Few of the best ideas are grown in a vacuum- innovation requires collaboration! As businesses begin to welcome more employees back to the office, now is the perfect time to consider how your office space inspires or prohibits a collaborative working environment.

Collaboration in the workplace has several significant benefits for organizations of all sizes. Not only does it help stimulate creativity and boost productivity, but collaboration also helps to foster a vibrant and inclusive corporate culture. Whether it’s sharing ideas informally with colleagues in the office lounge, buckling down in a conference room to meet an important deadline, or simply allowing employees to interact socially, creating an environment where people feel valued, supported, and connected makes the office a place people can be excited about going to. Cultivating a happy workplace is crucial to employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention.

Using Office Spaces in Vancouver to Spark Innovation 

Well, what does it take to create an office space that resonates with employees’ desire for social interaction while spurring innovativeness? It starts with good design!

Remove Barriers

Walls instinctively keep people out and you can help nurture a collaborative environment by removing these barriers. Bringing people together in a shared space is one of the best ways to spur innovation naturally. Rather than closed-door offices, consider a design with various styles of adaptable workspaces.

Open office spaces can be arranged in several ways: 

• Agile workstations provide freedom and flexibility. Rather than assigning seating, offer a variety of workstations so that each employee can choose a space that best supports their work style. 

• Office neighbourhoods are another open space design option that can help give employees in the same department, or those working together on a project, the ability to collaborate openly and easily. 

Create Designated Work Zones  

How your office space is laid out will significantly impact employees’ ability to interact and work together. Modern office design seeks to spark creativity and employee collaboration with purposefully designed space.

One way to achieve this goal is by creating separate workspaces within the office. For example, a designated quiet area with desk space, seating, and cooler lighting allow for focused concentration. In contrast, a separate zone with informal seating, warmer lighting, and maybe even a games table can help spur creative interaction and idea generation.

Embrace Technology for Office Collaboration 

While most people are more than a little tired of Zoom meetings and conference calls, technology still plays a vital role in team collaboration. Equip your team with all the tools they need to work and interact seamlessly. This essential technology includes support tools like TVs, tablets, smart screens, projectors that help teams visualize and share ideas, and unseen elements like wireless capabilities and strong Wi-Fi service.

The Light Effect 

Countless studies show that lighting dramatically affects our overall mood, health, and productivity. Natural light, in particular, has been shown to have the most significant positive benefit to employees. When evaluating your office space, pay attention to things like building orientation, ceiling height, and neighbouring structures, all of which will affect the amount of natural light your office receives. These factors are especially important in areas like Vancouver, which gets more than its fair share of overcast skies.

Where natural light isn’t possible, carefully consider your lighting options. As previously mentioned, blue-tone lighting can help with employee focus and is best used in dedicated work zones, while warmer lighting is better for informal, relaxation areas.

Collaboration is more than simply an industry buzzword; it’s an actionable set of ideas that can drive real change within your organization, from happier employees to higher productivity. If your current office space lacks the means to inspire collaboration, it may just be time for an office space update that prioritizes people.