today it is no longer necessary to prove that a physically and mentally healthy employee is much more profitable for the company than a burnt employee with chronic fatigue. This is important not only from ethical and social points of view, but also from the point of view of involving the team: modern companies need a person who is ready to demonstrate high results.
How to create conditions in which employees will feel comfortable? When creating office space, it is important to take into account several factors.
Firstly, all people are very different, and for some, the office may seem to be a “paradise”, and for others-a place with unbearable working conditions. For example, the classic Open Space may not be suitable for employees who prefer work in solitude and silence. For some, a decisive factor will be the presence of playing rooms or recreation areas with table tennis, hammocks or the ability to prescribe.
It is important to make sure that it is easy to get into the office to employees or guests with disabilities, to equip a room for young mothers
It’s hard to please everyone and is unlikely to be so necessary, but you can try to make sure that every employee can find a place to taste and feel like a part of the team. For example, the office space may include several zones: Open Space, rooms for individual work, recreation areas, negotiations of various types (large and spacious for meetings, small and more secluded – to discuss confidential issues).
Secondly, details are needed that will help take into account the preferences and features of each employee. It is important to make sure that it is easy to get into the office for employees or guests with disabilities, equip a room for young mothers, highlight the space where colleagues will be able to have lunch if they want to bring food with them with them.
Finally, landscaping and the presence of natural light is extremely important – the latter directly affects our mood and energy level during the day.
Provide colleagues “Freedom of movement” by office
More and more companies are trying to implement the concept of an innovative working space (WPI – WorkPLace Innovation), the main principle of which is that the employees are not assigned specific jobs. Everyone chooses a place that he likes more – in the epicenter of Open Space or in a closed room.
According to statistics, only 70% of employees are in the office every day – the remaining 30% spend time on business trips, customers, work remotely or are on sick leave. The WPI approach helps not only optimize expenses, but also increase the level of employees’ involvement and bring more flexibility to work processes.
At first glance, the idea sounds revolutionary: not everyone can imagine that, having come to work in the morning, they will find that their place is already occupied with someone. Nevertheless, in practice, most employees perceive this approach positively: according to a survey conducted after the implementation of WPI, almost 80% do not want to return to how it was before.
A flexible schedule and the ability to work remotely positively affect the involvement of employees and their productivity
Although there are those who do
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not like the innovation: they prefer to come early and occupy their favorite places. It is especially difficult to get used to the innovation for people with more conservative views and the need for “their corner” at work. It is important to understand the reasons for discontent: perhaps this approach does not allow an employee to work effectively with confidential data. Such cases should be taken into account and the possibility of secluded work.
In general, a flexible schedule and the ability to work remotely positively affect the involvement of employees and their productivity – both “larks” and “owls” are satisfied. As a rule, the transition to flexible hours of work does not require additional investments from the employer, the main condition is confidence in employees.
Pay attention to the psychotypes of employees
Various factors can affect the formation of our preferences: the environment and environment, the system of values, culture and education, as well as our psychological type. Carl Jung also considered the formation of personality as a result of the dynamic interaction of four preferences and the environment. Jung has developed a method for determining the type of personality with a description of characteristic preferences and models of behavior. In the future, his theory has acquired more applied forms that are now widely used in business (for example, MBTi, Insights Discovery).
Of course, not a single typology will explain the whole multifaceted of the human personality. Nevertheless, knowledge of various preferences, their understanding and acceptance help us to improve our communication skills, more effective to build relationships and better understand the nature of conflicts and motives for other people’s actions.
Knowing the characteristics of the psychological types of personality helps to expand our understanding of other people’s behavior
In business, the theory of preferences is actively used, for example, when building commands or in working with employees individually, when it is necessary to analyze the strengths and potential “blind zones”. Given the characteristics and preferences of a person, you can, for example, choose the correct time, place, format of the meeting and content of the conversation. Personal contact is important to someone, and someone will be happy to write without the need for a personal meeting.
On the one hand, knowledge of the characteristics of the psychological types of personality helps to expand our understanding of the behavior of other people and find an approach to each, on the other, it can become a serious limiter in our judgments and conclusions about others in an attempt to “drive” a person to a certain pattern of behavior.
Moreover, by human behavior, we can incorrectly consider his type. It is known that each of us can develop in ourselves the skills inherent in another type: an introvert can extrovert – and vice versa. As in everything, the balance is important: we use, but we are not fond of.
Heterogenic teams: benefits and effectiveness
Does this mean that in the process of selection of teams you need to strive to collect professionals with similar preferences in work, providing harmony and understanding? There is no definite answer to this question. It all depends on the tasks that the company set for itself.
In homogeneous teams, employees find a common language and points of contact faster than representatives of heterogeneous teams. But if the leader expects from a team of innovative ideas, non -standard moves and skills to effectively solve complex problems, then teams with more diverse experience, competencies and approach to work cope with such a task better. And in this case it is necessary to create the most favorable working conditions for each of the participants.
Of course, it is not easy to manage such a team – the probability that misunderstandings and conflicts will arise above. Heterogenic team may take more time to overcome internal contradictions before becoming a highly effective group of colleagues. Perhaps employees will “finalize” the office for themselves. The leader’s task is not only to form such a team, collecting talented people with various experience in one place, but also to create an environment in which such a team will be able to work at the maximum of their capabilities.
