For many years the office-based workforce was largely confined to individual offices, but the trend in the 21st Century is for open plan offices.
An open-plan layout predominantly consists of a large office space with desks in an open layout, with no barriers or walls between them, usually with partitioned individual offices around the perimeter for senior members of staff, meetings or training purposes.
The question is: why have we gone in this direction, and is it really the most effective working environment for a modern office working population?
The answer lies partly in changing business cultures and needs, but day-to-day benefits include the following:
1. Improved communication
It’s much easier to ask a colleague a quick question when you are sitting nearby. Otherwise you would have to either go into their office or make an internal phone call, which can be much more distracting.
Keeping humans cooped up in a confined environment is unlikely to inspire them
Being in the same office you are able to gauge much more accurately whether it is a “good time” to speak to your colleague, so as to minimise the disturbance.
Of course, all of this might be irrelevant if you work in a different country to your colleague, as is increasingly common, but of course the technology we have at our disposal increasingly advanced technology to conduct long-distance communication.
2. Overhearing
Although seen as rude outside of work, overhearing conversations is often encouraged in open-plan offices. It allows everyone to keep updated with relevant goings on without regular meetings, thus saving time. It can also allow a problem to be solved much more quickly if someone with a solution happens to overhear a conversation discussing it.
3. Space saving
Space is often a concern, particularly in city-centre locations, with rents going up all the time. Laying an office out in an open-plan format can save a lot of space and thus money.
4. Improved morale
Humans are social animals and want to interact with each other. Keeping them cooped up in a confined environment is unlikely to be inspirational for them.
Being able to easily converse with colleagues partly fulfils the social aspect of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and improves the mood of employees.
5. Easier management
When a supervisor has easy access to all of their employees in one place, it makes for much more efficient meetings. This is because a small group can easily have an informal work discussion without distracting others or even leaving their desks.
We can see that the changing needs of companies has changed attitudes towards how we should work. An open-plan environment is clearly a great option, particularly for any organisation for whom the majority of staff work in teams.
It should be said, however, that there is still room for individual offices, particularly for strategic or director-level employees. These people often do not need regular, informal discussions, depending on their role within the company.
The decision is down to the requirements of the individual organisation when all is said and done, but as you can see there are often some convincing arguments from a number of areas to suggest that it’s a good idea.
