Office beer-pong anyone? Five tips for a top office
Have you been lobbying the boss for a beer pong table ever since that story about Google's cool offices? This may help.
Having separate spaces for thinking, working and taking a breather may be a vital facet of workplace design, according to Eric Phillips, principal at Seattle-based architecture at NBBJ. He oversees the design and construction of offices for companies such as tech giants Alibaba, Samsung and Tencent.
Speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of the Echelon technology conference in Singapore, the design guru listed his top-five productivity-boosters that can be implemented without a monster budget.
"A lot of times, companies think they need a lot of money to get there. Actually no you don't, you need vision. The vision, sometimes on a simple dime, can take you a long way if deployed appropriately," Phillips said.
1. Activity-based work spaces
Provide a variety of work settings for employees depending on what they are trying to achieve, whether it's a collaborative area for brainstorming or a silent zone for concentration.
2. Flexible desk arrangement
In such an environment, hot-desking is the way forward as it allows for employees to be as mobile as possible.
3. Natural light
Make the most of natural light -- and not just to save energy. Natural light has powerful effects on the mood, alertness and metabolism of employees, according to research.
4. Color
Changing the color on your walls can influence employees' mood and behavior. Red is often used to energize a room, while blue and green are regarded as calming hues.
5. Entertainment hub
With the average employee spending 90,000 hours working in their lifetime, providing entertainment or respite spaces can help provide some balance in their lives.
If that's not an option, offices can also consider providing employees with relatively low-cost services - be it postal or dry cleaning – to lighten their daily load so that they can focus on more pressing tasks on hand.