The
Great Work Blog

We have good news to share! McCoy Rockford has been named a @Steelcase 2019 Premier Partner Recipient and we are more excited than ever to share the announcement with all of our valued clients and employees.

While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has offered extensive cleaning and disinfection recommendations, along with hand washing direction to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, McCoy Rockford and Steelcase also want to offer assistance and service to businesses at this time.

McCoy Rockford is open for business and will continue to serve our clients in the best way possible. We care deeply about our people, our customers and the community. With that in mind, we do believe that it is important to help slow the spread of COVID-19 while continuing to run our business.

When it comes to sustainable design, the benefits are plenty — your sustainable design can help keep the blue planet green, but it can also increase the health and happiness of your employees and save you money. Luckily, technological advances of the 21^st century have made it easier to make sustainable choices. From upcycling and choosing environmentally friendly materials to opting for an innovative office interior, learn how sustainable design can save you money, increase the wellbeing of your employees and help keep the earth spinning round.

Learn how to keep your corporate office current through commercial interior design. With a workplace that is constantly evolving, you must adapt if you hope to create a corporate office that encourages efficiency and keeps employees happy. Improve productivity and increase engagement when you opt for an innovative corporate office design.

Breathe life into the workplace with the top three trending office colors for 2020. Studies show that different colors have different effects. Whether choosing furniture pieces for the office or putting paint on the wall, the colors you choose matter — some colors are comforting and refreshing while others cause agitation. Use color wisely when you pick hues to uplift employees and enhance mood.

Personalizing your workplace helps employees feel comfortable and can increase efficiency and productivity. Your healing, learning or working environment becomes a happier and healthier space for all when employee wellbeing is a priority. Ready to learn more? McCoy Rockford reveals three easy ways to achieve a custom workplace design where your employees will thrive.

According to Edutopia’s latest video “A Child-First Approach to Classroom Design,” flexible classrooms give students choice over where and how they work. Adaptable learning spaces focus on the importance of a child feeling a sense of freedom in the environment, and furniture, technology, wall solutions and flooring can play an extensive role in the comfort and engagement that a room may provide.

Natural Light Can Brighten More Than Just the Room
Both students and teachers spend most of their day inside a classroom. To that end, creating the right environment where all can thrive is crucial. When trying to spark creativity and grow innovative minds, academic settings should have an energetic atmosphere, made possible by inviting natural light in with glass walls. Dividing walls can then be used to create more personal, quiet learning spaces. Learn more about establishing a flexible space with architectural walls.

What departments make up the Austin operations team?

As the debate over office space environment continues, McCoy Rockford brings you both sides of the discussion. This month, we’re focusing on the argument for corporate environments and how more traditional workspaces can drive professional behavior.

As seen in the IFMA Houston Chapter newsletter!

Although agile principles have guided the software development industry since 2001, non-tech companies have adopted agile best practices to guide their own projects. From increasing synergy and creating a culture of hyper-connectedness to improving efficiency and empowering employees, organizations are seeing the impact of agile work teams. In fact, the 2017 Forbes Achieving Greater Agility Report found:

Commercial Interiors Tailored to How People Live & Work

Let’s face it, people get more done when they’re engaged and energized as opposed to when they’re uncomfortable and restricted. To break from routine, McCoy Rockford unveiled our new brand to show the world (or at least the Austin and Houston marketplaces) that when you create lively and comfortable workspaces that include more than just your typical furnishings, people can be themselves and thrive.  

As the debate over office space environment continues, McCoy Rockford brings you both sides of the discussion. This month, we’re focusing on the argument for resimercial, or home-inspired, spaces. Read on for our team’s thoughts and don’t forget to check back in May for the counterpoint.

Contemporary Workspaces Highlight Aspects of Home to Increase Employee Comfort
The lines have never been more blurred between work and home. As employee needs and wants evolve, forward-thinking designs blend the best of residential and commercial furnishings to create a workspace that is comfortable and familiar, while being flexible and inspiring. The reality is that most people are putting in longer hours at work, so why not provide them a space they actually want to live and work in?

How many people make up the Houston operations team?
58 people

How do clients benefit from your experience?
Our team operates like a well-oiled machine. We have great teamwork and trust each other, which helps us work seamlessly. Because most team members have been in the business for a while, our knowledge and experience are vast which is an asset to our clients. Our team is also made up of a lot of tenured employees, which is important for building and investing in relationships with our clients. We’re familiar and clients will often ask for us by name.

In a recent article, the top 12 most annoying workplace habits were listed from most to least irritating. While it was a pretty comprehensive list, nowhere in the article were solutions to these everyday workplace anguishes. As the McCoy-Rockford team read on, we couldn’t help but realize the commercial interior products we recommend to our clients would assuage these common annoyances. In fact, three of the most agreed upon annoyances – loud talking, interruptions and complaining – can all be solved by incorporating the right office furniture, flooring, architectural walls and technology. Read on for our solutions.

While work somehow always finds its way home with us, a recent trend has made it possible for home to come to work. With the lines between home and work becoming more blurred, resimercial design blends the best of residential and commercial furnishings to create workspaces that are comfortable and familiar, while still being engaging.

Yesterday in New York, Steelcase revealed their revolutionary new seating design, SILQ. Using a pioneering development in materials science and a patent-pending process, Steelcase’s team of material scientists, designers, and engineers have created a truly unique product.

The future of medical office interior design is trending towards comfort. Patients are becoming more discerning consumers when it comes to choosing where they go for their healthcare. As a result, spa-like waiting rooms, private patient accommodations, fancy technology and lavish interior design are all becoming more common sights when you visit the doctor’s office.

The medical field is one of the most stressful work environments around, so burnout for medical staff can be quite high. The work involved can be both emotionally and physically draining, but employees in the medical field always need to be performing at their best.

Design is always evolving, especially in our home town of Houston, Texas.  

If you’ve worked in healthcare for any length of time, you’ve probably asked yourself how you can improve your patient satisfaction scores. HCAHPS scores are one of the most important benchmarks for patient satisfaction in the healthcare industry, and they can also have a significant financial impact on your medical clinic. HCAHPS stands for "Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems", and it is a survey that measures a patient’s experience at a medical facility, with 30 percent of Medicare re-imbursements tied to achieving satisfactory scores.

As a staple in the Houston design scene for 65 years, McCoy Rockford is invested in keeping ourselves and our clients up-to-date on the latest design trends and advances in our home city.

At McCoy Rockford we’re fascinated to see how design is constantly evolving. Especially in Houston, Texas, our home of 65 years.

At McCoy Rockford we’re always interested in seeing how design is evolving. Especially in our home town of Houston, Texas.

 Whether a medical office is an independent clinic or one department in a large hospital, addressing and treating patients in a timely manner is always a priority. Even though lengthy wait times are common, it should be no surprise they also have long been associated with low scores on patient satisfaction surveys. No one likes sitting in a waiting room for an hour while wondering if the person next to them has the sniffles or the plague. Interestingly, patient satisfaction scores are not the only metric negatively affected by long waits.

There are a lot of things to consider when you’re thinking of redesigning your medical office. You have to consider what budget and resources you can afford to dedicate to your redesign, for example. What décor and furniture will best suite your practice. And what changes will ultimately benefit your practice and your patients the most.

Medical clinics are often at a disadvantage when it comes to finding adequate office space. Most commercial space is designed with retail businesses or conventional offices in mind. Neither of those layouts is ideal for medical clinics. As a result, medical practices often have to improvise when it comes to their medical office design. Sometimes that can mean trying to adapt a less traditional layout to meet your clinic’s needs, or trying to make a smaller-than-ideal health space work for a growing practice.

There are a lot of factors that go into designing and buying furniture for your waiting room. It can be hard to know where to start. You probably have a general idea of how much money you can afford to spend, but no idea how prioritize or budget for each item. The best way to start planning your design and creating a furniture budget is to break it down into categories.

Since the field of healthcare is always advancing, experts often consider what the future of healthcare will look like. Usually, they address changes in diagnostics or treatment. But one of the most important answers to that question may be found in the way medical facilities adapt their spaces to better accommodate staff, patients, and their families.

As a commercial interiors dealership with 65 years of experience in the industry, we’re always interested in seeing how design is evolving. Especially in our home state of Texas.

At McCoy Rockford we’re always interested in seeing how design is evolving, especially in our own City of Houston. To help dive into some of the questions surrounding design in Houston, what the current trends are, and where future trends are going, we hosted a round panel discussion with principals from some of the best architecture and design firms in Houston.

When you were growing up, your mother probably told you first impressions are the most important. She was right. And when it comes to the field of healthcare, the waiting room makes the first impression patients have of your medical office, and the services you provide. Today, a medical clinic’s first impression and its waiting room are more important than ever.

It seems everyone has a horror story (or several) about an office meeting that gone awry, gone awkward, or just gone on too long. When meeting with your office moving project team, you don't want to waste time (yours or theirs). If the details of your office move aren't figured out far enough in advance, you’ll suffer delays and costs that could’ve been avoided.

Every office move has some unique quirks. Some industries, however, require more than just your average office mover. For example, when you work in a medical office your move won’t be as simple as packing up chairs, desks and filing cabinets. Healthcare moves are in a category all their own.

In “Creating an Office Relocation Project Team, Pt. 1,” we outlined three key roles in the office relocation process. Delegating a relocation coordinator, an office telecommunications coordinator, and partnering with office movers are all important steps in making sure your office relocation goes smoothly.

You may think your office relocation is done once you’ve arrived in your new location and set up your offices, but that’s not the case. After a hectic office move, conflict is practically inevitable. Relocations bring a large dose of change, and employees will react with different expectations for what that change means to them and the company. According to Tamara Lytle of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), conflict takes place when differences over varied expectations attempt to coexist.

Most of the time, growing your business means moving your office into a space with more square feet, not fewer. Most of the time, "downsizing” describes a low point in a company’s history. Most of the time, increasing productivity just means everyone has enough space to work alone quietly. As you'll see... today’s workplace seems to no longer care about “most of the time.”

Your office moving budget comes down to more than just rentals and packing supplies. According to Geoff Williams at US News, the average mover tends to underestimate the cost of their move. By building a budget based on cheaper vendors rather than the best service, many companies assume they’ll recover from any downtime without a significant dip in revenue. But our many years of experience with office relocations has caused us to know better when it comes to making a move affordable.

Furniture providers make the best office movers. Think about it: who would you rather have moving heavy, fragile–not to mention expensive–equipment besides those whose day-in-day-out business involves moving heavy, fragile, and expensive equipment?

Running a business is tough but rewarding work. Every day as a business leader, you’re forced to make decisions that will prove beneficial or detrimental to you, your employees, and your clients/customers. Among these difficult decisions rests the ever-important answer to the question, "When is it the right time to move my business?"

75% of employees who follow their company in an office move will consider their move stressful. In fact, a study conducted by the medical researchers at Health Status found that along with the death of a loved one, divorce, a major illness, and the loss of a job... moving is among the 5 most stressful events in a person’s life.

Office relocation is costly. And many times, the cost is more than just financial. According to the International Facility Management Association (headquartered in Houston, Texas), 66% of employees tasked with spearheading an office relocation process are either fired or quit within 6 months of the move. 

Dennis A. Attwood is an office environment expert who literally wrote the book on Office Relocation. Filled with information on everything from floor layout and space planning to managing employees and outside vendors, Attwood’s sourcebook serves as an in-depth and practical guide for those looking to move offices due to company growth or downsizing.

We’ve been a part of quite a bit of office relocation, so you can imagine how excited we were to recently partner with Southwestern Energy when they decided to move their 1000+ employees from across 5 campuses into one centralized location.

Relocating from one office to another is a hectic time. After you’ve hired the best office moving partners and followed the guidelines in our Office Moving Checklist, there’s still one more important step: Organizing your furniture and equipment in your new office.

Researchers recently surveyed 65,000 employees to evaluate the state of communications between CEOs and those who work for them. According to researcher Rodney Gray, the results were not good news to senior executives who fancy themselves good communicators. 90% of employees didn’t feel their leaders were even aware of their concerns while 85% deemed their executive’s communication ineffective.

When Scott Langdon was moving his company from one location to another, he learned a lot of lessons about office moving. Unfortunately, the owner and managing partner of HigherVisibility had to learn these lessons the hard way.

Busy work. The phrase itself conjures up sensations of boredom and frustration. According to Merriam-Webster, busy work is “work that usually appears productive or of intrinsic value but actually only keeps one occupied.” Unless you’re a creativity machine with nothing but innovation oozing out from your ears, you’re both familiar and fed up with busy work. 

There’s a popular bumper sticker that can be spotted on trucks throughout the country (particularly here in Texas). It says, “Yes, I drive a truck. No, I won’t help you move.” There’s a reason these bumper stickers sell so well: no one likes moving. Sure, moving your office might be a sign of growth, but figuring out the logistics of relocating all of your things to another location probably isn't atop your list of fun things to do.

“Get through the move as quickly and seamlessly as possible, with minimal disruption.” That’s how Compare My Move’s expert Anna Athanasiadis defines the goal of any company going through an office move. Of course, a goal like this is easier said than done.

If you’ve ever moved from one home to another on your own, you understand that unexpected needs arise throughout the moving process. Now multiply those issues by the size of your company and you can see why moving offices can be a big headache.

The short answer is yes. While any office move requires a budget, it doesn’t have to be a sunk cost. Your company funds can become an investment when you plan your office relocation correctly. Our years of experience with office moving have taught us the difference between spending money to get work done, and spending money that will eventually work for you. Here are 3 ways your office relocation can result in a great return on investment.

Office movers will tell you that when it comes to commercial office relocation, time is money. How can you make sure you’re maximizing your time throughout your office move?

 There are 2 big benefits available to you and your company during an office move. You’ve heard the saying, “Out with the old, and in with the new.” Essentially, that’s the process your company is encountering when you move out of your old location and into the new one. 

In our final StartUp Culture series article, John Arenas sat down to discuss the evolving workplace and how his company, Serendipity Labs Coworking, is helping steer the ship. Serendipity is creating co-working spaces throughout the country, including a new space in Houston's Esperson Building.

Our event “Understanding StartUp Culture and its Impact on Businesses” featured panelists with unique perspectives on startup culture in today’s evolving office environment. One unique perspective is that the same entrepreneurial spirit driving small and medium businesses forward is also at work in the world of large corporations.           

The walls in your office play a concrete role in your company. That’s the conclusion after a 10-year long study was conducted on the American workplace. Mithra Moezzi and John Goins are the researchers at the Center for the Built Environment at UC-Berkeley who initiated the survey and published their findings. 

4,000 office workers across 11 different industries were surveyed to discover what successful, innovative, and creative workplaces look like in 2016. The evidence points to one major finding: creativity and innovation both follow great workplace design. When it comes to attaining great workplace design, Gensler’s 2016 Workplace Survey discovered which factors play the biggest role in an excellent workplace design.             

In October of 2016, McCoy-Rockford hosted “Understanding Startup Culture and its Impact on Businesses” with our cohosts Turnstone and Cameron Management. The event included conversations with panelists possessing unique perspectives on startup culture in today’s evolving office environment.

New office trends like Hot Desking don’t just take place at The Edge, Deloitte’s fully-optimized building in Amsterdam. At home in Houston, Texas, one company took a good look at their procedures and decided it was time to maximize their time and space more effectively.

When the “smartest building in the world,” the “greenest building in the world,” and the “Uber of buildings” are all the same building, one can’t help but take notice. The Edge in Amsterdam is a futuristic office structure that takes care of details other office employees around the world have to manage every day. Among the innovative ideas being instituted at the Edge is a new trend called “Hot Desking.” This workplace trend has become a hot topic in office buildings around the world, but is it one you should consider?

When Jeff Lesk and his team of lawyers at Nixon-Peabody in Washington D.C. were looking for a new office space, they decided to shake things up a bit. In the lawyer world, that doesn’t happen very often. What resulted was a complete overhaul of the way law offices approach corporate space across the country.

 If you read our recent blog about eating at your desk, you know how awful it is to skip breaks and lunches throughout the workday. Desk eating is dangerous for your mental and physical health as well as for the quality of the work you think you’re getting done.

Are you happy to see your employees powering through lunchtime by eating at their desks, or skipping breaks altogether? Not so fast. Working through lunch seems like a sign of motivated workers, but research shows a dark side to this habit. A new study from Right Management shows that neglecting to take breaks throughout one’s workday decreases productivity, morale, and wellness. Another study conducted by the employment consultants at CareerBuilder found that only 20% of executives eat lunch at sit down restaurants while 40% brown bag their lunches in their office and 17% grab quick bites at fast food.

Workplace Engagement, according to The Roesler Group, is “the heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work.” In other words, an engaged employee is one who feels connected to their work and therefore performs better. This is what every business leader wants to cultivate.

1.2 million people work as lawyers in the United States. The majority of these legal professionals work in solo or small firms with fewer than six other lawyers. The number of large law firms, however, is growing. In fact, between 1980 and 2000, the number of firms with at least 100 lawyers doubled.

Distractions Compromise Innovation

Chances are, between the moment you clicked this article and when you began reading this sentence, you’ve been distracted by something or someone. Distractions at work are so common, they seem to be the whitespace surrounding most workplaces. To overcome distractions and actually get work done, you may want to meet Brody. We’ll introduce you later in this article. 

Is it controversial to tell your workers they should be in the office? Answers from few high-tech CEOs may surprise you.

When Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, banned her 12,000 employees from working at home, the outrage was immediate. New York Times Contributor Farhad Manjoo’s 2013 Slate article eviscerated Mayer for her dictatorial control over her employees’ lives. In one borderline personal attack on Mayer, Manjoo wrote, “Mayer is going to regret this decision. It’s myopic, unfriendly, and so boneheaded that I worry it’s the product of spending too much time at the office. (She did, after all, build a nursery next to her office to house her new baby).” Yahoo made the announcement to employees through a memo sent by Human Resources. 

Even though between 80%-90% of the U.S. workforce expresses interest in working remotely at least part of the time, only 2.8% of the workforce actually does. Based on those numbers, it’s likely your company has already had to address the option of remote work. So, how do you decide if working remotely is right for your workers?

Technology has become an integral part of our lives. We have smart phones, smart cars, and smart homes. Everywhere you look, technology is making our lives a little more convenient. The office is the one place that is currently lagging behind in the “smart” trend. While we have cars that can give us directions to wherever we want to go, and smart phones that allow us to work, communicate and check our schedules on the move, most offices are still missing out on the same kind of technology that would make them more efficient and automated.

In a recent episode of Steelcase’s podcast 360 Real Time, Scott Sadler, Manager of Integrated Technologies at Steelcase, discussed some of the possibilities for smart offices, how in the future they will be able to unify and improve your office, and some of the products that Steelcase is introducing to help make that vision a reality.

6,000 workers were recently asked, “Where do you do your best thinking?” The study was conducted by David Rock’s NeuroLeadership Group, an institute formed to help people and companies better understand how the brain functions. Findings from the study spell bad news for executives who need their employees to think critically: only 10% of employees tend to do their best thinking while at work.

The office is still one place currently lagging behind the “smart” trend. Our coffee makers can wake up before we do in order to get us our coffee quickly. Our cars can steer themselves. But the same kind of technology that would make offices more efficient and automated seems to be missing. Not to be harsh, but our offices can be a little, well…dumb.

Healthy employees cost you less--that’s the conclusion of Harvard Business Review’s recent investigation of companies who’ve implemented wellness programs. Organizations like Johnson & Johnson and MD Anderson Cancer Center, both gigantic facilities with a large amount of employees (and an even larger amount of bills) decided several years ago they’d do something about the rising cost of health care for their employees.

At McCoy-Rockford, our commitment to enhancing the overall wellbeing and productivity of our customers’ employees starts at the very beginning of the design process. We understand that planning and designing for spaces that promote employee wellbeing through interaction, movement and productivity across different types of tasks, can help employees function at a higher level, building engagement. Employee engagement leads to innovation, creativity, and ultimately better business results for organizations with lower turnover and less absenteeism.

The workplace is undergoing some major generational changes, which are manifesting themselves both in office design and culture. These changes we’re seeing are happening as the Baby Boomer generation nears retirement and the number of Millennials in the workforce grows.

Previously, we took a look at closed office designs. We listed their pros and cons, and how you can incorporate some of those ideas into your office. We discussed how this provides your employees with spaces that provide privacy and allows them to concentrate and focus on tasks requiring quiet concentration. In this article, we’ll look at open office designs and the advantages they provide for businesses that want to use their space more efficiently, boost collaboration, and create healthier environments for their employees.

When you break it down to the most basic concepts, there are two approaches to office design: Closed Office Design, and Open Office Design.

Both design strategies have unique pros and cons, but they’re not necessarily mutually exclusive. These concepts can be used together in the same office, each complementing the other’s strengths. In other cases, one strategy can take precedence over the other.

The modern office is shrinking. According to a report by Property Portfolio Research, over the last decade, the size of the average office has decreased by 21 percent. When it’s time to sign a lease for your business—whether you’re considering making better use of existing space, expanding, or just starting up—consider the many advantages that come from maximizing your use of space in an office. Optimizing your workspace, instead of just increasing the amount of space you lease, can produce savings in your business’ operating costs, improve workplace productivity, and increase employee satisfaction if you do it right.

Buying office furniture can be a substantial investment, but eventually furniture needs to be replaced. Items become dated, wear out, or don’t allow your office to function as efficiently. There are lots of advantages to updating your business’s furniture, but it’s important to have criteria for deciding when it’s time to make the investment. Here are five key indications it’s time for an office update.

It turns out NeoCon 2016 in Chicago had nothing to do with the Matrix films. Sorry Keanu fans, it's not that kind of "Neo." For the rest of us though, the event this past June was the next best thing—a window into the future of interior design. The window itself was rather large, 350,000 square feet to be exact. Our team (Heather, Monica and Rebecca) put on their Fitbits and walked every step for you. They noticed some trends you should know about when making any office design or furniture decisions, or when evaluating the furniture you currently have.

The modern concept of what an office should look like is always growing and changing according to the needs of your company, and the needs of the people who work with you. Millennials are a growing force in the workplace, and businesses and managers are increasingly interested in learning how to get the best work out of this new generation of employees. Millennials have grown up in an age of booming technology and communication, and, appropriately, they have shown a greater interest in workplaces that allow them to collaborate and socialize with their coworkers. As a result, open office spaces have started to make a comeback over the last 10 years or so. (2)

Why a Creative Workplace?

Creative thinking can be a company's biggest asset in the business world. Start-ups are a great example of this principle. Look at a given marketplace with established encumbents who have the money, manpower, and infrastructure to corner that market. It can seem impossible for a little business to get off the ground, but every day successful businesses launch and grow. They do it by carving out a unique niche, or by providing customers with new and better services. As a result, bigger companies who lose that outside-the-box thinking lose market share and risk being pushed out of a marketplace they once dominated.

Office workers spend the majority of their time sitting. Over the past few years, there have been more and more studies coming out that show sitting can cause or exacerbate any number of health issues, especially back problems. Sitting for long periods of time puts a large amount of pressure on our spine and hip bones, pressure that our body just wasn’t designed to handle. How you sit and how your work station is positioned can also put strain on other joints and inhibit good blood circulation in the limbs and back. One of the best fixes for these problems is simply making sure you or your employees have the opportunity to get up and walk around throughout the day. Unfortunately, some jobs make it hard to avoid sitting for long stretches. That’s why choosing the right office chair is so important. A well designed ergonomic chair can do a lot to help minimize the strain placed on our bodies and have a big impact on an office worker’s health and productivity. (1)

There’s a new saying these days: “Sitting is the new smoking.” Over the last decade, new studies have come out to tell us just how bad sitting is for our health. According to these studies, Office workers who sit for extended periods of time are more likely to be obese, and to suffer from back pain, diabetes, and heart disease. In fact, those who sit for more than 11 hours a day have up to a 40% higher chance of dying prematurely than peers who sit for under 4 hours a day! (1, 2)

In many offices today, a “clean” aesthetic is in vogue, and it’s easy to see why. When you walk into an office with bare desks and lots of straight lines, it looks efficient and modern. This can lead you to believe the no-nonsense design style of the office might imbue its employees with those same qualities. As a result, business owners who are eager to boost their employees’ productivity want to adopt this look. The truth, however, is that businesses aiming for a sparse, clean office design in the hopes of boosting productivity could actually be shooting themselves in the foot.

Buying furniture can be a confusing process. There are hundreds of manufacturers offering products that range in style, durability, and price. If you’ve never purchased commercial-grade office furniture, you may not know exactly what you need or what you should spend. The good news is that working with a professional team can clear up the confusion. 

You lead a young, growing company, and you’ve outgrown your mismatched furniture, awkward layout, and hand-me-down cubicles.  You’ve gathered feedback from your team, and they are excited about a fresh look, better equipment, and more comfortable chairs. Still, you want to get the most out of your investment. You want your new, improved office to represent your brand and its growing culture, increase individual productivity, and facilitate team collaboration.

Being a great place to work is more than winning a “Best Place to Work” competition and displaying the trophy in your reception area. Organizations are discovering they need a great workplace to create and maintain a competitive advantage in their market. Great places to work differentiate themselves by attracting exceptional talent and outperforming the competition.

Every company and organization wants that, right?

We recognize this in our tagline: Great Work Deserves Its Place.^TM It’s what drives us to create exceptional environments where our clients can perform their great work. And we want you to have a great place to work. Even if you’re not a client of ours, you can use the resources below to improve your workplace.

Today's business climate is competitive and volatile. Leaders are looking for ways to scale growth, while fighting to attract and retain talent from competitors of all sizes. Knowing many workers find entrepreneurial environments appealing, small businesses are looking to leverage their nimble structure. Meanwhile, many larger organizations see the benefit of corporate entrepreneurship, or "intrapreneurship." This Wall Street Journal article outlines a several reasons why established companies need to foster intrapreneurship. Here are a few.

In a previous article, we discussed whether an open office is right for you. We mentioned how workers benefit when they have a choice of privacy options. But what if you already have an open office? How do you create office privacy in a layout where coworkers are in each other’s line-of-sight and are within earshot of every conversation? 

We like to say "Great work deserves its place.^TM" Sometimes that place is somewhere new. If you're planning on relocating your office, there are a few things you should consider. Moving your home is no small undertaking, but moving your business can create a whole new level of complexity. The biggest concern for leaders is understanding how disruptive an office move will be to operating their business. In order to maintain the optimal level of uptime, here are a few tips for a smooth office relocation:

The open office concept has been around for a long time. Industrialists like Frederick Taylor and Henry Ford popularized the efficient floor plan in the early 20th century. Later, the increase of knowledge workers brought about an evolution where open plans included cubicles and panels. Mobile technology now allows workers to be nomadic. Instead of "owning" a specific workstation, some coworkers share space as they are in and out of the office. At one time, even the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, promoted an open plan to signal his accessibility, encourage collaboration and promote a more egalitarian workplace.

But the open office concept has received pushback recently. In Susan Cain's popular TED talk, she spoke for many introverts who find open offices challenging.

Now, most of us work in open plan offices, without walls, where we are subject to the constant noise and gaze of our coworkers

Introverts aren't the only ones complaining. Many of us need focus time during the day away from distractions and interruptions. So, is the open office concept right for you and your office? Here are a few tips to help you answer that question.

Employee engagement has received a lot of press over the last several years. There's a good reason. Roughly one-third of the global workforce is disengaged. Leaders cannot ignore this because it translates into a bottom line issue for companies. According to a study by Towers Watson, this results in a 32.7% decline in operating income for companies with low levels of employee engagement. Meanwhile, companies with high levels of employee engagement enjoyed a 19% increase in operating income.

What can we do about this trend? It turns out, how we design the spaces we work in can affect employee engagement. Christine Congdon, Editor of 360 Magazine & Director, Global Research Communications, discusses new data from the Steelcase Global Report and how leaders should create a Resilient Workplace to help employees become more engaged.

Workplace issue #5: Personal Wellbeing

Help Improve Personal Wellbeing

According to a study conducted by Ohio State University and the National Institute of Mental Health in the U.S., the physical work environment dramatically influences emotional and physical wellbeing. They found that workers in unappealing office environments (low ceilings, limited natural light, unattractive views) had significantly higher levels of stress hormones and heart-rate variability than workers in more open, spacious, well-lit offices. Researchers concluded a bad work environment may actually be a risk factor for heart disease. Companies can improve employee wellbeing in four areas: 

Workplace issue #4: Building the Company Brand

Build the Company Brand and Culture

Workplace issue #3: Engaging Talent

Attract, Develop, and Engage Great Talent

Successful businesses today need a place where people really want to work. Without that, they will struggle to draw and keep their top talent. So, what makes an office engaging? Skype surveyed users and decision makers in the U.S. to measure how companies are using workspace and technology to engage with highly sought-after tech pros:

• 62% of firms say about a third of their employees spend 40% of their time working remotely
• Decision makers say flexible and remote work options help them attract the best talent and keep them on staff
• The top three factors determining job satisfaction are salary (identified by 55% of respondents), the quality of the work environment (37%), and flexibility to work outside the office or at home (33%)

Workplace issue #2: Enhancing Collaboration

Enhance Collaboration as a Natural Way of Working

Leaders today want innovative teams. That innovation is the result of collaboration when people work together solving problems and developing new insights and solutions.

Workplace ISSUE #1: Real Estate Optimization

With the rising cost of real estate and volatility of today's economy, offices need to be flexible to grow and shrink accordingly. At the same time, workers need their workplace to help them remain productive. In order to accomplish this, many are reducing individual workstation space, but are also reconfiguring to include more team spaces, work cafés, meeting spaces and other alternative work-settings. The results can be more functional space that help people work most effectively.

A few years ago, I heard George W. Bush’s Chief of Staff Andrew Card speak.  The way he described his job responsibility really resonated with me. He mentioned, ”I didn't want him [Pres. Bush] worried about the details or small things. I wanted him focused so he could make big decisions. Not hungry, angry, or tired because I didn't want him to make a decision in that state of mind.”

This is a lesson for those of us in construction-related fields. If you're a general contractor, you have a big picture to manage. Getting into the weeds will wreck your productivity and your ability to produce a happy client.  You can’t get caught in the details, but how do you get the job done?

Great places to work are also safe places to work. For construction companies, facilities departments or anyone trying to manage site safety -  starting each shift with a 5 to 10 minute toolbox meeting is good practice to prevent injuries on the job site.