Using Collaborative Ergonomics to Solve Your Startup’s Office Problems: Part 1

In the last decade, an array of companies abandoned cubicles and made the transition to an open office floor plan. What many didn’t consider, though, were the workstations themselves. Traditional desks inhibit collaboration and don’t utilize space effectively. Together, this creates an office that doesn’t meet your employees’ needs.

We believe there’s a better solution. One that uses your office effectively, serves your employees, and helps you scale.

Collaborative Ergonomics Connects Your Team

We describe Collaborative Ergonomics as a new way to work that’s functional, practical, and health-conscious.

An office can either be conducive to connecting your team, or it can inhibit it. When an office utilizes Collaborative Ergonomics, they can transform their space into a hub of collaboration and productivity. Not only can you often fit more people in the same space, but they can also better work with their teammates.

Through blending science and art, we can create workstations that benefit employees, companies, and in turn their work product. Adapting the desk to the user means you can create a human-centered workplace instead of one built around average rectilinear furniture.

Creating a Human-Centered Workplace

There are three important elements to an office to foster a stronger connection:

• Organization
• Team
• Individual

These three elements, ideally, need to overlap. When they do, every employee will have what they need to be productive and collaborative, and your organization will benefit.

Your Office’s Organization

Your office’s organization needs flexibility, distributed work, and hospitality. This could mean offering a variety of workstations and the opportunity to change configurations as needed. Distributing work among your team is also a critical piece, because if the work isn’t sent to the right team members or in an effective manner, your work product will suffer. (And in turn, your customers.)

Lastly, your office’s organization needs hospitality for both employees and guests. Creating a welcoming office is one of the best ways to create an environment both will appreciate. This means space to work beyond their desk, and a reception area that matches your office’s aesthetics while also creating a comfortable place for guests to wait.

Your Team

Without your team, you wouldn’t need an office. So, it’s important to make the office work for them, not the other way around. To create a space that benefits your team, it needs to have an ease of connectivity, sense of community, and collaboration.

An open office floor plan can help a team stay connected, but this is also done through meeting rooms. A conference room table requires a space large enough for each person, but it’s more than that. It also requires power and computer inputs to create an effective way to increase connectivity throughout your team.

Building a startup requires late nights and early mornings, and it’s likely your team has a strong bond.

As a leader, it’s important to foster this sense of community, which can be done through their workstations. Instead of cubicles with a barricade between each person, or benching that offers no privacy, consider how you can make an open office floor plan work for your team.

When employees are given the chance to collaborate, community is built. This is why your company’s success requires a sense of community and direction, which your office space can foster.

We believe desks can be the foundation of collaboration, and that a desk can work for everyone gathered, not just one. When you give your team a way to collaborate, they will be more productive and be better able to serve your customers.

This win/win situation is critical to startups as they grow. It’s important to find this balance early, so you can evolve as the company grows.

Collaborative Ergonomics allows you to expand or contract within the same office space, maximizing your square footage while providing every member of your team with a desk to call home.

Your Individual Team Members

Serving your company as individuals requires optimizing three factors: worker satisfaction, productivity, and well-being. Worker satisfaction is related to turnover, and is critical to a startup. (Though it’s important for any company.)

A startup’s office typically houses a sleep-deprived team pushing to reach the next milestone. While your team is collaborating and problem solving, you need to consider their satisfaction in their work. If your employees are happy and fulfilled, then they’re willing to put in those long hours.

If they aren’t, though, then your company will start to crumble because of the individual. Supporting the physical and emotional needs of your team is at the core of a successful company.

Productivity is often measured at an individual level, but it impacts their team. (and the company as a whole.) Productivity fuels collaboration, which is why workspaces need to be conducive to their workflow.

Traditional square cubicles don’t offer the same amount of workspace as desks using Collaborative Ergonomics. This difference directly impacts an individual’s productivity, because they cannot fully utilize their work area. When a team can fully immerse themselves in their work, the company will benefit.

Collaborative Ergonomics is the future of office furniture, and it will help you create a human-centered workspace where your employees will thrive. Considering how your company’s organization on both a team and individual level will benefit from an enhanced workspace is an important part when growing your startup.

Whether you need to fit a growing team into a new space or build out a new office building, using Collaborative Ergonomics can help you create an engaging, beneficial space for your team.

Click here to read Part 2.