Workplace Wellness: Sparking a Company Culture that Thrives on Creativity and Collaboration
Posted by Amelia K. on Monday, September 22nd, 2014 with 12 Comments
Over the past several years, businesses have been focused on traditional forms of workplace wellness and creating office environments that speak to environmental awareness. But an evolution is occurring – companies are becoming more focused on helping their employees become more productive, collaborative, and creative. And they’re making it happen by designing spaces to encourage all of this. This type of company culture does more than just increase collaboration: it boosts employee morale, staff productivity, and employee engagement.
Need more proof that this strategy is effective? Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, was a huge advocate of designing a building around encouraging collaboration for employees. Jobs claimed that, “If a building doesn’t encourage this, you’ll lose a lot of innovation and the magic that’s sparked by serendipity.” And many other companies are following that same advice – successful businesses like Pixar and Google have built their spaces around sparking creativity where you’d least expect it.
Allowing employees to get creative at their desks fosters a company culture of innovation.
Photo Credit: Flickr user C Jill Reed
If you’re curious as to how to help your business create an environment that encourages these same traits, here are a few tips to get you started.
Create common areas
Think about your employee’s average workday – and more specifically about the path they take to get a cup of coffee, grab lunch, or walk to the restroom. Add a social hub – some type of gathering space – around these destinations to increase the chances that individuals will run into each other and spend some time collaborating about a new idea or product.
Adjustable workspaces
Many times, creativity is sparked by movement – not just by sitting behind a desk all day. Consider offering unique workspaces that allow your employees to work sitting or standing. Some offices even offer treadmill desks for their staff – fostering the idea that keeping your body moving throughout the day can help encourage more productivity.
Multi-use conference rooms
While pretty much every office has a conference room, most are fairly basic. By equipping your conference room with projection screens and video conferencing capabilities, your staff will more easily be able to share ideas and communicate with other offices and clients. And adding features like a small fridge and counter space makes it easy to cater meetings with healthy food and offer cold beverages – since people work better when they’re eating well and not feeling hungry.
Display creative work
Showcasing creative work throughout your office is a great way to keep employees motivated and share with them some of the superb things that have cultivated by members of your company. And encouraging staff to get imaginative with how they maintain their workspaces is key to promoting a company culture that fosters creativity.
Add collaboration corners
Wherever you have a common area, there should be a quiet space or two adjacent to it, where small groups – or even individuals – can work through their ideas as they develop. One great place to add several collaboration corners is next to your office kitchen – this makes it very easy for groups to work together over lunch.
What this means for your business
Making it easier for your employees to collaborate and get creative is a way to encourage innovation within your business. Implementing some or all of these techniques is a great way to promote a creative culture within your company. And if you want to take your workplace collaboration project to the next level, consider bringing in a great, healthy lunch once a week for anyone who wants to spend some time collaborating about new ideas with their co-workers.
If you’re ready to take the next step, Waiter.com can help. We offer both catering and virtual cafeteria services that your employees will love – and are affordable to your business! By starting to think about collaboration techniques that will work for your company today, you can increase the innovation output of your business tomorrow.
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We have creative spaces while we are in school but it’s interesting that we often lose that right to creativity when we move into the “real world.” I’m definitely going to suggest some creative corner ideas to my boss.
Great! Let us know what your boss thinks!
I work a government job where there is not really room for much creativity, as we have to stick to the guidelines. However this post inspired me to start a sort of online creative space for us local employees, so I am pretty excited!
We’re excited to hear this! Let us know how it goes!
My workplace could use a spark to get my creative juices flowing, wish they would take this article into consideration…
You should share it with your office!
This post makes some great points. I think “cubicle culture” is doing negative things to office productivity and innovation. I know I’m most productive while standing, and I’d love to work while on a treadmill. We need to encourage activity and collaboration within the office if we want to see spikes in productivity.
Giving employees options is a great way to spark innovation.
Bringing the workplace together is always a great idea. Not only are workers more productive but they come up with better ideas.
And innovative ideas are great for company growth. Good point!
It’s a wide known fact that people are more productive and happier when they are given a bit of creative license. Adding some various spaces that further people’s creative energy is almost guaranteed to increase work output.
I completely agree – great point!