How to spark inspiration, not fear, about moving to an open-plan office
How to spark inspiration, not fear, about moving to an open-plan office
Successful change management starts with making everyone feel involved in the process
A growing number of office and facilities managers are tasked with getting employees on board and excited at the idea of moving to an open-plan office. That’s no small feat in a world where people love to point out the distractions, noise, and lack of privacy often associated with these spaces.
The good news: open-plan offices have many benefits, and moving to one doesn’t necessarily mean the death of productivity for your employees. If you are in the process of trying to convince your company to transition to one, here are a few steps to keep in mind:
Turn change into a chance to collaborate
Most people fear any kind of change, especially when it comes to the way they work. Rather than dismissing employees’ concerns about noise or privacy, turn those fears into an opportunity to use one of the key benefits of open-plan offices: collaboration.
The Gensler U.S. Workplace Survey 2019 found that team building and collaboration are ranked highest in terms of what people think will build a great workspace experience. And you can manipulate your space to enable that kind of group-focused setting.
At The Bridge Group, we recently worked with a medical services client who was able to foster healthy collaboration in an open-office setting. We transitioned them from high-walled cubicles to an open layout coupled with private spaces. At the same time, the company designated what kinds of meetings warranted those closed spaces. If the group was only two to three people, the meeting was to be held out on the floorplan. For more formal meetings that included more people, where sensitive information was being discussed, the project manager proposed “team rooms” that could accommodate up to six people. These were equipped with writable walls and interactive displays.
Highlight the middle ground between “open” and “closed”
The medical company’s approach highlights another important aspect of the open office, and one the Gensler survey detailed at length: most workers don’t want a totally open or closed setting. In the survey, 77% of respondents “consider environments that fall between these two extremes to be ideal.”
As the infographic below shows, that middle ground includes desks with low panels around them for partial privacy, shared offices, where smaller teams of three to six people sit in a space together, and on-demand private space when it’s needed, like soundproof phone rooms and meeting areas.
The survey notes: “Environments that are mostly open environments but provide ample on-demand private space have both the highest effectiveness and the highest experience scores.”
Tour a working open office
For some teams, understanding what this middle-ground entails is best illustrated by taking people to an actual office that’s implemented these tactics and running a successful version of the open office. If you’re finding a lot of pushback from employees in your discussions,
The Bridge Group can find an office that’s willing to show its workspace and take your employees, so they can experience a working space first-hand. That way they’ll get a better understanding of how open-offices function in real life.
Give employees a say in their own space
That “hands-on” approach to winning employees over can work inside your existing office, too. Create a mockup of the new office space people can actually visit, bring their laptops to, and hold meetings in. Give them some time to try working in this space, and be sure to include the chance for them to offer feedback (via surveys, for example).
While the buck may stop at you for many of the final decisions, giving your employees this kind of involvement helps them feel they’re part of the decision-making process and not just having change thrust upon them. The more you can do to help employees of multi-generations envision their team collaborating in an open setting, the more likely they’ll embrace the transition process with open arms and forget their initial hesitation.
Learn more about what it takes to transition and design your custom open office workplace by contacting us today. Stay tuned for our next blog, which will explore the open-open office plan from the eyes of a construction project manager with expertise in actual layout strategies.
