With the open plan office layout coming under fire in recent times, we feel that it's important to come to its defence and highlight its many benefits! Let’s uncover some of the fantastic advantages of an open plan office layout.

Productivity and creativity levels in open plan office spaces may have come into question by some, but our recently-published survival tactics for the open plan office offers advice on how to make these layouts work better for you and your team!

Despite the scepticism towards them, we are very much in support of open plan spaces when designed in the right way, as many issues with this layout are rooted in how they are set up and utilised, rather than simply being open plan.

Advantages of the open plan office layout include increased collaboration and creativity, as well as an improved company culture. Additionally, a great benefit of the open plan office is the flexibility and agility it brings, with opportunities to move around a space based on activity.

The key to making an open plan office environment work for your business is to understand just how it can help your team, and making sure you're utilising it in a way that will help you to achieve this. Without further ado, here are some of the fantastic benefits of an open plan office layout.

The Benefits of an Open Plan Office:

Open Plan Office Layout // Brook-Dobson Brear, Harrogate

1. Improved communication and collaboration

Open plan offices break down barriers, both literally and figuratively. Having everyone working within an open space can be great for turning your office into a productive hub of communication and collaboration.

The open plan office layout makes it extremely easy for your team to communicate due to the absence of walls and doors. This encourages you to walk and talk instead of hitting ‘send' on yet another email for something you could instead discuss in person!

It's important, though, that your open layout is paired with a friendly company culture that favours communication within the office, to ensure that your employees feel comfortable communicating with one another.

The increased noise levels from open plan communication might reflect distractions for some of your team. However, thoughtful acoustic and design solutions can help to minimise this issue and give your team the space they need to concentrate on their own work.

Take a look at the advice we covered in our previous blog post!

“Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.”

— Steve Jobs

2. Greater flexibility with the space

A fantastic benefit of an open plan office is the agility and flexibility it can offer employees. Workspaces function better when you can adapt a space to suit the needs of your employees working within it, catering to different numbers of groups working together. One of the ways in which your space can do this is by utilising agile furniture solutions that can be rearranged to suit a variety of functions.

Because the majority of an open plan office layout is made up of furniture that can be moved and rearranged, there is plenty of scope for you to adapt the space however you wish and however your employees need. This is particularly beneficial when it comes to different people collaborating on a project, as seating and desks can be arranged accordingly.

A new trend being taken up by companies globally is modular furniture, which essentially allows you to complete a bespoke furniture arrangement to suit the task at hand. This is great for an open plan office space as it allows users of the environment to easily adapt it to suit the needs of the business and task at hand.

Portable Furniture // ICS Media Group - Leeds

3. Increased Creativity

Just as employees can flow through an open space, so can creativity!

Dividing your team into different closed workspaces can actually hinder their performance. A great advantage of the open plan office layout is that different departments can speak to one another with ease, which is valuable for collaboration and creativity!

For employees who prefer a quiet space to work or need some seclusion for a particular task, booths or ‘havens’ can make the perfect retreat when individuals or small groups need to get their head down and focus on the task at hand.

Open Plan Office Layout // Hairburst - Leeds

4. Improved Company Culture

A brilliant advantage of the open plan office layout is that it can work wonders for your company culture.

Working in isolation makes it difficult for your team members to bond and converse, and it also makes it less likely for people from different departments to talk to one another. A benefit of the open pla layout, on the other hand, encourages communication and assists in developing a friendly company culture that helps employees to feel happy and fulfilled at work.

The idea that employees turn up to work and get on with their tasks in silence is a rather dated approach and something that companies are realising to be a negative approach in many cases.

A sociable company culture is important for a happy team of employees, and a happy, healthy team is a productive one.

“Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.”

— Simon Sinek, Author, Start with Why

How to Adapt Open Plan Office Layouts Following the Coronavirus Pandemic

The pandemic has challenged businesses in more ways than one, and the open plan office has to adapt.

There are various practices to ensure the health and safety of your employees are looked after as they return to their open plan workspace:

Amend your floor plan to facilitate social distancing;
Install perspex screens to separate desks and offer peace of mind to employees;
Carry out the regular cleaning of desks throughout the day and the thorough cleaning of your entire office space on the regular;
Make sure hand sanitiser is accessible to everyone at all times.

It’s also important to consider changes in working practices that many of us have experienced since the pandemic, and ways in which the office needs to facilitate and support these changes. You can read more about this in our article offering valuable ways to adapt your office following the pandemic.

Simple changes can be the difference you need to make your open plan office a safe environment to work in.

Are you ready to look at how you can make an open plan environment work better for your business? We've helped our clients to develop productive, open plan office layouts that work for their whole team, so let’s chat about your space!