Office design 'key to productivity'

10-04-2008

Office layouts can affect employee productivity in both good and bad ways, according to new research.

Tim Welsh, an assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Calgary, has run an experiment using his students to see how office design could help or hinder productivity.

According to a report on the experiment in the Calgary Herald, which cited findings published in the Journal of Human Movement Science, even the proximity of colleagues in an office layout can impact on how much work is done.

Mr Welsh said: "You can't ignore the social benefits of having an open environment … Having other people performing tasks around you creates the opportunity for ... interference effects to develop."

Meanwhile, Dana Korey, owner of the company Away With Clutter, told entrepreneur.com that one of the keys to having a positive workspace was to create zones using the criteria that if an object is not regularly used it can be placed further away.

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