Several factors affect productivity in the workplace. Anywhere from the corporate culture to the temperature levels can influence efficiency. However, did you know that utilizing high-quality office furniture could add to overall employee morale?
In this guide, we examine how aesthetically pleasing furniture can bring office productivity to greater heights.
Sometimes all you need to get your business going is great-looking office furniture.
High-Quality Furniture Can Be a “Hygiene Factor”.
American psychologist Frederick Herzberg talked extensively about “hygiene” factors in the workplace. This led to the “two-factor” theory that states that there are factors that cause satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and those that generally dissatisfy employees are hygiene factors.
A hygiene factor is something that an employee must have in their work. If it is present, it does not cause positive motivation, but the moment it becomes absent, it results in dissatisfaction and ultimately a loss in productivity.
An example would be employee salary, where the lack of a wage would dissatisfy an employee, but its presence is already a given and won’t make them work any harder.
A pleasant working environment can be considered a hygiene factor because its absence will be a cause for dissatisfaction amongst employees in the workplace. Part of a friendly working environment is the physical aspect of the environment itself. This includes furniture and fixtures.
In turn, one can consider furniture as a hygiene factor. However, being that it is needed to make sure that employees are always working to a particular standard, the purchase of high-quality furniture should be the norm.
High-quality furniture lasts longer and is always a better investment than cheap alternatives. It helps make sure that your employees are not dissatisfied with their working environment, and that they are always strategically placed to do the best work possible.
By simply picking out the best, you can bring out the best in other people.
Good Aesthetics Helps Motivate Your Employees.
Being able to work at a great looking place is enough reason for a lot of people to get up in the morning. Imagine how many people would trade their current jobs to work for a multinational company such as Google. Apart from the benefits that their employees get and what’s in the name itself, their sprawling offices set them apart.
Their fixtures of high-quality desks and furniture add to their visual appeal, making going to work a fun experience instead of thinking about it as a chore or working enclosed in a box.
High-quality furniture has the ability to influence the way people are motivated to work daily. Naturally, we are drawn to attractive places, and great aesthetics are part of the reason that the tourism industry has been growing. It’s not just the place itself that serve as motivators for people to work harder, but it is also the little details that make you stay.
When you have a great environment to work in, it maximizes your creativity and productivity because you feel as if you’re comfortable and you do not have to worry about anything else apart from the work that you have.
Great Furniture Designs Help Spark Creativity.
Even creative people have slow days on some occasions and for many, finding a muse can be as simple as looking around them. The beauty of high-quality furniture is that it is often designed well. These designs can serve as the basis for more creative endeavors in the company.
Creatives often benefit from a location that can also spark their creativity, and when even the furniture that they are exposed to becomes an avenue for them to imagine and get creative, it certainly helps them get going again.
However, it’s not just creative-types who benefit from this. Even analytical people can derive a sense of inspiration when looking at beautifully designed pieces of furniture. It offers a degree of catharsis because it is an art form in itself. One can look at furniture and, in a sense, restart their imagination and get it going again.
Apart from being aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, good-looking furniture makes places look and feel more professional to other people.
Inspiration, in turn sparks a productive mindset that allows people to be more productive in the things that they are doing.
Creates Multifunctional Workspaces.
Multifunctional workspaces also serve as a way of improving businesses with limited funds because they allow business owners to create multifunctional workspaces without having to build walls. For example, a standard workspace can be easily converted into a meeting area just by using the right type of furniture.
This promotes the flexibility of the office to adapt to changing needs that employees have. One does not need to have a meeting space that is rarely used and have space wasted; instead, any space can be converted any time that a need arises just with the use of furniture.
Multifunctional workspaces have furniture that serve different purposes and can be relied upon to provide these whenever there is a specific need that is required of them. This enhances the feeling of an office that can quickly adapt to the changes that they have.
In turn, furniture are not seen as inanimate objects that just serve one specific purpose, but rather dynamic and multidimensional fixtures that allow a lot to happen. What used to be considered boring is now compelling and, to a certain degree, it makes the office come to life.
High-Quality Furniture is a Sign That The Company is Invested in its Staff.
Great furniture costs a lot of money, and as such, it can be considered an investment. However, what one must realize is that furniture is bought primarily to facilitate the work of the employees working in the company.
Furniture allows employees to be able to fulfill the tasks that they have to do for the company with ease. However, a company that has invested in high-quality furniture for their staff also sends a message that they care a lot for their well-being and motivation.
This level of support from a company indicates that they will go as far as changing their employees’ environment in order to make it easier for the latter to function well in the workplace.
By knowing that their employers care about them even up to the smallest details, employees feel motivated to work harder in order to fulfill the needs of the company. People who receive investment are more likely to work harder and feel empowered in getting the job done for the people that they work for.
If employers decide to save money and provide their employees with cheap furniture, they can’t expect teams to work as efficient because it doesn’t seem as if the management is invested in them. This will become a problem in the long run, especially in larger companies.
High-Quality Furniture Lasts Longer.
The reason a lot of companies invest in high-quality furniture is the fact that it lasts longer than common choices such as fixtures made from wood pulp. This means they are more resistant not only to wear-and-tear, but also to other possible damage because of the way that they were built.
For instance, when affordable desks break, they can cause downtime because staff members will have nothing to use while they are being replaced. This loss of capital equipment will drive productivity lower as employees will have to adapt to temporary furniture for the interim.
Once you factor in the cost of the furniture replacement, you will have driven down both profits and cost the company money.
High-quality furniture from Minnesota might cost more money than cheap furniture, but you can maintain productivity, knowing that it won’t break as easily as its cheap counterparts. It’s the same psychology behind a lot of major purchases that people make.
Even used office cubicles are a better choice than poorly made brand-new cubicles that won’t be able to stand the test of time. As long as the furniture is made with excellent quality materials, you will be able to notice that it would be able to last longer than new ones.
High-quality furniture does not cause unnecessary downtime from breaking, thus being a source of productivity in the long run.
It Bolsters the Image of the Company and Employees.
Furniture built with both design and quality in mind are great for any company because they help in bolstering the company’s image. It is said that every little detail counts towards how a company’s brand is communicated to its shareholders, and it’s the same deal with high-quality furniture.
Each piece of furniture communicates the brand through both its design and the way it is built; think of it as an extension of the company’s brand image that they have to project to the people that they deal with on a regular basis.
Moreover, employees take pride in being able to work in a good-looking environment. In a way, it boosts their self-esteem and satisfied employees are productive employees in the workplace. Team members will be proud of the fact that they work for a company that puts value in everything, including their furniture. Large productive companies utilize high-quality furniture.
If you think about it, this is part of the branding and marketing of the company. It also matches well with the corporate culture that the company has established.
It Helps Boost the Feeling of Cleanliness.
Cleanliness and hygiene — not Herzberg’s hygiene factors this time around — are not just important aspects of organizations that serve food or cater to healthcare, but they also apply to other businesses, too.
High-quality furniture boosts the feel of a place, making it feel cleaner and with this, employees are better motivated to work. Clean spaces allow for great places to be productive. Think about the times where people have had to clean up their desks in order for them to be able to start being productive.
It is also important to note that hygiene communicates the attention to detail that a company has. Cleanliness does not only help boost the morale of the employees, but it also assists in marketing to customers.
It Helps Attract Customers and Clients.
Just as mentioned earlier, beautiful places tend to attract people and get them to stay, and this is the same for your clients as well. One thing that business owners have to note is that an increase in the number of clients is usually translated to a rise in productivity.
High-quality furniture and excellent design help attract customers because it promotes a sense of comfort when they are in a company’s premises.
However, it is not just businesses that are involved in design and hospitality that can benefit from this increase in productivity due to people liking the high-quality furniture that they may have on their premises. Places such as banks or firms where people and potential clients have to be entertained can benefit from high-quality furniture as well. Clients will immediately have a better impression of the business once they check out what kind of furniture they are using.
By choosing the right furniture, potential clients can assess that you are a firm that places a high value on high-quality products. As such, you are also a company that can provide the same quality to them.
Expensive furniture also indicates to clients that a company is more established and knows how to spend money on the assets that it has. This results in better clients and more work, making the workplace more productive.
Conclusion.
There are many benefits in using high-quality furniture to enable a company’s staff to work harder at their jobs. Productivity has always been the aim of all capital in a company, but furniture does not have to be directly correlated to productivity. It’s motivational and productivity effects can be the result of an externality that relates to work.
As you can observe, there are several benefits to the utilization of high-quality furniture in the furtherance of company productivity. It may cost more initially, but it is an investment that stays with the company. Thus, do not hesitate to use high-quality furniture in the workspace that you manage.
