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Agile workspaces are a great way to boost office performance. They increase productivity by providing spaces where teams can reach decisions swiftly, encouraging collaborative efforts, and promoting positivity in the workforce leading to high-quality results.
Find out how to build an agile space and increase your productivity.
What is an agile workspace?
An agile office is a modern design technique centred around the idea of letting people work anywhere, anytime, in the office of their choice. Being an agile office is to break up traditional departmental offices and foster collaboration between dynamic team combinations and exchange expert knowledge with greater synergy.
Agile workspaces are creative and innovative spaces, all about exploring and discovering new ways to work together as a team. They offer people the freedom to choose the best environment for their current tasks and provide seamless teamwork through technology.
You can see examples of some of the agile workspaces we have created for our clients here. In particular, our work with Kinesso, to transform their space in Leeds to have a similar look and feel to their headquarters in London. Agile and hybrid working was a strong focal point within the design opting for a variety of furniture options that supported this idea, including booths, pods and a large canteen area – see more about this here!
What are the benefits of an agile workspace?
Speed and efficiency
Agile office designs allow businesses to react quickly and make fast decisions. They do this by creating an atmosphere and design that allows quick communication and exchange of ideas.
Innovative solutions
By breaking down the traditional structure of offices, agile environments encourage different experts to come together and provide a unique solution to the challenges a business may face. This allows businesses to stay ahead of the curve and discover new opportunities for growth.
Fosters collaboration
As their flexible working spaces are created by a breakdown of structure, agile offices provide a fantastic way for staff to meet and start exchanging ideas. They are great for businesses that want to build a community and culture.
Create a happy workforce
Employees are free to choose their own work areas based on their personal preference for the task, this creates a happier work environment due to a greater sense of freedom. People who need to concentrate don’t need to be distracted by interruptions from a busy sales team.
How to create an Agile office
Design for flexibility and adaptability. Two of the most used working styles in agile offices are hot desking and hotel desking. These working styles allow workers to choose where and how they will work on task.
Creating a flexible working environment provides employees with a sense of autonomy and responsibility – empowering them to manage their own tasks and workloads.
How to create a flexible workspace
Easy to move furniture
Office furniture that is easy to move or can be packed away is ideal for creating flexible workspaces. This allows people to move desks for huddle sessions or to be away from the crowd to concentrate on their own work.
This is also great for desk-hoteling workstyles, as you can pack away the desks when no one has booked them and create an open collaborative space for other activities.
Provide different types of spaces
Offer people a variety of workspaces. By offering a different range of working options you’ll allow teams and individuals to find the best environment for them to thrive.
Design offices for activity-based working
Activity-based workspaces are areas designed around a single purpose or function. For example, relaxing waiting areas for break areas, quiet solo areas for focused work, and open, flexible spaces for collaborative discussions.
Activity-based working allows people to choose the office space that fits the way they’ll be working that day. This empowers workers to make smart decisions on where to work to be most productive for the tasks they’re focused on.
How to create an activity-based working office design
Collaborative Spaces
Creating spaces for teams to get together and discuss ideas is important. And there are a large number of ways you can create these spaces – depending on the purpose and function of the meeting.
Having a closed-off space, with movable furniture and a whiteboard is great for those prolonged meetings ironing out the details of something important. A relaxing lounge is ideal for quick catch-up where you want everyone to feel relaxed.
Huddle Rooms
Huddle rooms are small meeting areas ideal for spur-of-the-moment team meetings. These dedicated spaces are usually designed to accommodate a small number of people and monitors for screen sharing or video conferencing.
Café Areas
More businesses want to incorporate café-style areas into their office designs. These areas are popular as they provide a place for colleagues to discuss work whilst getting a drink or bite to eat. They are also great spaces for deep workers who like a din in the background.
Design office spaces for deep work
Giving employees quiet spaces to focus and get lost in their work is essential. This state of deep concentration has been called ‘deep work’ as it goes deeper than being aware of your work to being immersed in your task.
Cal Newport, a professor at George Town University, conducted research that found the most productive workers concentrated for longer periods of time. Providing and cultivating areas for employees to engage in deep work is crucial for business to flourish.
Agile office design allows companies to build areas dedicated to helping employees to work deeply.
Work only areas
These areas are specialised zones centered around providing quiet areas dedicated to work alone. These zones should provide a variety of different work settings, as people have different preferences in how they work best. Provide café-style areas for people who like a bit of noise in the background, shared desks for people who enjoy company and isolation pods for people who prefer to be alone.
Minimalist areas
Areas designed with a minimalist approach help the mind focus on the task at hand by providing fewer distractions. Create workspaces with easy-to-clean desks with just enough space for a laptop. This creates a decluttered space where people can focus on their work.
Isolation Pods
Cal Newport’s research suggests that placing optional isolation nodes or solo work areas inside co-working spaces will help employees who need to focus on individual projects. Isolation pods are a great way to insert these areas into an office.
Creating agile workspaces that give employees the freedom to use the space in a way that compliments their working style or current project can improve productivity, quality of work and creates happy teams.
Our team have a wealth of experience creating agile and flexible spaces. Get in touch to discover how we can transform your space.
