Offices come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and forms. But they’re all linked by a single shared purpose – to offer an environment where people can be productive. 

Many businesses, however, face office productivity issues. These can be caused by a variety of factors, from having the wrong type of office space to simple design problems. 

To improve office productivity and get more from your workplace, you need to be able to identify what elements of your workplace strategy or specific office space are causing issues. More importantly, you need to know how to solve them.

We’ve created a list of some of the most common office productivity problems so you can figure out where your strategy is going wrong and how you can make changes for the better.

1.      Bad office-business fit

The most critical of all potential office productivity problems is a fundamental mismatch between the space and your business. Your office should, in a sense, be an extension of your business. That means it should make sense in the context of your working policies and broader business goals.

A bad office-business fit can come about if you’ve been in an office space for a long time, during which your business model has changed or you’ve introduced new ways of working like a hybrid policy. 

It can have a negative impact on productivity, in that an office that’s poorly-suited to your current business model won’t offer the best experience to your employees. But it can also be a financial drain, meaning you’re paying for more space than you need or having to book overflow space on occasion.

The solution to this problem is simple – find a new office option that better suits your ways of working. In the age of flexible working, many businesses are opting for serviced offices that provide more flexible contracts and office space scalability. 

As an added benefit, a serviced office also takes work off your plate by coming inclusive of cleaning and maintenance, so you can stay focused on your work.

2.      Poor lighting or ventilation

They might seem like simple considerations, but both lighting and ventilation are hugely important to productivity in an office space. Good ventilation, in particular, is associated with better concentration and lower rates of absence.

The Health and Safety Executive have guidelines on both lighting and ventilation in the workplace, which provide a good baseline to work from. Generally speaking, getting lighting right is relatively simple. It should be suited to the task at hand, which in an office space generally means not too dim and not too bright. 

Ventilation has minimum standards enforced by law, which states that ‘every enclosed workplace is ventilated by a sufficient quantity of fresh or purified air’. But for maximum productivity in the office, it’s advisable to seek a space with individually-controlled air conditioning.

This ensures that you can set your air con to a level that suits you and your employees, rather than being limited by a building-wide system.

3.      Inefficient office layout

Office design and productivity are connected: the way your office space is laid out has major implications on productivity in a variety of ways. Firstly, an inefficient layout can limit your office’s capacity, limiting how many people can use it at a time or resulting in substandard spaciousness for each person.

More importantly, though, the general style of layout your office has should line up with how your team works. 

If they prefer to have lots of freedom to move around and collaborate, then an open-plan office will allow them to get the most from the space. But if they’re often in need of a highly-controlled environment to concentrate, using partitions or private offices can make more sense.

Sometimes, having a mix of different environments within your office, each one using a different style of layout, provides the best results. This allows your team to use the activity-based working method, which essentially means they can always get access to a space that suits the task they’re working on at the time. 

4.      Inadequate technology

Office technology can add a lot to the day-to-day of life in the office. Although it’s often taken for granted, strong connectivity infrastructure is particularly important. Reliable business grade fibre-optic internet, for example, ensures that your team benefits from fast speeds at all times.

Technology can drastically improve the functionality of meeting rooms, too, with video conferencing equipment and screens making it easier to present information and hold hybrid meetings with remote employees – a consideration that’s increasingly important.

Going beyond technology, other on-site amenities can also help to make your business more productive by ensuring your team has everything they need to thrive available. 

These amenities can range from relatively basic features like reception services to more sophisticated facilities like a gym. Serviced offices are renowned for offering lots of additional amenities. 

5.      Lack of collaboration spaces

Finally, if your business relies on any form of collaboration between individual team members, it’s important to ensure that your office is set up to facilitate it to maximize productivity.

Enabling collaboration involves office layout, which we’ve already discussed. But it’s also about having the right environments available for use. A traditional office space, for example, might not feature breakout spaces and dedicated meeting rooms, both of which can be essential for encouraging strong teamwork.

But spaces like these are common in more modern and sophisticated office environments, like serviced offices. They facilitate seamless team collaboration, providing diverse settings where people can gather to brainstorm or co-work.

There’s also an added benefit that communal breakout spaces in a serviced office building can also put you in contact with other neighbouring businesses, creating networking and collaboration opportunities outside of your own team.

Choose a workplace built for productivity

While there’s no one ideal workspace solution for every type of business, serviced offices provide lots of the qualities, features, and facilities that contribute towards productivity. 

If you’re looking to make a move to a workplace that better suits your productivity goals, take a look at the options in the Boutique Collection.